New York — all seasons & Summer Still Lifes I — V: Philippe Garner

Garnertook his first US pictures in October 1973 in Richmond, Virginia. In 1976, he made his first pictures in Miami, then in 1977 in Los Angeles and Las Vegas. ‘Like others of my generation,’ he explains, ‘I was inspired by an idea of this vast country, an idea fuelled by the movies, music, magazines, TV, radical art, and certain strands of literature. I nurtured my version of the American Dream and have endeavoured through half a century to fix traces of that fiction in my open-ended portfolio of pictures. '

'Countless trips later, I have accumulated an extensive memory-bank of images that distil all that has delighted my eye in this crazy land. Mine are mostly urban subjects – a riot of signage, lights, and reflections, of vivid colours and emblematic motifs. Several of these images are in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum.

With this show – following the atmospheric monochrome of my recent virtual exhibition Greetings from Asbury Park – I am pleased to introduce a selection of colour images made between 2000 and 2018 in New York.’   

In marked contrast to these spontaneous observational pictures, we discover the lovingly contrived symbolism of Garner’s suite of five Summer Still Life compositions.  As he tells us, ‘I am delighted by the way people have responded to these images. These intimate still lifes – made for my own amusement forty-plus years ago – are intensely personal yet capable, it would appear, of engaging an audience across the generations.’  

Garner has enjoyed a long career as an auction specialist in the fields of photographs and 20th century decorative arts and design. He joined Sotheby’s in 1970 after graduating in French and Latin from Bedford College, London. He was instrumental in establishing the modern auction market for photographs. He joined Christie’s in 2004, retiring from his full-time commitments as a deputy chairman in 2016 to become a consultant.

Since his childhood, Garner has been fascinated by many aspects of the visual and performing arts. As a consequence, his specific knowledge as a specialist in the history of photography is supported by a wide and rich culture. All this has served to inform and refine his discriminating eye, not only within his professional activity but in the passion that he has invested through the decades in making photographs – a passion that he had, until very recently, kept private.