The photographer down the lane
The veteran photographer William Clift flies low — right off the radar in terms of gallery representation and big-publisher books — but he does have a Santa Fe space. Clift is internationally renowned for his large-format camera work, including the breathtaking series of images presented in his book Mont St. Michel and Shiprock. Some of those prints, and others that were captured with Polaroid cameras and iPhones, are displayed at William Clift Photographs, 203 E. Palace Ave. On the cover is a Polaroid image made when Clift was ten years old: Barbara’s Table, Boston, 1956.
I’ve asked a few people why they come into this gallery,” William Clift said. “They don’t know anything about photography. They’re passersby, which is very nice. And they say, ‘You know, it’s because it looked like it was quiet. It doesn’t have commodities all over the place.’ ” Clift is a master photographer of the old (film) school who also loves capturing portraits with his phone. Walk into 203 E. Palace Ave. and you’re treated to awe-inspiring landscapes taken at La Bajada and Canyon de Chelly, for example, as well as an iPhone series of his granddaughter and other family members. There is no sign on the building front or window; just a little paper with “William Clift Photographs” printed on it hanging on the inside of the door — so when the door is open, there is no sign. The framed photographs on the walls inside have no titles or prices. “What’s the idea of the gallery?” Cliff asked. “To put stuff up that people can actually experience. That’s what art is supposed to be: to be looked at and taken in, so you do it as simply as you can.” The wall space is fairly limited, but he thinks it’s a beautiful space. “And I like the people. That’s the process of the gallery. It doesn’t mean I don’t need to make some money, but I’m only here two days a week. The profit is the human contact. And that’s a little different than trying to hustle people.”
Clift is the recipient of two Guggenheim fellowships, two National Endowment for the Arts grants, and a Governor’s Award for the Arts, but he has always maintained a low profile and chooses to manage his own career (including via www.williamclift.com), rather than yielding his work and himself to gallery representation. He publishes his own books, among them the 2007 limited-edition volume of Polaroid reproductions, A Particular World, and the 2012 Mont St. Michel and Shiprock: Photographs by William Clift, both designed by Eleanor Caponigro.