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Fans of so-called Straight Photography, Modern Art and forward-thinking need to get in their cars, or on the train, and visit the Florence Griswold Museum in Old Lyme, Conn. Ironically, at this home of American Impressionism, is a wonderful show, a mini-retrospective of sorts, of the photography and collecting habits of Walker Evans. I say "ironically," because Evans railed against Pictorialism and artiness, and his pictures were detached, clean and crip, most unike a gauzy, fuzzy Impressionist's view. But Evans, like these painters before him, chose to make a home there in Old Lyme, an artist's colony in a quintissential New England small town, not far from the Long Island Sound, source of many of the treasures he collected on the beach in a neighboring town.

The work is vital, and is as relevant today as it was when it was made, from the 30's through the early 70's. The things Evans (and Frank) warned us about - our excesses, or wastefulness, our prejudices and prides - are still infecting our society today. Looking back at these pictures in 2011 (which actually, in a way, looked forward in their day) helps the viewer to understand where we might have gone wrong, and how we will continue to do so, if these vanities are left unchecked. The advertisiing, the junk cars, the workers, the rows of cars, the shiny tools, the migrant workers and their ramshackle homes, are presented here, most likely as you have never seen them before, in large inkjet prints made by the former estate's executor, John Hill. There are scale shifts that occur that change how a viewer perceives the work, and shadow details that are let loose, which help explain what Evans was seeing and responding to in the first place.

These mural-size prints may sound like heresy, but the original 1938 American Photographs show at Moma contained 16x20 inch enlargements, if not a few even a bit larger. Evans was interested in what the work could do at different sizes, and he didn't shy away from experimentation and new technology. In fact, when the Polaroid SX-70 camera was still in its test-market phase, he bought one right away. he ended up with three of them, with which he made 2500 pictures in 14 months towards the end of his life. A grid of these Polaroids is on view in this show, and seeing them like this helps chnage them, in my eyes, and gives them more power. In a symposium yesterday at the museum, several presenters showed a grid Evans had made in 1959 as a mock-up for an unpublished book. In it, he severely cropped the subway portraits that appeared in the book, Many Are Called, a few years later. There is a grid of 16 women's heads, all in hats, and you can't help but compare them, not unlike seeing a (later) Becher grid piece of many blast furnaces or water towers, so alike that they become so different. When you see the polaroid heads coming out of the green-gray darkness and the subway heads in close proximity (as in Moma's Katherine Alcasukas's presentation), a viewer cannot help but think of Andy Warhol's screen tests, or even, more recently, Philip Lorca diCorcia's Heads series, made anonymously on the street. Evans becomes not a mere documentarian, but a great Modern (dare I say Post-Modern?) artist. I wasn't convinced of the Polaroid portraits before, but now I see how they can be viewed differently.

City dwellers will have a chance to see some fo the Polaroids at Andrea Rosen this December. Stay tuned. http://www.andrearosengallery.com/future/

Right now, see the artist's work on the wall just a couple hours form NYC, through the end of January 2012, at the Florence Griswold Museum: http://www.flogris.org/exhibitions_11Evans.php

I may be jumping the gun here, it is still autumn, but the waning daylight is spurring an early onset of seasonal fatigue.  I've decided to brace myself by revisiting Lars Tunbjork's amazing book from 2008, Vinter.  Tunbjork made the Vinter images around his native Sweden from 2004 to 2007 as a means to confront, head on, the darkest months of the year.  One of the consistent strengths of the book is that Tunbjork was able to make work about this oppressive darkness without making physically dark pictures.  Almost all of these photographs begin with the brilliantly garish flash connected to his camera.  His subjects are shocked from slumber, rendered with immediacy, and slathered with fat, saturated color.  A girl in a red polka dot dress digs her long red fake fingernails into the back of her boyfriends neck before kissing him.  A soiled snowman hangs onto its black charcoal smile.  Henrik, the plump short order cook, shows a handful of chipped beef while two hot dogs cook behind him.  Some pigeons are pecking at grossly yellowed ice.  A wet log is on the chopping block.  Tunbjork also has a knack for irresolvable situations.  Two blonde girls in costume dresses are up on the bar waiving their dresses high to give the patrons a peak, all in a strangely American country music themed lodge.  A small round boy standing on a table pulls uncomfortably at his short tie and meets Tunbjork's camera with a frown.  He has sauce on his chin and his dispassionate father has a scratch on his nose.  

These images do not belong to a crystalline winter landscape; this is the shit we slog through and pass, heads down, one mindful step at a time.  Over the past week, I've had the sense that Tunbjork's winter nightmare is here in New York, creeping up on me, and that if I only had a flashlight and the courage I might catch a glimpse.   

*There are two versions of the book, the 192 page traditional but gorgeous Steidl-produced monograph, and the oversized  24 page catalogue that was produced in conjunction with an exhibition of the work at Gallery White Room in Tokyo in 2008.   Having had a choice of the two, I went for the catalogue.  It is uncompromising and bold.  All the images are full bleed and vertical, and it is without a single letter of overlayed text, not even the artist's name or date.  In other words, its all image, and its all the better for it.        

softcover, offset on glossy stock, 24 pages, 15" x 12", edition 1000, 2008

published by Gallery White Room, Tokyo, Japan

Can you tell me about little bit about yourself? Age? Where you grew up and about heritage stuff

I am 25 years old. I grew up in Iran, lived there for almost 18 years.

How did it feel to come back to Afghanistan?

My father lived in Iran for a long time and he wanted to come back to Afghanistan. I was the first family member who came to Afghanistan (2004) and it was my first time I visited the country. It was a bit weird but it was good I came back to my origin.

What inspires you artistically and what type of artistic work do you do?

The concept of darkness and the fact that human-beings usually ignore the dark aspects of life. It’s natural. But at some point, reflecting the dark issues can bring out the solutions.

I guess you are more into modern art. How different is it from the classical Afghan art?

Modern Art in general is deeper than Classical. It’s more related to concepts. The Classical Afghan art has been repeated too much and it has become a bit cliché. Everywhere you go, there are pictures of Buzkeshi, Atan, and so. There should be something different and people need to know what is going on. Modern Art can be a good way communicating with people, and in a country like Afghanistan where a people-oriented culture is almost missing Modern Art (whether it’s paintings, sculpture, cinema, or music) can be very effectual.

 Views and opinions of Afghans on your work?

Modern Art is often very strange to Afghan eyes. Some of them look at it as nonsense and I don’t blame them. Most of the people are somehow brainwashed by war. But also, some of them have got closer to new forms of arts. Sometimes at exhibitions I can see some youth looking at a piece (not only mine) for few minutes and that is the beauty of it that they are trying to analyze something new.

Views and opinions of Afghans?

War dragged this country into minus, lower than zero. There are a lot of things to be made and developed. We are somehow a bit passed zero now. But it makes me happy when I see people are changing and are getting softer and more flexible when facing a positive change. I can see change in them. It’s growing. And if no disaster happens again, this country will be bright in the future. It’s slow but it’s going.

How did you learn your artform?

My art side came all from within. I never went to an academy or the like for arts, except for some course of Realism painting I attended when I was 6 or 7 years old. It was derived out of the emotions and feelings which were related to Metal and Rock music. It started with some sort of Gothic illustrations more linked to the theme of weakness and the failure of human body. It was later more developed and turned into a more abstract way. I currently do Abstract and Abstract Expressionism paintings as well as Mixed Media artworks.

What else do you do?

I work in some sort of art-related projects. I design logos. I am also a member of Afghanistan’s first Metal band “District Unknown”. I am the bassist and vocalist of the bad.

What projects / artwork are you working on?

I have been recently working more on Mixed Media arts which includes footages taken by me, abstract/experimental sounds made by myself. I am getting more into that side. I am also painting as well, but I have started working on paintings which are much bigger in size than my older works. Soon, I will have my second solo exhibition in Kabul which will feature an entirely new atmosphere by my works. I am also working to have a solo exhibition outside Afghanistan.

Real Illusions I - The Presence of the Society

20 years

Lust

117 galleries from some 23 countries will present the best of 19th century, modern and contemporary photography in the heart of the French capital. To complete this panorama of worldwide photography, a selection of 18 publishers will have a dedicated space in the fair.

Paris Photo will celebrate African photography from Bamako to Cape Town, unveiling the creative wealth of historic and contemporary African artists.

These exciting developments put forward the new energy that Paris Photo is displaying by reinventing itself. Four programmes will articulate Paris Photo's new identity: Institutions' recent photography acquisitions, the platform, Private Collection from Artur Walther, focus on the Photography Book and launching of the Paris Photo - Photo Book Prize.

Visitor information:

• LOCATION
Grand Palais
Avenue Winston-Churchill, 75008 Paris

• GETTING THERE
Metro Champs-Elysées-Clémenceau , lines 1 13
Bus 28, 42, 52, 72, 73, 80, 83, 93
RER : Invalides, line C

• HOURS
Thursday 10 Nov. noon - 8pm
Friday 11 Nov. noon - 9.30pm
Saturday 12 Nov. noon – 8pm
Sunday 13 Nov. noon - 7pm

• Rates
Full Price Entry: 25 €
Student Reduced Price Entry: 12 €
Pack Full Price Entry + Catalog: 40 €
2011 Catalog: 25 €

Photographer Benjamin Lowy was chosen by William Eggleston as the fifth winner of the Center for Documentary Studies/Honickman Foundation First Book Prize in Photography. His book Iraq | Perspectives, a beautiful and harrowing presentation of the war in Iraq through a soldier's perspective, consisting of images taken through Humvee windows and night vision goggles, was published earlier this month.

Lowy will give a talk at the International Center for Photography in NYC on December 2, and will be a guest on The Daily Show on December 5. 

The First Book Prize in Photography, a biennial prize that publishes a first book of photographs for the winning photographer, affirms the importance of the book in our increasingly digital world. A new website for the Prize has been launched, which includes interviews with previous judges and winners—including Robert Adams, Mary Ellen Mark, Danny Wilcox Frazier, and Robert Frank—talking about the importance of the first book.