Newsstand Junkies: Photography, Fashion, and Magazine Culture in 1990s New York with Mickey Boardman, Jeppe Ugelvig and Dietmar Busse

Friday, October 25, 6–8pm
Géza, 306 Maujer
Amant Foundation

In the early 1990s, following the success of his debut story, Dietmar Busse’s photographs quickly became a fixture of New York City’s fashion newsstands. Subsequent commissions included a notable feature for Paper magazine under the direction of editor Mickey Boardman. Shortly thereafter, Busse began contributing to The New York Times Magazine, signed with an agent, and expanded his practice to encompass portraiture and fashion editorials for various publications, all distributed via the city’s network of newsstands in sidewalk booths, storefronts, and subway stations across the city. Amant’s current exhibition Dietmar Busse: Fairytales 1991-1999 presents a curated selection of Busse’s formative work from this period.

On the occasion of Dietmar Busse’s exhibition, this roundtable conversation with Mickey Broadman and Jeppe Ugelvig will address the fashion scene of New York in the 1990s, the work of fashion photographers during the analogue era of photography and its connection to fashion advertising from myriad angles. In particular, the panel will consider the pre-9/11 downtown scene of art and fashion hybridity, with the turn of the millennium seemingly being a crucial cut-off point to a productive period.

The show itself looks great. Bummer I hadn’t been aware of the opening.

I’d like to have included some of this fashion work of Dietmar’s here to whet your appetite, but it’s somehow difficult to track down. There’s a fair amount of his work since scattered about the web, about which I agree with Vince Aletti is quite beautiful. For the magazine specific photography, I’ll just look forward to the show and discussion.

Something else I’ve just now discovered is the Amant Foundation and its arts campus in Williamsburg. “Amant is a center for contemporary art located in East Williamsburg, NY. Founded in 2019, we are a non-collecting institution that fosters artistic research, experimentation, and dialogue through exhibitions, live programs, publications, and artist residencies in Brooklyn, NY, and Siena, Italy.”

The project was designed by SO-IL (Solid Objectives–Idenburg Liu) and is nicely documented on their website, complete with beautiful photography hinted at with:

Additionally, head to Guiding Architects who provides quite a nice introduction to the project.