The Art of Commerce

 

 

From pampered pooches to acquisitive ladies, from haute shops to no shops, next month at the Manhattan Borough President Gallery, PWP photographers focus on The Art of Commerce.

“Commerce is about buying and selling,€ said PWP President Maddi Ring, “but the word itself is far older than WalMart and Macy’s.€ The idea is basic and intrinsically human: a transaction, an exchange of goods and ideas, often to earn a living. The setting can be secondary, and sometimes geographical differences are irrelevant. The tomatoes photographed by Robin Glasser Sacknoff at an NYC green market have much in common with the fruit being sold in Maddi Ring’s picture taken in the Urubamba Valley, Peru. Both are fresh and locally grown; both present the buyer with a feast for the eye as well as the palate.

 

“I realized,” adds Maddi Ring, “how often in my travels to the third world I encounter people selling souvenirs on the street, necklaces from a blanket, etc. Recently in China I purchased a small lidded pot from a woman who seemed to have an entire store, including a calculator, inside the top half front of her dress!”

If every transaction has a buyer and seller and goods, it also has a place. And sometimes the setting is a crucial, almost equal partner in the sale. Companies who operate on Fifth Avenue and Madison Avenue do not lay their goods down in the dirt. A great deal of money is put into creating sleek, elite-feeling stores that are works of art themselves-temples for the experience of shopping. Shopping becomes a gateway to a higher lifestyle; it is about fantasy and aspiration. The merchandise, generally fabulous, is not essential for human survival. But what a thrill and feast for the eye!

 

While it isn’t a couture shop, you can’t help but notice that the Apple Stores are the epitome of cool, cutting-edge design, mirroring their sleek, elegant products.

 

In Their Own Words

 

 

In her series A Tokyo Girl, Rome-based PWP member Marina Misiti explores the idea of shopping as an experience:

“While traveling around the world with camera in hand, I often recorded a contemporary, global phenomenon, “woman’s time to shop.€ These images [part of the series] A Tokyo Girl, are about the art of shopping, and are part of a photo-book project focused on the Japanese female universe.

Despite a deep economic crisis, the Japanese young woman can shop every day, at any hour and I was fascinated by the transformation of this simple act of buying into a ritual. The Tokyo Girls series is an exploration of contemporary city life from a female perspective. I like working inside-the-scenes to create images that stimulate our senses and thoughts, and capture the fleeting moment. Living as a local in Japan, I felt the energy of this amazing city flowing through lights, colors and details we don’t usually see.

Living in Rome and having traveled as a freelance photojournalist to various spots in Europe, the US, Central and South America, Asia and Africa, I’ve had the great advantage of experiencing…many places, people and cultures. How can one engage with the environment if one can’t engage meaningfully with the people? I do hope that my subjects’ stories, told through my photographs, can begin to break down our boundaries between self and other, countries and cultures, and becoming involved in PWP’s American network is a part of that.”

The Art of Commerce which features 74 photographs by 28 photographers will be on display at the Manhattan Borough President Gallery, 1 Centre Street – 19th Fl, NYC, from  October 4th – October 29th, 2010.

Katie Mantell, Exhibitions Director
Catherine Kirkpatrick, Archives Director