Then & Now
Reception Thursday 6-9 PM, +81 Gallery, 167 Elizabeth Street, NYC 10012

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@jeffreyscales
Then & Now
Reception Thursday 6-9 PM, +81 Gallery, 167 Elizabeth Street, NYC 10012
Gristoph Grosse, NYC 2017
From, the exhibition, “Then & Now”. This exhibition is inspired by a recent look at street style, and youth culture I photographed working with writer and curator, Rebecca Pietri. We examined how todays generation is inspired, finds it peers and expressed itself. This work was published in The New York Times, “The Look” column; Soho’s New Geeks.
Exhibition
THEN & NOW
Photographs by Jeffrey Henson Scales
Street Style, Past and Present
Curated by Rebecca Pietri
August 19th - September 3rd, 2017
Reception: Thursday, August 24th 6-9pm
+81 Gallery New York
167 Elizabeth Street, New York , NY 10012
1(646) 998 -4386
Open Hours: 12-7pm Wednesday to Sunday (Monday & Tuesday closed)
An exhibition inspired by a recent look at street style, and youth culture I photographed working with writer and curator, Rebecca Pietri. We examined how todays generation is inspired, finds it peers and expressed itself. This work was published in The New York Times, “The Look” column; Soho’s New Geeks.
For this exhibition we went back and looked thru my archive of photographs and found that through the archival images of youth and street style culture, we can see how much the style of today’s young people has moved forward, yet is still inspired by the past.
ESPN’s The Undefeated
I just wanted to thank the writer, Miss Rosen for the thoughtful, fantastic piece on my new book, “House,” on ESPN’s “The Undefeated” website.
Honored.
The book can be had here at Amazon.
Book Signing and Conversation with Jeffrey Henson Scales
Sunday, February 5th 2PM to 4PM NiLu Harlem
House
NiLu Gift Shop
191 Malcolm X Blvd, Between 119th and 120th Street, NY, NY
At Work
In my capacity as curator and senior editor, of The New York Times Sunday Review, Exposures, column I get the pleasure of working with some of the worlds greatest photographers on various personal and Op-Ed visual stories.
But this week’s column by Stephanie Sinclair from her, Child, Bride, Mother series is very special to me. Stephanie, and her Too Young To Wed team brought us an incredible series of photographs and video out of Nigeria. She interviewed and photographed an incredible group of young women there who escaped and survived the experience of being kidnapped and forced into marriages with the Boku Haram insurgents, in many cases having to bear children for them.
It’s an incredible piece of multimedia designed by Grant Gold at The New York Times. It looks fantastic Grant, thanks!
Rape as a weapon of war is a vital and important global issue that needs to stay at the forefront of the world’s issues we must address.
Check it out!
Child, Bride, Mother: Nigeria
It’s Christmas Eve, 2016
The above photograph is from my ongoing series of film images called, “My Father’s Camera.”
It’s been a whirlwind of activity just getting toward the end of 2016. Editing at The NYT, teaching at NYU fall semester, SPQR Editions published my first book of photography, “House,” this past October 28th, followed by that election day in November, and then right into five weeks editing the New York Times, Year In Pictures.
The Year In Pictures is a very intense annual project, which you can read about here on Lens Blog. All that’s left now is to head out in morning on Christmas day and pick up a copy of the printed edition. The web presentation is amazing, but as anachronistic as it may sound to some, I’m very proud of the printed edition. It’s a different medium and the ability to structure the narrative with design, palate, pacing and scale on a fixed printed space is still a very exciting and rewarding challenge. Having the pleasure of working with a wonderful art director, Alexandra Zsigmond makes the process of producing the print version of all these magnificent photographs the high point of my editing year. It’s even on fancy Sunday Styles pure white thick paper stock. Thanks Alan!
It’s been intense, and quite exhausting.
So looking forward to tying up some loose ends and winding 2016 down, and spending some time at home and with family.
But for now after this intense year, and looking toward an uncertain 2017, I just want to wish good will toward all, and to all a good night.
PS: The book “House” is still available here at Amazon.
Tomas Munita for The New York Times
Editing the New York Times 2016 Year In Picturres was intense! What a Year!
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/12/22/sunday-review/2016-year-in-pictures.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=nytmm_FadingSlideShow_item&module=photo-spot-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0
Today in The New York Times, a piece on my new book, House
The book is also now available here on Amazon.
Also available signed Friday Night book signing event at Affirmation Arts in NYC., details below.
SPECIAL EVENT: The five new books will be available for sale at the SPQR Book Launch and Signing on Friday, October 28, 2016 from 6:00 - 8:00pm at Affirmation Arts. The books will be available for $30 (tax included) at the book launch and a special edition of all five books will be available for $125 (tax included).
Curator Susan Kismaric and Thomas Roma will hold a public conversation on the contemporary photo book from 6:30 - 7:00pm on the evening of the launch. The five photographers will be present to sign their books and as well as co-owner of the press Grafica SI.Z, Nicola Simioni.
When: Friday, October, 28th, 6:00-8:00PM Susan Kismaric & Thomas Roma in conversation 6:30pm – 7:00pm
Where: Affirmation Arts, 523 W. 37th Street, NY, NY 10018
SPQR Book Launch and Signing Friday October 28, 6:00 PM
SPQR Editions announces its inaugural publication of five photography monographs, each investigating a sense of place in the urban landscape through long-form, pictorial narratives.
Twenty years ago, renowned photographer Thomas Roma sat in the office of the late, legendary W.W. Norton editor James L. Mairs with an advanced copy of his first monograph, Found in Brooklyn (an homage to his hometown), that Mairs would soon publish. Inside Mairs’ office, teeming with books piled high, he told Roma that he believed the book “would have a long life.” The idea of a book having a life of it's own beyond the existence and intentions of the author resonated with Roma and left an indelible impression visible in Roma's fourteen subsequent publications.
The launch of SPQR Editions recalls this story, with Roma now in the role of publisher and able to use his twenty years of experience editing, sequencing, and being on press for his own publications to inform the creation of these new books for others. Each monograph—the first for all of the photographers—offers visual narratives about specific places and are intended to present their audience with something that is worth remembering and holding onto:
House, by Jeffrey Henson Scales, portrays vibrant reflections of life, history and masculinity in the mirrors of House’s barbershop in Harlem.
Back of Town, by Stephen Hilger, chronicles a New Orleans neighborhood devastated by Katrina and marked for demolition.
Aftermath, by Yoav Horesh, shows suicide bombing sites in Israel after their hasty repair.
About Face: Picturing Tampa, by Kai McBride, presents a dystopian view of a city peopled only by the grinning faces on billboards set against strip malls, stagnant water, and shuttered dreams.
This, My Garden, Has Been to Me, by Dennis Santella, creates an elegiac document of the formal and improvised green space in Harlem during a period of rapid change in the neighborhood.
All five books were carefully edited and sequenced by Thomas Roma, elegantly designed by Marvin Hoshino and Anna Roma, and adeptly produced by Giancarlo Roma. Beautifully printed in duotone ink at Grafica SI.Z in Verona, Italy, all five books measure 8 3⁄8” by 8 3⁄8”, have 96 pages, and include between 41 and 53 images. The titles retail for $29.95 plus tax on Amazon.com and at bookstores throughout the United States
SPECIAL EVENT: The five new books will be available for sale at the SPQR Book Launch and Signing on Friday, October 28, 2016 from 6:00 - 8:00pm at Affirmation Arts. The books will be available for $30 (tax included) at the book launch and a special edition of all five books will be available for $125 (tax included).
Curator Susan Kismaric and Thomas Roma will hold a public conversation on the contemporary photo book from 6:30 - 7:00pm on the evening of the launch. The five photographers will be present to sign their books and as well as co-owner of the press Grafica SI.Z, Nicola Simioni.
When: Friday, October, 28th, 6:00-8:00PM Susan Kismaric & Thomas Roma in conversation 6:30pm – 7:00pm
Where: Affirmation Arts, 523 W. 37th Street, NY, NY 10018
Media Inquiries: Anna Roma at, [email protected] or (917) 747-4736
spqreditions. com
Come to Dumbo Wednesday night and see a preview of selected images from the upcoming SPQR Editions book, “House, by Jeffrey Henson Scales” featured in the Manhattan segment of Photovilles’s,
Battle of the Boroughs
A new & original multimedia presentation Hosted by NY1’s Roger Clark Wednesday, Sept 21 at 7:30PM
The battle lines have been drawn, guest curators invited, and photographic champions nominated. Presented and produced by the United Photo Industries team and our guest curators: Dr. Deborah Willis (Manhattan – Chair, Department of Photography & Imaging at the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University), Elizabeth Renstrom (Brooklyn – Photo Editor, VICE), Scott Hall (Queens – Director of Photography, Travel & Leisure Magazine), Michael Kamber (the Bronx – Co-founder, Bronx Documentary Center), and Paul Moakley (Staten Island – Deputy Director of Photography, TIME Magazine). Join us for a thrilling show of photographic sportsmanship, capturing images from across New York City’s neighborhoods, from the most iconic to the most underrepresented stories across Brooklyn, Manhattan, the Bronx, Queens and Staten Island. Each borough will be represented through the curated work of seven photographers featuring local projects and curated beats, to be screened during a very special night at our Beer Garden in the shadow of the Brooklyn Bridge. At the end of the night, there will be no winners or losers, no crowns or belts, just wonderful, shared, crazy, love for this city like no other, which we call our home. New York City!
Join us Wednesday, September 21,2016, opening night for the premiere.
Photoville is located in Brooklyn Bridge Plaza, on the corners of Water Street and New Dock Street. It is directly underneath the Brooklyn Bridge in DUMBO and is bordered by Jane’s Carousel and St. Ann’s Warehouse.
House, The Book!
My first book of photographs is on press today in Verona, Italy! “House” 5 years photographing a Harlem Barbershop, coming this fall from SPQR Editions!
Let the Boys Be Boys, and Da Brat, Be That
September 1995: It was a magazine cover shoot of the hip-hop performers, Onyx (Sticky Fingaz, Fredro Starr, and Sonny Seeza), Heavy D, and Da Brat. They were all really fun to spend the afternoon with. Hard core rappers Onyx, who were about to release their second album, “All We Got Iz Us” several weeks after this shoot were super animated and totally into performing at the photo shoot. Heavy D, the veteran had already moved into acting by this time, and was cool as cool could be. Da Brat --who frequently lived up to her name that day -- was appropriately flush and full of bluster after recently becoming the first solo female rapper to sell over a million copies of her 1994 debut album, “Funkdafied.”
I was working with one of my favorite clients at the time, YSB Magazine. The Creative Director of this shoot was Lance Pettiford, who was always a pleasure to work with. We were shooting a special October cover package celebrating “Urbanaid, Artists Representing in the Fight Against AIDS.”
I truly enjoy high production studio photography, and back in the day I did a lot of it for work. It’s always a pleasure to be at the helm of it all. Starting with a pristine curved white cyclorama, there is something genuinely satisfying about creating an environment that is beautifully lit, and in which people can feel comfortable expressing their personalities, or even ESPF’ing in front of a photographer, who along with the support crew of assistants and stylists are watching their every move for a braid out of place, a wrong collar, or any other unwanted visual distraction.
This photograph was made before digital photography, so there was plenty of film handling -- assistants keeping roll after roll loaded in the big studio camera, and then tagged for correct processing, and numerous other details to be kept track of.
With all due respect to the marvels of digital post-production, in many ways, I still miss the simplicity and limitations of analogue film processes. There is a special magic when using film or working in an actual darkroom with safelights, negatives and chemicals. My friend Thomas Roma describes it as photography’s “esoteric science.”
In these kind of large production studio shoots, that esoteric science was always an exhilarating part of the process. While today’s technology makes much of the work easier in so very many ways, the anticipation (while often stressful) and mystery of the analogue process is something that instant results viewed on a computer monitor can never really match.
And even in today’s digital realm, on the rare occasions I get to photograph these sorts of characters, I always have a lot of fun.
It should be a swinging time in London for this cool exhibition curated by Ekow Eshun. MADE YOU LOOK: Dandyism and Black Masculinity, 15 Jul - 25 Sep 2016. Very proud that, “Young Man In Plaid,” is included.
New York Times Year in Pictures, 2015
For the last five weeks I have been editing with my colleague Meaghan Looram the annual New York Times Year In Pictures. It appears in its print form this Sunday, December 27. The image above is the print cover that features a photograph of migrants reaching the Greek shore of Lesbos after traveling from Turkey on a rubber raft, by photographer Tyler Hicks of The New York Times. The whole print section was designed by The New York Times, Sunday Review Art Director, Alexandra Zsigmond. It’s a great print issue, worth going out Sunday and getting an actual printed version.
Meaghan and I have been doing this every year for close to ten years now. It is always a very intense process of going through tens of thousands of images from all our staff and freelance photographers, as well as all the wire service collections. I have estimated that it can be upwards of 150,000 images that we edit down to about 48 in print and around 100 online.
Reviewing all the dramatic work of the photojournalism of each year can be a daunting and often heartbreaking process, but at the same time an inspirational review of the work of some of the greatest photographers of our time. Looking at the photographs of the desperate global events that these men and women bear witness to, and share with the rest of the world through their photographer’s eyes has often brought tears to my eyes, as well as been an inspiration to me, both as an editor and a photographer.
What they choose to do, in many cases at great peril to themselves must never be taken for granted, or dismissed in any way as more of the digital photographic proliferation, or some kind photographic adventure for these photographers. It’s so vital, and so important that where they are, and what they see is brought back to the world. I’m not only referring to the conflict photojournalism, but also the great work done in the less dangerous, the more fashionable, or the unique festive situations that so often still give us hope for the world. These images are all shown to us in the uncompromising manner that defines great and ethical journalism through the eyes of remarkable visual storytellers.
I personally believe the artists (yes I said it!) whose work appears in this Sunday’s New York Times, Year In Pictures do this work so courageously, uncompromisingly truthfully, and with a visual acuity that both matches, and celebrates all the masters of the medium who have proceeded them.
God bless them, and keep them all safe!
Now up on Lens: The Year in Pictures, How We Made the Cut
For the last five weeks along with my colleague Meaghan Looram I have been editing the annual New York Times, Year In Pictures. We discuss our process on the NYT Lens blog.
Rick James’s Bungalow
Rick James was really something special, not necessarily always in a good way, but he was a brilliant musician, famous addict and around town, a notorious womanizer.
We met one afternoon at the Chateau Marmont in Hollywood. Throughout the 1970’s I’d lived in several hotels and motels in Hollywood and this was, and still is, my absolute favorite one in the area.
On this occasion, I had come to photograph Rick for a writer friend of mine, Eliot, who was interviewing him for the inside spread of Rock & Soul magazine. There was no budget, and Rick hadn’t even actually agreed to be photographed, but back then, most artists didn’t have nearly as much totalitarian-like supervision from publicists and flacks as they do today, so I just grabbed my street gear and headed over there with Elliot.
At the time, Rick was working on his album, Throwin' Down, the follow-up to his hugely successful 1981 album, “Street Songs” which had his hits, “Super Freak”, "Give It to Me Baby" and "Fire and Desire," his legendary duet with Teena Marie. He was also dating former Exorcist star, Linda Blair at the time.
We were to meet Rick at his bungalow at the hotel. After a brief wait in his bungalow’s living room Rick emerged from the bedroom in a cloud of weed smoke. He was in a convivial mood, but did not really wish to be photographed. Elliot succeeded in convincing him by assuring him it would only be a few shots out in the private yard, and then the two of them would get to the business of the interview.
Joint in hand, Rick led us to the garden and kept his promise, just a few shots. I think he allowed me three frames.
While we were in the garden, Rick said to me, “You know, this is the same bungalow that John Belushi* died in just a few weeks ago. Do you think that the police forgot to check under the bed and maybe missed a rock or two of cocaine? I think we should check, don’t you?” And with that he was done with being photographed and headed back into Bungalow 3.
I realized that was my cue to leave. It was a hot day in Hollywood, so I went down to the pool to have a drink, and relax in a chaise lounge while Eliot finished up his interview.
The high point of the day however was when midway into my second vodka, model Lauren Hutton emerged topless from the pool directly in front me, and settled down on the chaise just a few feet to my left, enjoying a beverage of her own.
That certainly called for at least one more vodka!
As I said, The Chateau has always been my absolute favorite.
* Comedian John Belushi died March 5, 1982 in Bungalow 3, after being injected with a mixture of cocaine and heroin, known as a "speedball".