PHLAC

The Half King is a spacious bar/eatery on 23rd Street and 10th Avenue conveniently close to the galleries. With the Magnum Festival in full swing, this night was a casual hang and chance to greet several Magnum photographers, many in town for the annual grand meeting where candidates are reviewed and new initiatives are discussed.

I’m not much for getting things signed but having two of my favorite modern documentary books inscribed by their authors didn’t seem so bad: Crossings by Alex Webb and Divided Soul by David Alan Harvey. In one of the bar’s four inner rooms, I found most of the Magnum photographers congregating. When I met Alec Soth, I told him I couldn’t believe how he got so much from his subjects. (In his Niagra series, newlyweds, intoxicated by romance…or something, pose openly for him).

“Would you get naked for me,” he asked.

I hesitated and eventually let out a “No.”

“You see,” he chided.

He makes you stop and think.

Sitting next to him was Jonas Bendiksen, very polite and amiable. Werner Bischoff’s son Marco was alongside Alex Webb. He’s a documentary filmmaker who lives in Zurich. Also at the table was the legendary Josef Koudelka. In the next room, David Alan Harvey was commiserating with his assistants. Again, he was most accommodating and offered to look at my Ferrying project. We talked briefly about his annual workshop in New York—a week-long jam for ten hand-picked students.

It was a warm rainy night heading back on the Staten Island Ferry.