All photographs courtesy of Idea Generation
The Warhol connection is a looming one, overshadowing many of the artistic talents tied to it, their skills and achievements gobbled up by all that The Factory and the surrounding pop culture of 1960s New York has come to represent. But had it all been down to a single blonde-bobbed man – brutally brilliant as he may have been – it’s doubtful that the events of those days would continue to resonate so deeply through modern-day music, film and fashion. While aided by their associates, ultimately these individuals made themselves, be that via their romantic trials and intoxicated tribulations – or their undeniable creative talents.
Photojournalist Nat Finkelstein was ‘there’ – that is, perched on the couch in the Velvet Underground practice room watching Nico catch up on the headlines mid rehearsal; trailing Bob Dylan as Andy Warhol led him on a guided tour around The Factory; snapping a dreaming Edie Sedgwick absentmindedly sucking on her necklace chain, all oil-slick eyes and innocence. But he was also under the tutelage of the legendary Harper’s Bazaar art director Alexey Brodovitch; a star member of the PIX and Black Star photo agencies’ teams; in the thick of the civil rights movement as a documentary photographer and activist; and, as a result of these provocative actions, traveling the Silk Road through the Middle East from 1969 after a warrant was issued for his arrest in the United States.
The ‘From One Extreme to the Other’ exhibition – now in its final week – that celebrates the work of Finkelstein is a broad and deep retrospective of a photojournalist whose visual documentation provided rare unguarded insights into the US subcultures and political movements of the latter 20th century. ‘From One Extreme to the Other’ spans Finkelstein’s life works, five decades of photographs through which he brought not just The Factory’s wild innards but the searing political heat of America’s mid-‘60s anti-war protests and the heady thrills and debauched spills of the New York rave scene of the ‘90s to his viewers.
‘From One Extreme to the Other’ runs until 14th February and is an essential date for anybody interested in the power of the camera to capture more than its subjects consciously choose to expose. The exhibition, which took over the Idea Generation Gallery just weeks after Finkelstein’s death in October of last year, is a fitting tribute to the man whose shutter clicks drew the world’s attention to US unrest and underground tribes. Here – as the likes of Warhol knew – was a maker of icons; a man who had the ability to propel their image around the world.
Tags:
Andy Warhol, Bob Dylan, celebrities, Exhibition Review, Gallery, Harper's Bazaar, Idea Generation, music, musician, Nat Finkelstein, Nico, photography, Pop Art, The Factory, Velvet Underground
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