Three New Skyscrapers

A RESPECT FOR TRADITION

By Andy Grundberg

Contemporary photography of a no-frills sort is down but not out. It lives on despite the demise of many of the galleries that showcased and supported it, despite a shift toward a photographic practice addressed to the larger art world of painting and sculpture, and despite a stagnant marketplace. Fortunately, the artists who are today's torchbearers of what was once called ''straight photography'' are not as depressed as the economy. The proof, in this case, is in the pictures, and the pictures are in a show called ''New Work by Eight Photographers,'' at Daniel Wolf Gallery (30 West 57th Street, through April 2). The show's 38 photographs, all taken in the last three years, have an underlying unity despite the diversity of temperaments and concerns they represent. Most obviously, they are relatively straightforward and unmanipulated depictions of things seen. They show us fragments of the world, not figments of the artistic imagination. This approach entails a great respect for the medium's descriptive capacities and its inherent expressiveness. It is conservative in the original sense of the word: it tends to cherish and preserve photography's traditional qualities and functions. Today, in photography at least, such conservatism is in many ways the most radical stance of all.

New York Times • Arts • page 29 • 1,173 words