Burk Uzzle 1975

This small photographic print of Burk Uzzle, a photographer, seems to be about an attitude. Mike Mandel made it sometime around 1970. It is a bit hard to tell because it is in black and white, but I would guess that Uzzle is wearing a black shirt and a baseball cap. The cap’s logo really pops, that trademark “NY”. It all feels so intimate, like a snapshot from a friend, but I find it so staged. The photo itself is crisp, clear, nothing hidden. Uzzle, peering up with his glasses and neat mustache, has an expression that's hard to pin down, curious? Playful? The high contrast adds to the directness. It reminds me a bit of some of the pictures that Andy Warhol took, in the sense that it has a kind of off-hand feel, but with a deep sense of connection to the subject. With Mandel, I feel like there is a deep exchange going on with his subject, and that it is an image about friendship and the artistic life.