Monday, October 26, 2009

Male.


Male. From the collection of Vince Aletti. Text by Collier Schorr. PPP Editions, 2008. Unpaged, 300 black & white and color illustrations, 10½x12".

" 'Male' features photographs and artifacts from the collection of the renowned photography critic, curator and collector, Vince Aletti.

Amassed over the last 30 years, the collection features a blend of anonymous and iconic imagery from the present back into the nineteenth century.

This visual cacophony distinguishes Aletti's taste and appetite as a collector. He surrounds himself with his collection in his apartment, but for the first time, in February, 2008, Aletti assembled a selection of images at White Columns in New York.

A sampling from this public display is featured in 'Male' along with a gatefold documenting the collection as it is installed in his home."








"Collier Schorr, contemporary artist and author, has contributed a 2500 word essay on the history of homosexual imagery and the impact viewing Aletti's collection had on her, as an image maker.

In 'A Male is a Male as well as being a Male,' she states, 'Aletti's collection - as seen in his book, in his home and in an exhibition space - creates a Cosmos: at once a microcosm of gay male life, a personal fantasy, and the infinite, enveloping World.

The collection is not concerned with the Unique. There is no sense of one-upmanship, each new picture is not there to be better than the last. There is no holy grail.' "

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