Katy Grannan- Boulevard

Katy Grannan's Boulevard at The Fraenkel Gallery features high key color portraits that are stunningly striking, so I really wanted to like these. Then why did I leave the gallery feeling somewhat unconvinced?

The subject matter certainly is not new- what is? But that wasn't it either. Throughout the exhibit I felt as if I was wandering from one illuminated microscopic slide study to another. The prostitutes, cross dressers and other characters that fill her Boulevard lens are certainly colorful enough- every which way imaginable. But with the exception of a handful of images, instead of seeing individuals, I was seeing a lot of surface detail, and having surveyed the surface, had little desire to look further- characters lost within their own personal landscape.

I couldn't help but think of Avedon's In The American West. Those portraits were rich with the detail of individual character that would command you to try and divine what was hidden underneath. There's little chance of that here.

I walked to the back room and found a vintage Arbus portrait of a US vet. It was an early 35mm shot that I don't think I've ever seen before, an absorbing image that demanded my attention, and held it all the way home.