Final Cut

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Images from UNCOVERED: Photographs by Thomas Allen (Aperture, 2007, forward by Chip Kidd). Signed copies are available directly from Foley Gallery.

Foley Gallery in New York – a small but consistently great exhibition space, always one of my favorites – is currently showing the third solo exhibition of photographer Thomas Allen.

Allen precisely cuts and juxtaposes the covers of vintage pulp novels, and then photographs them; the resulting images have been featured in Harper's, The New Yorker, GQ, Esquire, The New York Times and elsewhere. This show, Epilogue, signals the end of the series.

Allen’s final foray finds the characters that he has so effectively brought to life entering reluctant tableaux that heralds their demise. Whether it is death, the end of love, a showdown or a last curtain call. His unmistakable talent for creating the illusion of 3D with deft cuts and crimps allows us to see cowboy’s guns floating in mid air, spacemen taking their last gasp and an aerialist taking a death defying plunge.

Inspired by the View-Master and “pop-up” books from childhood, Allen became interested in combining these viewing experiences with his adult interests in pulp fiction paperbacks as still life subjects. In this new series of work, the narrative is reduced to the final scene, often the scene of the crime. How and why these characters have come together in their drama is up to us to decide.

Epilogue is up through October 10th – definitely check it out if you're in NYC. More info and images at foleygallery.com