The one drawback of a Mailing List is that emails cannot be amended. I don’t think you need to worry about frequent emails from me. But just this morning I came across an important update of something I discussed in the email that went out yesterday.
You’ll remember the case of Unseen, the photography fair, going bankrupt, leaving artists like Felicity Hammond in severe financial limbo. I had less than kind words for the initial reaction of the new owners of Unseen. It would appear that they had a change of heart (possibly realizing the potential PR disaster hanging over this year’s fair).
On her Instagram account, Hammond posted a letter she received from Fons Hof and Johan de Bruijn, owners of the “new” Unseen (that’s their quotes, not mine). In the letter, they say that they received a list of 26 artists (!!!) that are still waiting to get paid and that they will pay them out of their own resources.
Maybe I’m reading too much into part of what they write, but they also seem to criticize the previous Unseen management by offering transparency and trust (see the last slide).
All too often, I find myself being too cynical and/or dejected about the state of the world of photography and art in general. But this is some wonderful news because I’m somewhat confident that none of these 26 artists can afford to lose a lot of money.
This concludes my short update — I’ll be back with a regular email in around two weeks. As always thank you for reading!
— Jörg