Art

Reading on subway platforms, Prince Street (2014); Bus driver, Tribeca (2013); Man with stroller, 12th St.(2012) - Lawrence Schwartzwald

In the early 1970s, Schwartzwald picked up a copy of Andre Kertesz’s On Reading and felt inspired looking at the black-and-white candid images of people reading around the world and wanted to do something similar. But it wouldn’t be until many years later that Schwartzwald would pick up a camera—around age 40—and decide to snap a few pictures at some of the literary events he was attending.

When he wasn’t photographing, Schwartzwald was usually reading, something he said he enjoys more than just about anything. Although it wasn’t necessarily a conscious decision, his eye for a great picture combined with his love of books and influence from On Reading began to come together and he started a prolific series of people reading.

“The images have to come out and find you as much as you find them,” he added. “You can’t just come out and create it.”

Nimbus (2012) - Berndnaut Smilde

To "create" an indoor cloud, conditions such as humidity and temperature must be carefully controlled. Once Smilde manages to construct the ideal environment, he emits a puff of fog from a fog machine, making a momentary cloud appear, seemingly out of thin air. During the few seconds that it lingers before vanishing, he captures it in a photograph. He’s performed this ritual in museum halls, churches, and abandoned buildings with tiled floors.

"What people seem to be touched by is that the clouds are, in effect, real at the moment they are captured."  Smilde enjoys the juxtaposition created when the nebulous phenomenon is placed in a man-made structure. He also likes that clouds can represent everything from impending dreariness to dreams and imagination.