[johnmflores]

In Manhattan, the center of the world. They had a couple of shows:

1 - The Mexican Suitcase: A collection of photos from Capa, Chim, and Taro of the Spanish Civil War. The show is so-named because the rolls of film were recently rediscovered in Mexico after being lost for decades

2 - Cuba in Revolution: A collection of photos documenting the fall of Batista, the rise of Castro, and Che Guevara (including Korda's iconic photo)

What struck me the most was the poor quality of the photos - the blown highlights, the muddy shadows, the FF/BF issues, the poor dynamic range, and so on. I think that I would have barfed had I seen 100% crops of some of them!













Ok, only kidding! It was really great to see parts of the history of photography unfurled before me. The Mexican Suitcase show was interesting because they also displayed the contact sheets, so you could see the photo that was eventually published along with the ones that did not make the cut. For both shows they also showed (when possible) the photos as they were published at the time, so you could see how editors cropped and other things - like how cheap newsprint affected final output.

Very interesting, for sure and highly recommended. Don't have any photos as they aren't permitted inside (for obvious legal reasons).

[CWyatt]

Two exhibitions I'd love to see, especially the Mexican suitcase.

Similar to a Magnum photographers' exhibition here, where they showed some contact sheets and original LIFE mag prints which was very interesting.