I’m sure a good number of you were there, but Saturday Blind Spot magazine with Fred & Associates (the art division of MS Logan) presented the COLLAPSING IMAGES PHOTOGRAPHY FORUM in conjunction with the New York Public Library.

I didn’t make the talk between Jack Pierson and Jerry Schatzberg but managed to attend the next two panel discussions. Money, Money, Money was predictably focused on the intersection of art and commerce and featured a who’s who in the world of fashion and art including, from left below, Glenn O’Brien as moderator, Glen Luchford, Jack Andy Spade, Phillip-Lorca DiCorcia, Collier Schorr, Doug Lloyd, Vince Aletti and Dennis Freedman.

This was a great and lively discussion, with tons of quotable material. Doug Lloyd and Vince Aletti didn’t talk too much, but between Collier’s intelligent comments, Phillip’s sardonic answers, Jack Spade’s industrious knowledge, Luchford’s remarks on how he came up and Dennis Freedman’s creative input this was a fantastic talk group talking what they know best.

Some of my personal highlights:

- Collier had perhaps some of my favourite quotes of the evening, so good that I can’t even paraphrase accurately. But she said something along the lines of the fact that it’s very hard to have the same goals as the person who hires you, editorially or commercially, and she would never wish for anyone to be in the world of art or fashion as it can be pretty cruel.

- One of Vince Aletti’s questions posed to him, by Jennifer Miller (formerly Director of Photography at Jane, now with Fred & Associates), resulted in one of the more thoughtful answers of the evening, that some of the most exciting photography out there is coming from the art world. I definitely concur with this thinking.

- Dennis Freedman said that, even amongst the people he works with, he’s surprised about the lack of knowledge outside the world of fashion photography…and that some of the best people he has worked with can reference different sources of inspiration, from music to art to literature. He also said that he’s been working with the same photographers the last 7-8 years and it’s been hard to find new talent….this was interesting. He has worked with the elite of the photography world for sure but he has also helped foster that status quo. However on the other hand he’s hired photographers like Ryan McGinley and Alec Soth to shoot major fashion editorials for W, so he definitely can back himself up if needed.

There was a video camera in the back so I am sure that a webcast of this talk will be available soon enough in the NYPL’s archives (and there are some other gems in their archive including a panel discussion on the lack of colour in the modelling world). I tried to record the entire lecture on my phone but I can’t seem to figure out how to link the mp3. Meanwhile What’s the Jackanory has a far better summary of the event than I do.

I don’t have as much to say about the Truth in Photography discussion…perhaps I missed something amongst the intellectual chatter but I really do not feel like they discussed the topic at hand at all. I enjoyed Paul Graham’s extremely well-rounded, well-spoken and witty comments (especially his opening comment on how John Szarkowski basically demarcated and created areas of photography that made the most sense) as well as Tod Papageorge’s comments, but between Danny Lyon’s outbursts about Queens and Mitch Epstein’s droning on about, well, himself, I think there’s a very good reason some of these people are photographers and not speechwriters. I would’ve paid to hear Paul Graham speak the entire time, and not just because he looks like Jarvis Cocker.

The in-between reception…you can see Terry Richardson, and in the foreground is Elizabeth Lucas, new managing director of MS Logan.

There were email sign-up lists going around and I pretty much copied everyone’s emails from there so expect me to be spamming you soon to read my site.

Thanks to Blind Spot, Fred & Associates and the NYPL…we need more things like this!