Digital Art Month with analog photographer Jean Andre Antoine

By Jean Andre Antoine

Oct 15  |  Culture

For the past seven years Jean Andre Antoine has posted up at the same location on Prince Street to snap portraits of everyday New Yorkers and visitors from all over the world. Dear New York is the photographer’s homage to the spirit, diversity and resilience of the people of New York City. The artwork includes 350 portraits digitally projected in large scale unto the wall of his regular post.

Dear New York is an outdoor photography exhibition taking place on Prince Street this Thursday October 15th as part of Digital Art Month at Antoine’s regular post on Prince Street. Antoine will exhibit 350 portraits projected in large scale onto the wall of 560 Broadway from 7 p.m until 10 p.m. The exhibition is open to the public. The production was made possible with the help of GFP Real Estate of 560 Broadway, Aurora Capital Associates of 568 Broadway and Soho Broadway Initiative.

At a time of uncertainty for New York City, this exhibition is Antoine’s homage to New Yorkers and a celebration of the city’s resilience, spirit and diversity.

Antoine is inspired by the restriction of classic materials during a time when art and society are in the crux of a digital revolution. However, Dear New York presented by the Contemporary & Digital Art Fair, is Antoine’s inquiry into the transformation of vintage material using digital media – a projector and digitally scanned images – to juxtapose both traditional and contemporary frameworks.

Jean-Andre Antoine’s photography bridges concepts that are seemingly at odds with one another – classic cameras and contemporary subjects, both street vendor and fine artist, and access to today’s unlimited content with a finite supply of discontinued film. Since 2013, Antoine has posted up against the building on the corner of Broadway and Prince Street and waited for the subject of his next portrait to pass by. Throughout his career, Antoine has amassed a significant number of portraits of New Yorkers over the years, all captured with his 1947 Crown Graphic press camera and an increasingly scarce supply of discontinued film.

While Antoine has kept a low profile as a street vendor selling Polaroids and Fuji Instants, his photography style has captured the attention of commercial clients including Nike and Tiffany & Co. Next year he’ll be included in the Portrait Gallery of The Soul group exhibition at Katherine E. Nash Gallery at the University of Minnesota.