Art2Muse

PARIS AND THE EIFFEL TOWER - 10 VIEWS by Sam Bienstock

I have visited and photographed Paris for more than 40 years. My love affair with the city has resulted in numerous images of Gustave Eiffel's masterpiece. On the tower's 120th anniversary, the city of Paris held an exhibition honouring not only the structure but also those men and women who built it and who drew inspiration from it. One in particular, Henri Riviere, has been an inspiration to me. He was a photographer, theatre set designer and post impressionist artist. In 1902 he created a series of woodblock prints entitled “36 Views of the Eiffel Tower. He was inspired by the Japanese artist, Hokusai, who had created his woodblock series 6 Views of Mt. Fuji 70 years prior. Influenced by both of these artists, I have attempted to create not just portraits of a monument, but contemporary views of the city that surround and accent it. This is my personal homage to Paris and its Eiffel Tower.

The photographs in this exhibition have been hand printed from film originals by master photographic printer, Chris Reid, using traditional silver gelatine processes.

Art enables us to see ourselves from new perspectives. Historically it documented real and imagined universes. To me it is of no small coincidence that from the year of the invention of photography, visual arts took flight into the non-realistic realms of impressionism, surrealism, abstract expressionism, and so on. As photography became the new documentation process for the visual arts, painters were released from exact visualization of the real world. During the last few decades, contemporary photography has moved towards the other major schools of visualization, with the exploration of the unreal. This is especially true since with the advent of digital photography.

My photography however remains firmly locked in the traditional role of observation. It is the root of my work to witness and capture a frieze in time of normal everyday street-life, unfiltered by experimentation. I see myself as a conservator leaving a time capsule relic for the future that describes who we are and where we have been as a people and a society. My work is as much about who I am as it is about the world around me.

Technically traditional, I shoot on black & white film stock using chemically produced silver gelatine imaging. It is a handcrafted timeless art whose essential processes have barely changed in more than 180 years.

Since the 1960's my creative inspirations were drawn from a family friend, Weegee (Arthur Fellig), who demonstrated to me that simply walking the streets of my native New York City one could find the richest tapestry of life. Later this expanded to include the likes of Cartier-Bresson, Brassai, Kertesz, Lange, Doissneau, Brandt, Koudelka, Ronis, Smith and Winogrand.

I have been photographing the world around me for more than 40 years. It is with a constant urge to revisit moments in time, when the curiosity of watching other humans in the full embrace of life gave me pause to reflect, that I present these images to you. The beauty, dignity and joy of humanity in ordinary existence is the poetry of my black and white images.
- Sam Bienstock

At Gallery Xposure Sam Bienstock shows the fruits of carrying his camera on the street for the past 40 years. Originally from New York, Bienstock came to Australia in 1970 and has worked as a respected "gaffer" (lighting technician) in the film industry ever since.¨Bienstock's photographs share much of the simplicity and delight in observation of Cotton's opus. However, people are his prime focus and the street (appropriate for a former New Yorker) is his arena. A waif resting against a hydrant in New York in 1965, an ancient street photographer in Paris in 1968 and what looks like a difficult morning after a long Kings Cross night in 1971 are among Bienstock's best pictures.'Composition appears fairly rudimentary for Bienstock. There were a number of pictures where I wished he had tightened the window of his vision before pressing the shutter. However, Bienstock's awareness of the humanity passing before him vindicates his long commitment to street photography.'
- Robert McFarlane, The Sydney Morning Herald, March 8, 2005

Sam Bienstock

b. 1951 New York City, New York, United States

Selected Exhibition History

2008 Center for Fine At Photography (USA) Street Photography
judged for inclusion in exhibition

2007 Brunswick Street Gallery In Plain View
Two Person Exhibition

Alliance Francaise Paris…Paname
Solo Exhibition

Alliance Francaise Lovers
Group Exhibition

2006 Art2Muse - Simmer on the City, Sydney
Group exhibition

Melt Gallery - Portraits from Yellow House & Kings Cross 2011
Solo exhibition

Australian National Maritime Museum - Purchase of Sydney Harbour Tugs series for collection

2005 Gallery Xposure - Sydney
40 year solo retrospective exhibition Wearing a Camera
(Reviewed in Sydney Morning Herald 8/3/06)

Maritime Union of Australia
Purchase of Sydney Harbour Tugs series for collection

2003 Ulrick Schubert Photographic Art Award Gold Coast Art Centre
judged for inclusion in annual group prize exhibition Lisbon Facade

McGregor Prize for Photography University of Southern Queensland judged for inclusion in annual group prize exhibition Ghost of the Alhambra & Tuscan Dance

Nikon Summer Salon Centre for Contemporary Photography judged for inclusion “Apparition at the Produce Markets I & II

Polaroid Annual Polaroid Award & P Magazine judged for inclusion Apparition at the Produce Markets III & IV

2002 Gallery East - Sydney
two person photographic exhibition Haiku Photography

2001 Gallery East - Sydney
inclusion in annual Christmas group exhibition Sydneyscape

Gallery East - Sydney
two person photographic exhibition Synchronicity

2000 RPR Consultancy - Sydney
inclusion in annual Christmas group exhibition Fragments

1999 James Harvey Gallery - Sydney
two person photographic exhibition Worlds Apart

1998 Absolut Vodka - Sydney Opera House
judged for inclusion in annual group prize exhibition Absolut
Harbour Bridgeâ

1995 Under A Hot Tin Roof art, passion and politics at the Tin
Sheds Art Workshop by Therese Kenyon
inclusion of photographs from the Tin Sheds Arts Workshop, Sydney University, in book

1982 National Gallery of Australia Commen Day Ball
Acquired posters for collection

1975 Co-Director/Producer The Greatest Advertisin Campaign the Country's Ever Known documentary film in collection Australian National Film & Sound Archives

1974 Commonwealth Bank - Sydney
one person photographic exhibition Bondi Flare�

1973 Watters Gallery - Sydney
performance artist & photographer Joe Bonomo Show

1972-1974 Sydney University Arts Workshop (Tin Sheds) - Schools of Fine
Arts & Architecture (Univ. of Syd.) & Petersham T.A.F.E.
tutor - photography & video

member/photographer/screenprinter - Earthworks Poster Collective

1971-1972 Yellow House Art Gallery - Sydney
member/resident photographer

1970 emigrated to Australia from USA

1968-2006 publication credits & reviews include: Capture Magazine (AUS), Marie Claire (AUS), N.Y. Times (USA), Long Island Press (USA), Time Magazine (USA), U.S. Camera (USA), Popular Photography (USA), Associated Press (USA), Rlitès (France), Lighting Dimensions (USA), Sydney Morning Herald (AUS), Filmnews (AUS), Hanimex (AUS), Art Force (AUS), Australian Photography (AUS), Australian Bike Rider (AUS), & Encore Magazine (AUS).

Collections

Australian National Maritime Museum
National Gallery of Australia
Maritime Union of Australia

Publications

"Photojournale: Connections Across A Human Planet" by John Horniblow of Photojournale