Jeff Mermelstein: HARDENED

The new guests of Spazio Choisi are the photographer Jeff Mermelstein and the publisher Aron Morel, with their new book Hardened, edited by David Campany. 
The book gathers a sequence of 305 photographs taken in more than 2 years in the streets of New York and it will be presented inside a site-specific installation designed for Spazio Choisi.

“These are iPhone pictures, most of which first appeared on Instagram. That means they got viewed on devices similar to the one that made them, and in similar circumstances. You see on your screen what he saw on his. That is quite intimate, but it is a kind of livid intimacy that is Mermelstein’s own. Slipping beneath the skin, slicing the façade, close to the bone, too close for comfort. And now here on the printed page, in a new sequence, the effect of these pictures is deepened and estranged yet further. 
They say we get the art we deserve. And of course, “deserve” is double-edged, in the way that Mermelstein’s art is double-edged. We did not know we had these photographs coming, with the vision of the difficult world they embody. We may not know what to do with them now that we have them. We may not know what we did to deserve them. So let us receive them as a great gift.”
(David Campany)

On this occasion, at Artphilein Library will be displayed one of the exclusive two special editions of Hardened, thanks to the acquisition by De Pietri Artphilein Foundation.

Jeff Mermelstein is a photographer who needs no introduction. Since the early ’80s, he’s dedicated his career to chronicling the extraordinary in the ordinary and the remarkable in the rudimentary. A trailblazer in New York street photography circles, Mermelstein’s enduring influence permeates across all kinds of photographic practices and styles to this day.

For his latest photographic endeavor HARDENED, Mermelstein chose to do something particularly out of the ordinary. Ditching his trusty Leica — beloved of street photographers — the entire publication consists of Mermelstein’s iPhone photographs and Instagram posts. In these increasingly technological times, Mermelstein not only demonstrates his malleable identity and ability to adapt but also displays his unrelenting curiosity and quest to chronicle the human condition. After decades of shooting with film, he takes the root of our hyper-connected age — the smartphone — and produces an opus that presents the raw, unadulterated beauty behind ostensibly banal events.

Opening and book launch: Wednesday 30 October, at 6.30 pm
Exhibition: 31 October – 14 January

More info on Spazio Choisi