Art Basel Week in Miami!

Last week here in Miami, we had the great annual event, Art Basel. Why Art Basel if it's Art in Miami? It began in Switzerland. Right before Christmas so you can buy your girl a Basquiat or Warhol for somewhere north of $7 Mill to stick under the (palm) tree...

I was fortunate enough to get to cover this 5 day event freelance and to shoot it in a "manner to which I am accustomed"- off the hip and handheld mobile profoto lighting. Get close enough and a small change in key light angle/height makes or breaks a snapshot. I ran my H2, an 80mm "normal" lens and a couple of profoto 600R's, hand holding the light with the gen packs strapped around my neck. Anything BUT on camera lighting! This meant I had to shoot the camera held in one hand, so I changed the curtain delay to many thousandths of a second, to coincide with anticipated "tired of waiting/holding" moment, which seems to work best for this kind of shooting. It certainly makes for a more dynamic image. Since the slaved pack was not always "seeing" the key light, I got some cool surprises and some blaring one light looking shots. Wake up!

I was aiming for multi-dimensionality and catching people unsuspecting in their pose, awed or not by the grand art amongst which they moved. And grand it was- multiple 6 ft plus Helmut Newtons, huge Basquiats, the run of canned looking Warhols, some Irving Penn, Picasso and Miro, plus some really weird mixed media and other stuff that might not be here next year. Tons and tons of great stuff.

Heard sales were a little off this year, but believe all the gallerists will be back next yuletide.

Cheers,

Wick
Please visit my website, www.wickbeavers.com, and take a look at the portfolio named Art Basel 2007 for more images of this killer art exhibit and sale.