Fred Baldwin — W.M. Hunt

#somereallygoodones, #fotofest, #fredbaldwin, #wendywatriss, #janvanleeuwen, #takeshiishikama, #visionaward

Fred Baldwin’s name should be Peter.

Every two years Wendy Watriss and whatever-we-decide-to-call-him welcome back the Lost Boys (and girls) of photography to Neverland. No one grows older there.

Certainly Fred and Wendy haven’t aged a minute in the thirty years I have known them Reason enough to go out and buy a Safari jacket (him) and knot a Hermes scarf around your neck (her).

It seems foolish to try to differentiate between “Fotofest” and “Fred and Wendy” because they are absolutely the same thing.

My life in photographs has been inextricably caught up with theirs for at least the past 30 years. It seems unthinkable that I went to my very first Fotofest in 1992. I was the newly recruited head of Photographers + Friends United against AIDS, and Houston was a place to network and to introduce myself around. I had been a collector for twenty years, but no one really knew me. It seems like a lifetime ago, and I guess it was. AIPAD (Association of International Photography Art Dealers) was set up in part of the George M, Brown Convention Center so I stayed at the Four Seasons and at night , I played bridge and drank with the legendary dealer, Harry Lunn, who introduced me to everyone he knew.

I had no credentials and very little credibility. I begged whomever was running “The Meeting Place” to let me review portfolios. I think they let me talk to two people in a hallway. I have come a long way. At some point in the years after, I got invited officially and developed a decent reputation as a reviewer.

I have always loved talent. My commitment to The Center for Photography at Woodstock*1 was in many respects a tribute to Fred and Wendy, just closer to my home in New York City.

Why does “Five minutes!” bring such a sly complicit smile to certain people? The room organizer would say this loudly urging reviewers to wrap up their meeting.

Fotofest has made a lot of careers for photographers, and it had a similar seismic impact on my life in photography. It gave me a network. People accuse me of knowing everyone. I don't, but I do know more artists, dealers, editors, publishers, collectors than most people.

Where do you think I met them? Fotofest.

Fotofest provides a platform with four or five days devoted completely to photography with no or very few other distractions.

So much of my “eye” was honed at Fotofest. This is where I looked at and had to respond to a lot of material, at all levels of accomplishment. Maybe the next portfolio will be full of magic, and sometimes it is.

I have seen some amazing stuff over the years through Fred and Wendy. My favorite is Jan van Leeuwen, a Dutchman who was referred to me by writer, A.D. Coleman. If Samuel Beckett had been a photographer, he would have been Jan. The portraits are part of his self-exploration, an expiation of guilt for surviving the World War II Nazi occupation of The Netherlands. I was profoundly moved by the images in a way I could not account for in terms of what I was seeing, only what I was feeling. Friends were waiting for me to go out to dinner with them but they could witness how deeply I was reacting to this initial encounter. The work has gravitas.

Jan van Leeuwen “Double Self Portrait in Dialogue”, 2000,

Takeshi Shikama “Toyosawa Lake 1”, 2009.

The van Leeuwen work undoubtedly made me weep. A few years later a Japanese couple presented themselves to me. The wife translated somewhat. What did not need translation was my immediate response to the work, platinum landscapes of forests. Historically the work was linked to the pictorialist photography from the 1930s, soft focus and romantic, and feminine. The landscapes by Takeshi Shikama were not painterly as the parlance might go but rather were grounded and empathetic and uniquely photographic. I marveled at them and was weeping. This was bewildering to the artist and his wife. I tried to explain that I was prepared to talk to them at great length after our initial twenty minute dance. I needed my moment. The works are timeless and darkly secretive, beckoning the viewer to venture into the recesses of the unknown. The prints are beautiful.

This was Fotofest 2010, and Fred Baldwin thought my reaction was so strong he needed to photograph it. Then Bert Nelson knocked me out by buying a print and donating it to Museum of Fine Arts Houston in my name. Only at Fotofest.

I bought the first photograph Jane Fulton Alt ever sold. I met Bohnchang Koo. I sent Susan E. Evans who met her husband when I was looking the other way. Elinor Carucci charmed the world there. More recently David Fahti and Debi Cornwall advanced their well merited campaigns for world dominance there

And I have my posse due to Fred and Wendy.

My best photo friends are Houston’s Ed Osowski and London’s Andrew Buurman. whom I met there. I get to hang out with Frank Y. and Tim W. and Vince C., Swanee and, the best of the best, Alison Nordström. I would get to see Tom Hinson from Cleveland, Barbara Tannenbaum who is now in Cleveland, Roy Flukinger, (the late) Karen Sinsheimer, and so on. I met Madeline Yale and Bevin Bering Dubrowksi, the most breathtaking and fun women on this planet and F&W’s love child Steven Evans. I think of the veterans like Lilli Almog, Felicia Murray, Hana Jakrlova, Barbara Alper. Then there are the good citizens of Houston: The Marvins. Bert Nelson. Frazier King. I miss the late John Cleary. And no one casts a longer shadow than the maji of Anne Tucker, Joan Morganstern, and (the late) Clint Willour, except for you know who … .

Photography has changed my life, and Fotofest – Wendy and Fred – why doesn’t she ever get top billing? - provided me with a forum to explore that and then to repay it.

I learned about looking at and talking about photographs and dealing with artists. On the job.

Wendy & Fred were so deserving of the Center for Photography at Woodstock’s 2011 Vision Award. It should have been a MacArthur.

*1 The writer received CPW’s Vision Award in 2004 after service as man-years of service as Chairman etc.

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