Artist/Rebel/Dandy Exhibit at RISD

Doran Wittelsbach, San Francisco, 2009

Is 2013 the year of the Dandy?

Kate Irvin and Laurie Brewer, curators of the new exhibit Artist/Rebel/Dandy certainly think so.  But for them it's been more like "The Years of the Dandies".  This is something we have in common, having both been working on parallel projects about dandyism for the last several years.  I was able to meet up with these talented ladies last fall about the exhibit, and am honored to have three large prints included in the show set to open April 28 and on view until August 18, 2013 at the Museum of Art and the Rhode Island School of Design.  It'll be a dandy summer for sure!

The opening festivities are in kicking into high gear - opening gala, dance party, and first tweed run in Providence! Check out their schedule and facebook page for more info.

Massimiliano Mocchia di Coggiola, Paris, Sept 2011 

This exhibit has it's heart in the right place, as far as I'm concerned. For one, the initial inspiration was the late Richard Merkin. And although their focus is on fashion and textiles, which many of the exhibits on dandyism have been, they see the men who wear the clothes as being the driving factor of meaning. The clothes are the artifact of the amazing life lived. The dandy - who is the artist, the rebel - is the revolutionary force driving us forward. They don't try to fit in with anyone else, they don't try to be a dandy, they just are. Their nature is to be on the vanguard, and because they cannot stand to go along with the crowd, they innovate by default. Why did Guy Hills start making Dashing Tweeds? Because he wanted the colors and prints that no one made anymore (or ever!). Again and again this theme repeats in the stories of the men I have photographed.

So all hail the year of the Dandy! Capped off, of course, by my book debut in the fall!

More from the exhibit...Love seeing this vintage shot of Mark Twain in a linen suit next to Massimiliano!

Alvin Langdon Coburn, Mark Twain, 1908. 

Shirt (detail), late-18th century. Linen plain weave with cotton ruffle. 

Les Manteaux, published in Gazette du Bon Ton (vol. 12), 1913. Bernard Boutet de Monvel, illustrator.

Four-piece suit worn by Michael Strange (pseudonym of Blanche Oelrichs), ca. 1928. Brooks Uniform Co., tailor, New York, est. last quarter of 19th century. Wool crepe coat with silk velvet collar, wool crepe trousers, cotton velvet waistcoat, silk plain weave dickie.  

Natty's View

Visiting James Sherwood in Bloomsbury, London

Artist Paolo Canevari in front of his 1940s Japanese hand painted screen, NYC

Night shooting with Winston Chesterfield around his picture perfect neighborhood in Westminster.

The writer, Nathaniel "Natty" Adams, and I have been having a wonderful time on new shoots for the book.  He finds the same joy in discovering amazing characters and stories as I do.  In recent months we have been in high gear, and have been on most of the shoots together, interviewing and photographing at the same time.  It's extra fascinating to be able to hear their stories as I shoot, because normally I'm kind of quiet and focused.  Certainly whole books could be written on individual men!  

Taking a look back at all the shoots as I edit them for the book has raised the question, what do all these men have in common - and, essentially, what defines a dandy for this project?  There are a lot of differences, but seemingly just as many similarities.  I've certainly tried to avoid hard and fast answers in favor of the view of an explorer into a new world.  But the question has come up time and again, and because I've never been able to "answer" it,  it has propelled me deeper into the project.  I've been so immersed, and now I am attempting to try to understand what someone new to the series or concept might think.   I would love to hear your thoughts - if you have just stumbled across this, or have been following from the beginning - what are your definitions, what are your questions, why is it so hard to define?  

All photos by Natty, of course!

London is Dandy

Natty and Winston Chesterfield, London, March 2013

Here on a quick trip to London to catch more dandies and exquisite gentlemen...A good time indeed!

Rory Duffy - Bespoke in Brooklyn

Rory Duffy, bespoke tailor, Brooklyn, March 2013

Just around the corner from me, and a few flights up, is a gem of a Savile Row trained tailor, Rory Duffy, who has recently established himself in New York City.  Andrew Yamato introduced me to the young Irishman, and I had a good time chatting with him about his work and the suit he made that won the prestigious Golden Shears award, all the while drinking a good bit of prosecco.

Rory shows us the suit he made that won the Golden Shears 2009, the UK's highest prize for tailoring.  Oh, just an amazingly crafted frock coat with kilt (!) and waistcoat done in a blue window pane (that Dr. Andre Churchwell might find familiar).  Please, someone create an occasion just so this suit can be worn, and I can attend!



Behind the unassuming brick facade there is a real craftsman at work, and Brooklyn should be glad to have him!

The Cary Collection: The Dandy Edit

Thomas Cary of The Cary Collection, NYC, Nov 2012

As a photographer I have to rely on my instincts to guide me in split seconds.  Sometimes I don't even know consciously what I'm looking at.  And upon editing I can finally see what was actually there, what my eye found interesting.  In the case of The Cary Collection you see documented here, the hour or two I spent went by in a flash, and I felt like I barely had a chance to look.  So much to take in!  But now we can look as along as we please, and if you could blow up these photos to full size you would get lost in the details.

Mr. Cary tells me he was a "passionate and precocious" collector from an early age, and attributes his interest in aesthetic things to his late father, who was an avid art collector, and served on the board of The Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, New York, where Mr. Cary grew up.  His mother, as well, was a collector of classic English furniture and antiques.  He remembers their lavish cocktail and dinner parties:  "My parents had a fabulous coterie of colourful friends whom I strived to emulate both sartorially as well as how graciously they lived in their glamourous surroundings"

While growing up he became enamored of old Brooks Brother's catalogues and Esquire Magazines, and equally influenced by mod TV shows of the day like The Avengers and The Persuaders.  Young Thomas fashioned his bedroom after John Steed's London bachelor flat, and even considered attending butler school in London to become a private butler in a UK estate household, because he "loved the regal concept".  However,  it seems the dreams of an exciting life as a butler were short-lived…but can you imagine?




I knew partly what to expect, because of articles and great photographs already made by Unabashedly Prep, Fine Young Gentleman, etc. over the last few years.  Still…it was quite an experience to be in the space surrounded with bright saturated wonderful things, but hardly being able to move.  I actually got a light in there, not sure how (?!?).  And then the stories!  I'm a big fan of anecdotes, and Mr. Cary did not disappoint;  he had the history and provenance for all pieces available at an instant, I assume without effort.   He is as delightfully eccentric as his collection.   If you know The Dandy Portraits, you will know this is the real reason I went.

There was no way he was going to miss the opportunity presented by a chance encounter with Sir Sean Connery on the streets of Manhattan.

Cary custom mats and frames most of his artwork to give it his own look.

Thomas Cary has a collection that seems to know no end.  But it is saved from being "hoarding" by being such an incredible wonderland of pinpointed Americana.  It is the America of New England WASP culture and symbolism, sailing, thoroughbreds, Newport estates, Ivy League insignias, prime 20th century New York City nightlife and social diary, bachelor pad cocktail culture, 21 Club artifacts, lawn jockey lamps, all awash in go-to-hell preppy colors.   Mr. Cary has a point of view, a color palette, and it evokes a time and place, creating a powerful nostalgia.

For Mr. Cary, the collection is obviously an obsession (and perhaps his own work of art?), but the collection is also his business.  He sells by appointment, and at select retailers, such as Bergdorf Goodman.  The Cary Collection now encompasses 15,000 rare books, 700 works of art, and 1,200 pieces of vintage objects, many of which are now accessible on their just launched global website:
thecarycollection.com

The Book: It's Official!

Natty and I went over to the beautiful lobby of the Waldorf Astoria to sign the contract for our book project with Gestalten, a prestigious international art and design publisher out of Berlin.  That's right, folks:  A BOOK!  I'm smiling ear to ear right now, can you tell?

A book to be published this fall 2013, with photos by me, of course, and text by Natty.

You, my dear readers, will be hearing a lot about this in the coming months...and we are already dreaming of the plans for the launch party :)  Can you imagine?!

Ok, back to work, lots of work.

Fine Day

Dr. Keith Churchwell in NYC, Jan 2013

Catching that elusive fading light on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan.  It changes right before your eyes, and you gotta enjoy it while it lasts - or try to get it on "film".  The portrait is very hopeful, so I'd like to offer it as clear look forward into our coming year.