“A friend once saw me photographing a party and described my look as ‘ferocious glee.’ I’m always happy while I’m on the hunt for pictures.” – Landon Nordeman
“Last Night,” which opens tomorrow and runs through July 27th, at Leica Gallery, is a must-see exhibition of photographer Landon Nordeman’s images captured over the past decade at high-brow parties all over New York. Unlike the posed party pics snapped by many, Nordeman’s lens is trained on what Henri Cartier-Bresson called “the decisive moment” – that instant when a picture truly speaks a thousand words. Nordeman’s flash-lit photographs are unguarded and glamorous, beautiful and strange, gritty and surreal and leave the viewer writing their own narrative to each image. – PETER DAVIS
What is the best party you’ve ever been to?
My first time at The Met Gala was an out of body experience. I wondered what I was doing in that room, and then I just got to work. As Bill Allard, the long-time National Geographic photographer once said when asked what his favorite assignment was: “The next one!”
Some people get weird about being photographed, even at a gala.
Al Pacino, inside Kensington Palace, at a pre-Bafta event. I think other photographers had already photographed him, so by the time I encountered him he looked me straight in the eye and said, “Hoo wah!”….followed by “No.” I understood and moved on.
What makes a party great to photograph?
Parties contain the ever-intriguing human ritual of people putting on their performative public faces and costumes as they socialize. I find it to be unresolved, often comic, and sometimes bizarre—it’s all completely compelling to me, and ripe for pictures. Plus, there’s an expectation of being photographed. Everyone wants to be seen. I love to work within that context. My goal is to reveal something honest in a world of artifice.
If you could have photographed any event, what would it have been?
Oh, I would have loved to photograph any party where Larry Fink or Garry Winogrand were making pictures—just the chance to watch them work would have been inspiring. For example, the early Vanity Fair Oscar parties or Studio 54 when Larry Fink was shooting. Also, exhibition openings at the Museum of Modern Art, where Garry Winogrand was shooting.
Over the past 10 years of shooting parties, what’s changed in the social landscape of NYC?
The way we look at photographs. It’s all on our phones now. What I miss the most, is appreciating photographs in print, or on the wall. The experience of seeing a photograph or series of photographs in a physical space can have a profound impact on the viewer: that singular context provides a chance to truly appreciate the moment that was seen and gives it a chance to stay and resonate.
