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• Issue #142
• Article

The photography dealers on I Photo Central have been extremely busy over the last month or so, putting up over 155 new photographs and books and two new Special Photography Exhibits.

The first Special Photo Exhibit is by Charles Schwartz, Ltd. and is entitled "Photography Shoots Itself: A Portrait of the Medium in Pictures and Letters". This eclectic cross-section of photos--including everything from self-portraits to industrial shots of cameras being inspected on the factory line--takes as its focus one of our favorite subjects: the medium of photography itself. Edward Weston is immortalized in two portraits--each made by one of his sons. A French photo club, circa 1880, poses in an omnibus in their hats and capes. And perhaps the medium's most ubiquitous maker, "Anonymous", gets atop a precariously tall ladder, all the better to capture a Victorian-era garden under construction. Works, ranging from $150 to $6,000, date from the 19th to the 20th century, and include both well-known and lesser-known practitioners. Despite the fact that the medium is so much in the public eye, it is rarely considered with an insider's sensitivity to its makers and materials. Please don't overlook the ephemera, which include a sensitive letter written by Harry Callahan to Todd Webb. You can see this exhibit at: http://www.iphotocentral.com/showcase/showcase_view.php/181/3/1 .

The next Special Photo Exhibit is from Vintage Works, Ltd. and is entitled: "Alphonse De Launay: Student of Le Gray and Early Photographer of Spain and Algeria". De Launay was born in 1827 in Manche, which is the most westerly Département of Normandy in France. He traveled to Spain and Algiers in 1851 and 1854, and the paper negatives that he made there amazed many of his contemporaries in photography. De Launay was undoubtedly a student of the noted French artist-photographer Gustave Le Gray and may have known several other photographers, including other Le Gray students, F.E. Le Dien and Theodore de Banville. De Launay's work in Algeria and Tunisia had been confused with Le Dien's work until just recently when images attributed to Le Dien appeared with De Launey's signature on them. His early larger photographs were paper negatives, probably waxed in the Le Gray style, that were then printed by Le Gray or his studio as albumenized salt prints. De Launay joined the Societe Francaise de Photographie (S.F.P.) in 1858, and he reportedly (in contemporary accounts by noted French art critic Philippe Burty) exhibited four portraits there in 1859, although the name reported then was Delaunay and might be another photographer's work. He died in 1906. For more information on this important newly rediscovered photographer and to see examples of his work go to: http://www.iphotocentral.com/showcase/showcase_view.php/182/1/0/0 .

We have also continued to change images and add to our essays for all our Special Exhibits, so they are worth another peek, especially if you have not looked lately. And, if you see one you like, let a friend know too!

You can see all of these fine new exhibits and others (now a total of 120 Special Exhibits in all!) at: http://www.iphotocentral.com/showcase/showcase.php . Don't forget to check out the archived exhibits at the bottom of the page as well.