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Contact:
Rick Miramontez / Molly Barnett / Andy Snyder
rick@oandmco.com / molly@oandmco.com / andy@oandmco.com

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, PLEASE

THURSDAY, MAY 27, 2010 – SATURDAY, JULY 10, 2010

New York, NY (2/25/2010) –Steven Kasher Gallery (521 W. 23rd St.) will present “1.3: NEW COLOR IMAGES BY JOEL GREY,” an exhibition of mobile phone photography by the award-winning actor and photographer Joel Grey. Grey received wide critical acclaim for his mobile phone images with the release of his groundbreaking book, 1.3 – Images from My Phone (2009, powerHouse Books). On display from Thursday, May 27 through Saturday, July 10, 2010, Grey’s show will run concurrently with “Autochromes: Early Color Masterpieces from National Geographic,” a display of rare, early autochromes. The simultaneous shows will juxtapose one of the newest forms of color photography with one of the earliest, and serve to highlight their surprising similarities. For additional information and images, please email kirsten@stevenkasher.com.

Traveling in 2007, Grey found himself in a small St. Lucie, Florida museum, filled with bizarre and eminently photographable objects. Feeling, as he had with the images that became 2006’s Looking Hard at Unexamined Things, compelled to capture these provocative tableaux, but having forgotten his trusty Nikon, Grey did the next best thing he could—he reached for his mobile phone.

Grey never considered using the camera function of his Nokia 6133 before, and was skeptical about the capabilities of its tiny 1.3-megapixel lens. But to his surprise, the same familiar perspective he’d always had when taking photographs was still there; even without a viewfinder, he could make the kinds of pictures he had always loved to make. The limitations of the format—the less than powerful 1.3 lens, the inability to control the aperture stop, focus, or any of the other variables of traditional photography besides framing—proved an exciting new challenge, which Grey likens to collaborating with “another one of those powers larger than yourself.” Grey spent the next eight months shooting with his phone, and the result was 1.3 – Images from My Phone, a collection of slices cut from diverse visual worlds: street art and still life, advertising and architecture, shadows and reflections, natural beauty and urban grit.

Pictures I Had To Take, Grey’s first monograph, published by powerHouse Books in 2003, showed work created over a 30 year period. His second book, Looking Hard at Unexamined Things, published by Steidl in 2006, featured all new work and highlighted industrial sites, abandoned buildings, graffiti, wall art, detritus and public works from Los Angeles and New York to Berlin and Venice. 1.3- Images from My Phone, published by powerHouse Books in 2009, was Grey’s third collaboration with acclaimed book designer Sam Shahid.

Grey’s work has been the subject of solo shows in New York, Los Angeles and Berlin. His photographs are part of the permanent collection of The Whitney Museum of American Art and the New York Public Library.

Acclaim for Joel Grey’s 1.3- Images from My Phone:

“One of the year’s best photography books! Utterly of the moment but oddly timeless.”
– The Guardian UK

“A haunting collection of photos.”
– New York Post

“A carefully designed book so appealing that it’s almost an art object in itself. Grey’s photos are gritty—not because of the tiny 1.3-megapixel lens so much as his subject matter: tattered street billboards, dirty New York subway stations, lonely and eerie dwellings from other places in the world. Combined, the pictures convey a sense of moodiness and subtle longing.”
-The New York Observer’s Very Short List

“Joel Grey has changed my mind regarding what a phone image looks like. His collection of photography, aptly named “Images From my Phone,” shows that even pictures taken on a phone can be high art and exhibit-worthy. Joel Grey’s collection has an authentic spur-of-the-moment feel. Take a look at the collection from Joel Grey, and feel a new love for phone cameras.”
-Trendhunter Magazine

“Brilliant! A testament to the beauty that can be found through the lens attached to that piece of plastic we spend all day talking on. Riveting! Joel Grey has delivered a collection of wonderful images.”
-Three Guys One Book

www.imagesfrommyphonejoelgrey.com
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