E R I K V I D A L

Patrizia watches the sunset (PICS)

My good friend Patrizia and I take a late afternoon stroll along one on my favorite running spots, the Battery Park City Promenade. I'd just acquired a new Panasonic Lumix GX-1, with an ultra fast (f1.4, 50mm equiv) Leica lens, and was most eager to try it out in low light. Methinks the pics came out quite well indeed...

Patrizia acquires her FREEDOM BOOTS; attention ensues (PICS)

Took Patrizia shopping at Western Spirit in Soho... As a recent transplant from Berlin to NYC, certainly she couldn't pass up the opportunity to flaunt a little "America--FUCK YEAH!!" attitude--and as soon as she tried on what we've now dubbed her FREEDOM BOOTS, she knew they were a must-have...

(Photos from Patrizia's recent series of actor headshots, courtesy Jordan Matter Photography)

WORLD TRADE CENTER MEMORIAL bird's eye view, as seen from the 48th Fl of World Trade Center 7 (PIC)

ERIK VIDAL: "Sun in an Empty Dorm Room" (Oberlin, 1997) (PIC)

Lazy Sunday morning: Jene, budding movie star extraordinaire, learns the lines for her first feature (PICS)

I Want To Go There

What the '90s should've looked like but didn't (ELKE HESSER'S PARIS)

One of my favorite photographs, having been blown up, framed, and hanging on my kitchen wall for years. Makes me think: coming from the standpoint of the late '80s, this is what I always thought the mid '90s might look like, with this kind of meta-glamour, but never did... (A pity we got grunge instead.) Ah well--with the new decade upon us, always the new possibilities...

Polina Poses For Me: "Sexiest Photo of Someone Wearing a Scarf"

Every month Nerve.com holds their own amateur photo contest, this always based around the theme "Sexiest Photo of Someone... (fill in your own blank here)". I'd entered once before several months ago--the subject at the time was "Sexiest Photo of Someone Changing a Light Bulb"--and while I didn't win that month, I did file it away on the mental backburner with the notion that I might try again fairly soon. Fast forward to the present, and my friend Polina, who'd just wrapped a photo shoot with the head of MTV World the weekend before and who, as a result, decided she'd once again been bitten by the photo bug, volunteered to be my subject. Several hours and two hundred shots later, and we'd narrowed it down to three potential winners (one of which is displayed above--and good God was the purple on red tough to light and shoot...). Having checked all of the other (earlier) entries just before the shoot (Nerve Premium Members can see the shots as they come in), I was fairly certain we'd take the prize, but having, only minutes ago, checked the most recent and final round of submissions, I must confess I'm now doubting we'll even make the Top 3--for some fairly inspired shots came in just after ours. (Update: I also wonder if we'll be disqualified simply off of the wording of this month's subject, which I now notice, checking again, says, "Wearing ONLY a scarf..." Oh dear...)

A New Empire is Born: The Photography of EDWARD BURTYNSKY

The remarkable new series from Edward Burtynsky: "China". Indeed, as we've never seen it before. Here, I think we'll let the shots speak for themselves. For those in the New York area who would like to see the entire series in the physical, the Brooklyn Museum of Art is currently hosting Burtynsky's "China" exhibition. Other noteworthy exhibitions currently running in New York:

-- Richard Tuttle at the Whitney, 945 Madison and 75th

-- Russia! at the Guggenheim, 1071 5th and 89th

-- Gerard Richter at the Marion Goodman Gallery, 24 W 57th and 5th

-- Bill Viola at James Cohan Gallery, 533 West 26th and 10th

Watching the Leaves Turn in Central Park

New Photo Album (under "My Photos", at right): Watching the Leaves Turn in Central Park

World-Building: The Photography of GREGORY CREWDSON

The haunting, filmic, and magnificent photography of Gregory Crewdson, from his series "Beneath the Roses", now showing at Luhring Augustine, 521 W 24th Str and 10th Ave. The man manages to build more narrative into a single frame frozen in time than most directors do over the course of a two hour motion picture. Not to be missed.

(Also of interest and currently showing: see Larry Clark's (director of "Kids" and "Gummo") photography at the International Center of Photography, 1133 6th Ave and 43rd Str; as well as "Japan's Exploding Subculture" at the Japan Society, 333 E 47th Str and 2nd Ave.)

This Blast from the Past

Photo albums have been added. Enjoy.