Not for nothing, I think buying and owning art is coequal to making it. If you want to have an ounce of credibility making things, buying art is essential. The Camera Store is offering two extraordinary prints at an affordable price. I think the work of the duo of photographers blend together in a way that defies my attempts describing them. I am proud that The Camera Store has made a small number available.

I was fortunate to listen to Vince Musi and William Allard speak at an event as part of The Camera Store’s f22 anniversary party this weekend. I got to talk to Mr. Musi earlier on the Friday prior, in the TCS bookstore. I was impressed by his consideration, and the breadth of his knowledge. I wrote a comment to Musi on Instagram that his recent pictures of animals remind me of Walker Evan’s “Perfect Documents.” In his humility he thought that too romantic, but Musi’s punctilious exposures are nothing less than documentary pictures to me, though. He knows all about the “how” of photographing, but I was taken aback by his highly intentional grasp of “why” as well. He buys photobooks, and prints, and knows about contemporary aesthetics, and name-drops German gallerists… I like people like that. There was a very young woman after the presentation, she spent more money than what was easy for her to part with to get a print, and I found it touching to see how she was moved by Musi’s intensity, but I think she was finally motivated by the sheer beauty of the picture she bought. A picture that, romantic or not to the photographer who made it, has a certain Blakean romance, it might be said, also.

As for Allard… I heard more of his talk at f22. His generosity, in a medium known for it, is what I took away from listening to him. He made a reference to a point about gesture, and the great Jay Maisel, that I hope some in the audience made note of. He was giving away a lesson that goes deep into what to look for in photographs, and a vein of consideration that goes all the way back into the 19th century. William Allard is a man who has carefully considered why and how his photographs are made. His print, like most of his other pictures, is of music (the rest are of dance, most overlap, and make a fine ballet). A general thesis of art that I can cite with familiarity ventures the hypothesis that the tendency to connect music and dance to other areas of aesthetics is akin to seeking diversity in unity. It is the highest impulse to art-making, transcendent as “all feelings, from the most serious to the most frivolous find expression in the dance.” Allard is a master of capturing the music, and the dance, which is a high form of praise.

The prints are available per request, and can be purchased in store. Please email us to secure one. They archival prints on a fine art lustre paper, each print is signed, and this printing was limited to an edition of a hundred.