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New York : Charles Martin, Storied People

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This exhibition « Storied People » of black and white prints is Charles Martin’s sixth solo show at June Kelly Gallery.

Portraits of someone unfamiliar to you offer a look at a gesture or an appearance. A portrait of someone whose appearance is familiar also offers a chance to compare the image to the way you already think about the pictured person. How does the image conform to or deviate away from your preconceived idea?

Sometimes a portrait is a tug of war between the photographer and the person on the other side of the lens. Edward Weston produced portraits to the approval of his sitters, but reserved his signature for the portraits that were his choice, thought of as his art. The others he saw just as jobs. Robert Mapplethorpe at some point was known to do commissioned portraits with the condition that the sitter would see the finished print only when Mapplethorpe delivered it without any input. My group of portraits was done by access and fortuitous chance, encounters with both friends and strangers, improvised and carried out quickly.

Of many possible meanings for “portrait,” the photo portrait for me is primarily a record of an encounter, a moment of complicity: the person sees that the photographer is taking a photo, and the person allows the image to be. There is a story that goes along with the portrait and, taking in the images, you can judge for yourself if the story and the image go together as you would suspect.  In that sense, these photos all are of “storied people.”

Charles Martin

CAPTIONS

Arman, sculptor
When I was going to France for the first time, my brother had written a book about Arman and made arrangements for me to meet him.  In the south of France, Arman told me on the phone that he would meet me at a café.  I waited for him at a curbside table, with my summer belongings in a backpack.  A silver Rolls-Royce pulled up, the window powered down and Arman introduced himself by saying, “Mr. Martin?” He jokingly said that since he knew I was from near Philadelphia he had driven a car to make me feel at home: the car was registered and had license plates from Pennsylvania. I stayed at his house in Vence a week before it was time for me to return to college. I saw him, his wife Corice and his son Yves on a number of occasions back in New York. This shot is from one of his exhibitions.

2   James Baldwin, writer
The first time I met Baldwin I was a waiter in a restaurant on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, and Baldwin came in as a customer. I told him I was a fan, he smiled and thanked me. The people he was with seemed happy that he was recognized. I saw him once again, years later, at a lecture he gave at Yale.  At its close, I went to the front of the hall and photographed Baldwin as he signed autographs.

3   Angela Bassett, actress
Bassett and I had overlapping friends during post-college study at Yale. She was in the drama school, and I was in the graduate school. I also remember the photo because of  the camera: a cheap medium format camera—6×6—that I had bought in a thrift shop and was hard to use for many reasons. The film advance was not precise.  If you weren’t careful, it would double expose or leave a large gap between negatives.  The viewfinder was also slightly off. A few years later, someone broke into the trunk of my car and stole the camera.  I was relieved of having to continue to use it, but it was well worth the trouble this time!

4   Chuck Close, artist
One day in New Haven, Chuck Close was coming into the School of Art at Yale, as I was on my way out.  I asked him if I could photograph him, and he said, sure, but the photo would have to be quick because he was on his way to teach a class. It had been a rainy day. My camera was in a plastic bag inside a cloth bag inside a backpack. As I went through the series of bags to get to the camera, he remarked, “You sure do keep that sucker wrapped up.”  After I took the picture, I walked down the street to the nearest camera store and bought a proper camera bag that gave quick access. Years later, I ran into Close at a gallery and told him this story. He got a kick out of it and a good laugh. I photographed him then, much more quickly than the first time.

5   Ornette Coleman, musician
On a Labor Day in Brooklyn, I ran into Coleman as we were crossing a street, each headed in a different direction. He said he didn’t really want to be photographed, but it was okay. I took the picture and later gave him a copy. Years later, I was invited to his house.  He was very gracious and seemed to like quiet and, especially, playing pool. I made a number of photographs of him on that day.

6   Angela Davis, activist
Davis and I were seated together for dinner at Yale before a talk she was going to give.  It was coincidence that put us together, as I do not know her.  Over the course of conversation, she was delighted to find that I had a Leica rangefinder camera.  It brought her good memories, she said, as she had had one years before and used it until it had been lost or stolen.

7   Nancy Morejón, writer
Nancy Morejón, the Cuban poet, visited Yale’s Department of Spanish and Portuguese to do a reading. I was introduced to her and she was happy that I was concentrating on Portuguese, as she said she was very fond of Brazil.  There does seem to be a special connection between Cubans and Brazilians, especially in Rio. After the introduction, I took her picture.

8   Toni Morrison, writer, Nobel Laureate
Clyde Taylor, a professor, was retiring.  We became friends when we met on a National Endowment for the Humanities trip to Brazil. Toni Morrison and he are good friends from their teaching days in Washington. She attended Clyde’s retirement celebration at New York University and I photographed her there before things got started.

9   Abdias Nascimento, painter, writer, actor, politician and activist
Luck would have it that not only did I go to Brazil shortly after beginning to learn Portuguese, but I went as a delegate to the Third Congress of Black Culture of the Americas, organized by painter, writer, actor, politician and activist Abdias Nascimento and held at the Pontífica Universidade Católica, São Paulo, Brazil, in August 1982. After first writing to him , we exchanged letters and, when I got to Brazil, I visited him in Rio. I arrived at his apartment early, and both he and his wife were in pyjamas when they opened the door for me.  They were surprised that I was there early, about 10 in the morning.  They bustled through the apartment, making coffee and getting dressed.  We had coffee and talked quite a bit.  When I was about to leave, Abdias asked why I had come so early.  I told him that on the phone the day before he had told me to come “de manhã.”  He told me that, no, he had said “amanhã.” I had misunderstood “tomorrow” for “in the morning.” He laughed and said we should meet again the next day, but not in the morning! Maybe to get back at me, at a public event he unexpectedly called on me to speak!

10  Octavio Paz, writer
Paz was visiting Yale and had dropped into the Department of Spanish and Portuguese before giving a lecture. The students of the department, mostly from Latin America, understandably treated him with great enthusiasm, and he chatted amiably, especially with the Professor Emir Rodríguez Monegal. I was in my first or second year in the department and asked Paz for a few seconds to photograph him.

11 Wole Soyinka, writer, Nobel Laureate
Wole Soyinka was often at Yale my first year in the program of African American Studies.  I think he was a visiting Professor.  Our paths crossed on several occasions.  We were both friends of Henry Louis Gates, Jr., and I was studying Yoruba, one of the languages of Nigeria, and the teacher was a friend of his, Femi Euba, who practices many of the theater arts.  I photographed Soyinka’s Yale Repertory production, directed by Lloyd Richards, and I saw Soyinka give a lecture to a small audience in one of Yale’s colleges, which is the location of this photograph.

12 Cecil Taylor, musician
Despite not knowing Cecil Taylor, I have had interesting encounters with him.  Once I was visiting a loft on Chambers Street and the muffled sound of piano playing could be heard. When I remarked to my host that the playing sounded like Cecil Taylor, she said that it was, that he lived upstairs. The elevator’s building was not operative and, she said, Taylor had a platform built in the shaft and his piano installed there.  I was also briefly a bartender in Tribeca and Taylor used to come in on Sundays to buy the Times. This photo came about at a jazz club where Taylor was playing with Freddie Waits. I knew Freddie and asked him, between sets, if I could photograph Cecil, who had gone backstage.  Freddie went and asked him and, a few minutes later, took me to make the photo.

EXHIBITION
Storied People
Charles Martin
From 12 February to 12 March, 2016
June Kelly Gallery
166 Mercer St
New York, NY 10012
United States
http://www.junekellygallery.com

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