For a Photo Finish to Your Week, ICP Offers a Wide Range of Shows

It’s a big week for Museum goings-on in New York City, what with paintings being accidentally ripped (The Metropolitan Museum of Art); and preparations for the Biennial (The Whitney Museum of American Art). Over at The International Center of Photography (ICP), four new shows open today (January 29).
Fist off, there’s ”Twilight Vision: Surrealism, Photography and Paris.” More than 150 photos, films, books, and periodicals have been brought together to show how photographic images were used to create both real and imaginary images of Paris. Man Ray, Ilse Bing, and Dora Maar all have works in the show.
In “Miroslav Tichy,” the exhibition highlights the work of the reclusive Czech photographer, known for his cardboard cameras and haunting images of women and landscapes. (In addition to photographs, a number of his homemade cameras are on view.)
“Alan B. Stone and the Senses of Place” explores the idea of “place” and memory through black-and white photos. Works of the Montreal photographer include both the photos of male pinups that he sold in the 1950s, as well as his photographs of his home city.
Finally, 31 vintage prints of the work of famed photographer Eugene Atget are on display in “Atget, Archivist of Paris.” All the images have been taken from the museum’s permanent collection.
All exhibitions run though May 9. ICP, which is located at 1133 Avenue of the Americas at 43rd Street, can be reached by calling 212 857-0000. The museum also offers a broad spectrum of classes, lectures and workshops.

The Man Who Would Be Fashion: Richard Avedon at ICP

If you’ve ever flipped through an issue of Harper’s Bazaar from the ‘40 or ‘50s, you’ve most likely seen the work of seminal fashion photographer Richard Avedon, whose photographs are now on view at New York’s International Center of Photography (ICP) in “Avedon Fashion 1944-2000,” part of the museum’s “Year of Fashion” event. (To file under “Did you Know”: The fashion photographer played by Fred Astaire in the movie “Funny Face,” with Audrey Hepburn, was loosely based on Avedon.) Throughout his nearly seven-decade career, Avedon completely changed the role of the fashion photographer by veering away from the static look of most fashion photographs and creating a new brand of lively, dynamic images: he took models out of the studio and into the air, showing them in motion. Formerly thought of as a predominantly European business, Avedon helped influence fashion photography in a way that continues to impact photographers today
ICP now offers the most comprehensive look at his fashion photography to date, including his work from Bazaar, Vogue and The New Yorker. More than 200 works are on view through September 20, including vintage prints, archival materials and contact sheets.
ICP is located at 1133 Avenue of the Americas at 43rd Street. Call (212) 857-0000 for more information.