The current show at New York’s The Jewish Museum, The Radical Camera: New York’s Photo League, 1936-1951, is a wonderful portrait. It is a portrait of New York street life, a portrait of a tumultuous period in US history, and a portrait of changing photo documentary style. All three portraits are captivating. For a New Yorker, to see familiar buildings and streetscapes in their earlier days, is to engage in time travel, always a compelling version of travel for one, like me, with that particular bug. To see documentation of this tumultuous historic period, from New Deal social programs, the war effort and ending with the Red Scare, is instructive. And the changing style of street photography, from the early days when the objective was documentation to the latter years when aesthetics began to frame the content, is to view an early chapter of contemporary street photography. This large treasure trove of images comes from the cameras of the New York Photo League, a group of amateur and professional photographers who banded around social and creative issues and found its voice in the social issues of the time. It also ran aground on its social vision when it was infiltrated by an FBI agent and was subsequently blacklisted by the House Un-American Activities Committee.
John Derian is a treasure. It's not that there aren't many with talent and vision because there are, the world over. But Derian has other attributes that make him so beloved. His eye is unerring, his sense of scale is perfect, he layers cultures and eras seamlessly in a room. And he is accessible in brick and mortar. His two shops on East Second Street have been haunts for years. One carries the decoupage he designs and constructs locally (and that make the best gifts ever) along with the coveted ceramics of Astier de Villatte. The second Dry Goods store next door showcases quirky antiques, an assortment of vintage furniture, stacks of heavy french linen, Moroccan rugs and soft cotton Indian clothing. Both are small, but intriguing and interesting enough to seduce you on a journey of the senses.
And now, Derian has opened on Christopher Street in a double-windowed storefront of a two-story 18th century house. It's like walking in to another world. Traditional Astier, and the later Derian/Astier collaborative pieces, line the walls from roof to floor of the front room. The back room, wallpapered in his new cabbage rose design and lit by beautiful Balthus-designed standing lamps with parchment shades, offers a living room in which to settle in, thumb through books and albums, and rest the soul.
So, go to shop, or simply go to travel in spirit to another place and time.
https://www.johnderian.com/pages/our-locations"
["post_title"]=>
string(21) "John Derian Goes West"
["post_excerpt"]=>
string(0) ""
["post_status"]=>
string(7) "publish"
["comment_status"]=>
string(4) "open"
["ping_status"]=>
string(4) "open"
["post_password"]=>
string(0) ""
["post_name"]=>
string(21) "john-derian-goes-west"
["to_ping"]=>
string(0) ""
["pinged"]=>
string(0) ""
["post_modified"]=>
string(19) "2018-06-07 09:33:42"
["post_modified_gmt"]=>
string(19) "2018-06-07 13:33:42"
["post_content_filtered"]=>
string(0) ""
["post_parent"]=>
int(0)
["guid"]=>
string(31) "http://lisalindblad.com/?p=8571"
["menu_order"]=>
int(0)
["post_type"]=>
string(4) "post"
["post_mime_type"]=>
string(0) ""
["comment_count"]=>
string(1) "0"
["filter"]=>
string(3) "raw"
}
}