Photographers Benedict Brink and Todd Jordan are adding curators to their resume's at the same time as they are giving New Yorkers a reason to look forward to laundry day. The first in a series of 3 photography shows opens Friday May 29th at The Laundromat, 168 Elizabeth St, New York and includes an incredible line up of talent, both established in their careers and those just beginning. We spoke to Benedict and Todd about the show and they were kind enough to give us a preview.
Name/s?
Benedict and Todd
What do you do?
Take pictures, host art shows in laundromats , promotional street team extraordinaire, stalkers
Tell us all about “The Spring Cleaning”?
The spring cleaning is a series of 3 photo shows , happening in a laundromat in NYC on the border or soho and Chinatown. It was idea we had one day in the middle of winter , decided to give it a go, and now it's summer and we're putting it on the walls !
How did this project come about?
We did a print swap one day and got to talking about pictures and what and who we enjoyed and we clearly had strong similar appreciations.
Talk us through the curation process for the artists involved?
We sat down together one day to talk about what we wanted to do and ended up with a list of all our favorite photographers. We basically laughed about it thinking it would be impossible but figured, "fuck it let's email them all." (99.9% said yes. And we just ran into that .1% at the bar minutes ago... Love him still)
So then we kind of had no choice but to continue with project
Where did the idea for the laundromat stem from?
The laundromat is in an amazing location, next to a bunch of bars where either of us could often be found ...
Todd knew the spot , and told me to check it out ... It had some amazing old reportage type photos on the wall that had been up for years and years . We thought it would be amazing to swap them out for some new material !
And lastly tell us about showing the work in a series of exhibitions?
We basically asked more people to be involved than we expected to say, "yes". Everyone we asked thought it was a good idea so we have to do three now to accommodate all the work. Laundromats in New York aren't that big. We've got a good one though!
The second and third shows will open June 26th and July 24th.
