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AIPAD: more questions than answers

A few days ago I received an invitation to attend AIPAD, the prestigious annual event held in New York City by the Association of International Photography Art Dealers, at the Armory building on Park Avenue.

I had never visited AIPAD before in my life, but I heard plenty about it, so I gladly took the opportunity to have a personal peek in there and here ‘s some snippets about my rookie experience.

First of all what is AIPAD? It is an association “acting as the collective voice of the art photography dealers that make up its membership”, as well as an event, where those members annually curate, display and sell Photographic Fine Art.

AIPAD is also a place where discerning buyers, truly able to appreciate the value of a photographic image, can go to purchase Photographic Fine Art prints.

AIPAD even appears to welcome a third category of people: those who go there not only to admire the photos on the walls, but also to benefit, one hopes, from schmoozing and mingling with photography dealers and buyers, a privilege not so easy to gain, in this day and age.

What ‘s hanging on AIPAD walls, then?

Technically speaking, Photographic Fine Art: the very crème de la crème.

Beautiful, intriguing, brand new as well as classic and well-digested masterpieces, all selected by the best curatorial efforts of some of the most influential worldwide Photographic Fine Art dealers.

What did I actually see on AIPAD walls?

Many exquisite, mind-expanding, thrilling works by several masters of photography from the past, the present and possibly, even from the future.

Concurrently, I also saw some mediocre, yet somehow craftily validated and overpriced lesser works. I even saw some occasional vomit-inducing work, the value of which can perhaps be understood only by imagining some obscure, yet fascinating Machiavellian mechanism, enabling such images to be hanged on the walls of a prestigious exhibition such as this.

But, let me stick the point: AIPAD is not a museum or an exhibition or a pop-up show. This is a PHOTOGRAPHIC FINE ART MARKET EVENT, first and above all.

And that’s the main reason I would strongly recommend you to go to AIPAD: Photographs are actually being bought and sold here: it is a valuable reality check, especially if you are a working photographer today.

Real money exchanges hands: photographic prints, of the most diverse subjects, provenance and size are given a specific value here and are being purchased by the most diverse buyers for the most diverse reasons.

No, I don’t know those reasons: It could be to invest in the work of a world-renowned author, to further enrich a museum collection, or because of a perfectly fitting color, size or subject that will look fabulous hanging above some new furniture. Or to indulge the cravings for an image you want to look at every day for the rest of your life, or it could be to gamble, to bet some money in a brand new sensation, in a still largely unknown but upcoming talented photographer.

Whatever the reasons behind a sale, it was interesting to learn that some sort of healthy market still exists, at least for an elite of living and deceased photographers, as well as for their dealers.

Meanwhile, outside the Armory thick walls, in the rather confused and confusing Age of the Photo-Bulimia, many, perhaps less talented, or less clever, or simply less well-connected photographers appear to be increasingly struggling just to maintain credibility and some fiscal stability in the work practice they love.

Fact is that while many photographers probably think it would be only fair to be given at least a shot at having their work hanging on the walls of AIPAD, a small minority of them seems to achieve that goal.

What are the reasons behind that? I don’t know. You better ask the experts.

You’ll find them in the relatively newly established (and booming) industry of portfolio reviews, freelance curators, photography workshops, etc.

This appears to be today the main, perhaps the only, filtering and validating mechanism in place, which might give you a chance, a gentle kick in the butt, to gain entry, at some level, to the very exclusive and well guarded ecosystem of the Fine Art Photography Marketplace.

I walked out of AIPAD with mixed feelings and, as it often happens, with more questions than answers.

On the sidewalk outside the Armory I bumped into my friend, Luis Mendes, the almost octogenarian, by now iconic, New York street photographer.

His 4x5 Speed Graphic in hand, he was trying to elicit some business standing next to AIPAD main entrance, offering to take unique portraits of passers-by on peel-apart instant film.

A small group of elegantly dressed ladies, on their way out from AIPAD, the latest digital Leica swinging from their necks, stopped by: “Hey guys, can we take a picture of you?” Luis replied: “Well, how about ME taking a picture of YOU, instead?”

But the Leica ladies said: “Ohh.. So sorry, maybe later, we have no money right now”.

Click-click. They snapped a couple of Luis and me and disappeared.

is the Synthi worth the price? I really lust for one. they are so pretty.

Yes, it is worth the price. It is a truly unique fun machine,