1. Jamel Shabazz

Born and raised in Brooklyn, Jamel Shabazz was one of the foremost street photographers of the 70’s and 80’s. Focusing his lens on the people of his Red Hook neighborhood, Shabazz captured the beginnings of hip-hop culture and fashion. He stood out from other street photographers of the time in his treatment of the subjects. Shabazz rejected the typical candid style and instead posed New Yorkers in deliberate ways. In doing so, Shabazz captured the attitude and pride of Black and Latino New Yorkers across the boroughs.

2. Nan Goldin

Through her gritty, intimate images, Nan Goldin showed the world a darker side to the city. Her work throughout the 80’s and 90’s focused on drug addiction, love, abuse, sex, and friendship. She perfected a documentary style that didn’t gloss over raw subject matter. Goldin depicts New York as the backdrop for real life, bringing the city’s anonymous denizens to life in the backseats of a cab or shoebox apartments. Her most profound work, The Ballad of Sexual Dependency, was an ongoing project that resulted in a 45-minute slideshow of over 700 photographs, now showing at NYC’s Museum of Modern Art until February 2017.

3. Bill Cunningham

There’s no name more synonymous with New York fashion photography than Bill Cunningham. He originated of the mode of street style photography still practiced today. During his career with the Times, Bill Cunningham captured New York’s most fashionable—whether they were a random passerby or Anna Wintour herself. Known for his blue workman’s jacket and bike, Cunningham could be easily spotted in his blue suit jacket, biking through the streets to document New York’s ever-changing style and scenery. Although Cunningham passed away earlier this year, his penchant for capturing a certain je-ne-sai-quois in his subjects created an unforgettable legacy.

4. Diane Arbus

New York native Diane Arbus’ work brought some of the city’s most unseen residents to the forefront.  Born in NYC in 1923, Arbus focused on those whom society at the time would have shunned. People with deformities or birth defects, transgender people, circus performers, and the generally weird were her favorite subjects. Despite ending her own life at age 48, Arbus created a transformative body of work that set a prec

edent for photographers to come, documenting the beauty that often comes out of the odd or marginalized.

5. Marcia Resnik

Marcia Resnik is known for photographing New York’s most famous faces, including Andy Warhol, John Belushi, and Anthony Bourdain. Resnik frequented classic venues like CBGB’s, Max’s, and the Mudd Club during their prime, staging shots of influential stalwarts of the New York music scene in the 70’s, portraying the likes of Johnny Thunders, Iggy Pop, and John Lyndon. The photographer documented a pivotal time in the city’s art scene, immortalizing these antihero revolutionaries in her photos and most, recently in her book Punks, Poets, and Provocateurs: New York City Bad Boys 1977-1982.

Edited by Brianna Arrighi

The post New York City Through the Lens appeared first on The Urban Watch Magazine.

The week kicked off on a resounding sour note after what can only be termed “Yeezygate”. The Adidas-sponsored sportswear label headed by Kanye West set out to show its fourth collection on picturesque Roosevelt Island, a presentation that turned into a nightmarish four plus hour ordeal. Models in parkas and sweaters fainted in the 90-degree heat; some wore shoes so small they had to be escorted down the runway. To top it off, the collection was the same parade of glorified Spanx the rapper has shown for the past four seasons. What was once a somewhat compelling anti-fashion style is now tired and unsurprising.

Despite a rough start, NYFW provided shows that were actually worth the buzz. The VFiles show made headlines when rapper and fashion ingénue, Young Thug, made styling adjustments to a model mid-catwalk. Clothes were deconstructed only to be reconstructed into fantastical new garments (see the floating jacket or what I like to call “the new overcoat”). Between fetishized religious imagery and sleepover-gone-wrong face doodles, the show wasn’t exactly ready-to-wear. It was opulent in its never-ending absurdity. Is anyone going to wear a plastic garment bag posing as a cape? We should hope not. However, the VFiles show brought back some of the spectacle and whimsy that was lacking overall this season.

On the other end of the spectrum, J. Crew offered up picture perfect ready-to-wear collection. Crisp white suits, structured denim dresses, ruffled skirts, and an incredible mix of prints looked expressly modern and forward thinking without being too avant-garde. Altuzarra had a similar idea, with boldly patterned ensembles which, when worn together, pack a high fashion punch, but could easily function separately as a statement piece in a more demure outfit. Flowers of every size adorned midi skirts and itty-bitty bralettes—a vintage-feel made current by slick styling.

While J. Crew and Altuzurra managed to be both fresh and true to brand, others leaned too hard in one direction. Jeremy Scott’s bright colored cartoon clothes looked vapid compared to past seasons, going as far as appropriating a toothpaste logo on a few pieces. While the collection had its bright points—the hot pink asymmetrical dress and corresponding two-piece set adorned with zippers referenced Italian futurism—Scott resorted to his bread and butter and the result was not nearly as exciting as it once was.

Then there was the mass of shows that left you scratching your head. Fan favorite Alexander Wang played with familiar concepts to the designer, highlighting the intersection of masculinity and femininity. For example, a harsh all-over flame print was used on a 90’s fit pair of trousers and then later reinterpreted in delicate lattice on a white button down. These moments of synchronicity were beautiful, but interrupted by bouts of pure nostalgia, wherein models in flip flops looked ready to hit Venice beach circa 1994. Marc Jacobs’ stunned crowds and sparked controversy by adorning his models in rainbow dreadlocks. His clothes were a hodgepodge of ideas that morphed into a seventies Burning Man psychedelic mess. While a selection of looks manifested as a cohesive combination of references, most buckled under the weight of ideas.

What Marc Jacobs’ tremendous, Lady Gaga filled Fall/Winter 2016 collection was to last January’s NYFW, Proenza Schouler is to this season’s shows. The design house, headed by Jack McCollough and Lazaro Fernandez, has long been known for its focus on construction and tailoring, but shocked audiences this season with its unabashed use of primary colors and prints. A long knit dress is color-blocked in a way that’s not quite Yves Saint Laurent’s Mondrian dress, but striking with a more digital, modern approach and agency, detailed with a sassy ostrich feather fringe. The main success of Proenza’s collection is the designer’s ability to balance graphic abstraction with radical silhouettes, knowing when to give a little on either end, and executing it all with couture precision. It’s the perfect summation of what every collection strives for: awe-inspiring, exciting, thought-out clothes.

Edited by Brianna Arrighi

Published by The Urban Watch Magazine

The post New York Fashion Week Round Up SS17 appeared first on The Urban Watch Magazine.

Harlem

1. “Make Me Feel Like A Woman” – Long Gallery 

Now – November 13

This group exhibition is exploring notions of gender through the work of Linda Gallagher, Ted Partin, Daniela Puliti and Tiffany Smith.

2. “Past Present” – Elizabeth Dee Gallery

Now – October 22

The first in the gallery’s upcoming Research Series, “Past Present” explores the work of Annette Lemieux, whose work in the 1980’s coincided with the beginning of “picture theory.”

Lower East Side

3. Vittorio Brodmann – Gavin Brown’s Enterprise (Grand St.) 

October 14 – November 13

Check out Vittorio Brodmann’s brightly colored work, full of looping abstraction and absurd figures in this solo show.

4. “Detected Reality” – Richard Taittinger Gallery

October 13 – November 27

This new show at LES stalwart Richard Taittinger features Russian duo Recycle Group, whose work utilizes industrial materials to explore issues of waste, consumption and other ails of modern civilization.

5. Benjamin Butler – Klaus Von Nichtssagend Gallery

October 21 – December 4

Get lost in Benjamin Butler’s hypnotic close-ups of nature in his forth exhibition at Klaus Von Nichtssagend Gallery.

Chelsea

6. “Trade Winds” – Casey Kaplan Gallery

October 27 – December 17

Hugh Scott-Douglas’ cyanotype prints have one foot in the past and the other in the present, using outmoded technology as the basis to create ghostly, beautiful images on textiles.

7. “Further Evidence – Exhibit B” – Galerie Lelong

October 21 – December 3

Galerie Lelong is partnering with P.P.O.W. to present Carolee Schneemann’s two-part solo exhibition; a meditation on bodies in captivity which features installations, film, and video work.

8. “Selected Works from The Democratic Forest” – David Zwirner Gallery

October 27 – December 17

David Zwirner is showing selections from photographer William Eggleston’s magnum opus, The Democratic Forest—a collection of 1980’s images of rural America and Eastern Europe.

Brooklyn

9. Jon Pestoni – Real Fine Arts (Greenpoint)

Now – October 29

Jon Pestoni returns to Real Fine Arts for his second exhibition with the Greenpoint gallery, continuing to expand upon his wet-into-wet painting technique.

10. “TELEVISION” – 99 Cent Plus Gallery (Bushwick)

October 7 – December 18

Sarah Largess & B.Thom Stevenson are coming together to curate an enormous group show featuring the work of the likes of Chris Oh, Cali Thornhill DeWitt, Morgan Blair and more.

11. Coco Young – Interstate Projects (Bushwick)

October 21 – November 20

Interstate Projects is hosting photographer and filmmaker Coco Young, whose work uses light and collage-style composition to create compelling images.

Edited by Brianna Arrighi

The post What’s Good in the Hood? The Best NYC Art Galleries to Visit in October appeared first on The Urban Watch Magazine.