NYAB Event - Michael von Graffenried "35 MM"

Michael von Graffenried "35 MM"

Leica Gallery in New York

This event has ended.

It is our distinct honor and pleasure to hold the first major New York retrospective of Michael von Graffenried's photographic work at Leica Gallery. The exhibition catalog, generously supported by Leica Camera AG and signed by the photographer, will be available throughout the show.

Michael von Graffenried was born in Bern, Switzerland in 1957 and has been traveling the world as a photojournalist since 1978. He is based in Paris where he lives with his wife Esther Woerdehoff, the director of her eponymous gallery in the 15th Arrondissement, and their two daughters.

Albertine Bourget's review of the exhibition at the Maison Européenne de la Photographie ("Michael von Graffenried: An Eye Constantly on the Alert") might well speak for our curation of this Leica Gallery retrospective: "The different series presented here show a coherent guiding line throughout his work. The idea of ‘outing' underlies all of his work: to make us see what we do not see, because the situation is difficult to access, because we forget to look at it or because we simply refuse to do so. Michael von Graffenried opens up closed societies and casts on people and places a look that is both raw and provocative."

Consider these critical comments about the photographer: Vicki Goldberg has written in "Exposing the Flip Side of Switzerland," in The New York Times (11 August 1991): "He works fast with a 35mm camera, photographs in both color and black and white (the latter with high contrasts and a certain degree of graininess), and thrives on the inconsistencies life throws in his direction. His alertness to the humor available in the daily round of things... places him in the tradition of Robert Doisneau and Elliott Erwitt, the two men who first gave funny photographs a decent reputation." Andrew Rosenbaum in "Following the Tangents" (Ambassador, February 1996) states: "Graffenried's signature is the portrayal of everyday life in closed societies. There's a prevailing sense of the absurd in his work, and sometimes humor."