MANDEL, Mike

1975

paper, chewing gum, lithograph, lithograph, offset lithograph

4 x 3 in.

Mike Mandel replicates a pack of baseball trading cards but with portraits of photographers, and photo curators and critics dressed in baseball uniforms. Mandel amassed 134 portraits including such figures as Van Deren Coke, Manuel Alvarez Bravo, Ansel Adams, Harry Callahan, Larry Sultan, Bill Eggleston, Imogen Cunningham, Anne Tucker and Minor White. Mandel packaged the cards randomly in groups of ten with a stick of gum making it impossible to acquire all 134 cards without trading for them. As Mandel states, the project satirized the phenomenon of the fine art photography community being consumed by the larger art world and commercial culture. On the back, in addition to the statistics that included height, weight, hometown, and current place of residence each card has room for a quote by the person, such as Ed Ruschas card which is on top in this pack. His states, Everything youve ever wanted is right in your own backyard.

1975

MANDEL, Mike

United States, b. 1950

Gift of Gary H. Brown

1999.37