Stefan Falke will be part of Photoville tour at Hudson Yards (photo from Reflecting New York, © Stefan Falke)
Who: Storm Cuff, Stefan Falke
What: Photoville Summer Artist Walk: Hudson Yards
Where: Bella Abzug Park at Hudson Yards, 533 West Thirty-Fourth St.
When: Saturday, August 1, free with advance RSVP, 11:30 am
Why: The Photoville Summer Artist Walk series continues August 1 at 11:30 am with two photographers who hold a mirror up to New York City — in one case, literally. The hourlong tour, which begins in Bella Abzug Park at Hudson Yards, features Brooklyn-born multidisciplinary artist Storm Cuff and NYC-based German-American photographer Stefan Falke. Both participated in Photoville this year, Storm Cuff with Vehicle. The Chosen Ones, Falke with Reflecting New York.
“You need a very low aperture and a corresponding amount of light in order to produce a sharp image. Even the smallest movement of the handheld mirror is magnified in the camera; that’s just a mathematical phenomenon,” Falke says in the published Reflecting New York book, consisting of photos of him holding up a mirror at such locations as the Chrysler Building, Coney Island, the Roosevelt Island Tram, the Unisphere in Flushing Meadows Park, the Empire State Building, and Hudson Yards.
Storm Cuff will be part of Photoville tour at Hudson Yards (photo from Vehicle. The Chosen Ones, © Storm Cuff)
“I hope it carries the weight of deliberateness. That nothing about it feels accidental. That even without my voice present, the work communicates that it was built with care, a responsibility to who it represents. I want it to retain clarity about who shaped it and why,” Storm Cuff told ColorBloc magazine about her photos of Black men and women around classic cars. “I hope it carries momentum. That it doesn’t feel static on a page and feels like part of something still moving. That someone younger might encounter it and feel permission, not just to admire it, but to build beyond it. When the work moves without me, it becomes a kind of ambassador. I want it to continue doing what it was built to do: propel and remind.”
Admission is free with advance RSVP to what should be a special event.
[Mark Rifkin is a Brooklyn-born, Manhattan-based writer; you can follow him on Substack here.]