Also this issue:

Worlds of Wonder
“Cabinets of Curiosities” is a magical journey through time and spaces.
-Robin Rice

20/20 Vision
Snyderman Gallery celebrates 20 years in the furniture business.
-Lori Hill

“A Night at the Casbah”
-Lori Hill

Baseball panel discussion
-Andrew Milner

Sherman Alexie
-John Freeman

Bloomsday Celebration
-Lori Hill

Frankie Avalon
-Interview by A.D. Amorosi

A Picasso
-David Anthony Fox

June 12-18, 2003

artpicks

Louis Faurer: A Photographic Retrospective

Photophiles who know Louis Faurer primarily for Cold War-era New York City street scenes might find a few surprises in a retrospective of his work opening at the Art Museum this weekend. The late Philadelphia-born photographer got his start shooting, logically enough, right here in Philly, and about 20 pieces in the exhibit -- which compiles more than 100 images spanning Faurer's 46-year career -- show our developing metropolis around the end of the Great Depression. The 1937 photo People Crossing the Street depicts what looks like the old 23 trolley heading across 12th and Market through a crowd of pedestrians. Happy, taken the same year on Cantrell Street in South Philly, is a tight upward shot of a brass band clustering around a small child whose priceless expression clearly reveals that he'd rather be elsewhere. While the bulk of the exhibit will feature Faurer's trademark grainy black-and-whites from the Big Apple, about another dozen pieces are never-before-exhibited color fashion photos from Vogue and Harper's Bazaar. Like many photographers, Faurer funded his art through commercial work, a gig he hated but managed to excel in nevertheless.

Louis Faurer: A Photographic Retrospective, June 14-Sept. 7, Philadelphia Museum of Art, 26th St. and the Parkway, 215-684-7860.

—John Vettese