If you keep up with goings on in the New York art world, you may have heard about this "Various Photographs" show being curated by former photo editor Tim Barber which opens on Wednesday. If not, it's the opening salvo in this year's New York Photo Festival in DUMBO, and as you could probably guess it's a huge rundown of all the usual "photo hotshots," like CAREi Marcopoulos, rYAWN McGinley, and Yu (ARE BORING) Ukai. However, as our eyes fought hard to keep open against the onslaught of excellent picture-takers we've seen a billion times before, one name in the middle of the list--sandwiched between Brooke LaValley and Leigh Ledare like a thick, pungent layer of gravy betwixt cheese kurds and fries--jumped out and said "Eeuuuuhh, how's she going?"That name was Dana Lavoie. As in the brother ofErik Lavoie. As in THE Erik Lavoie. The Man Himself. Despite growing up in the shadow of such a towering figure of the past decade, Dana has managed to carve out a substantial life of his own as a VBS videographer, former snowboard instructor of the year, and part-time shutterbug. You may recall him as the auteur behind this tour de force from our Photo Issue a couple years back as well as the below masterwork of focus and hand-control. We look forward to seeing those two pictures and possibly others later this week, although we were saddened to learn that while Dana is "stoked" to finally take his rightful place alongside the likes of Richard Kern and Peter Sutherland, he is not going to be at the opening as he is "shooting some surfing bullshit in Jersey, fuck."
Top photo by Ben Ritter.