Press About Nate “Igor” Smith’s These New York Streets Photo Show
These New York Streets Photo Show Press
Through years of practice and relentless pursuit, photographer Nate “Igor” Smith has mastered the art of capturing the incredibly diverse streets and denizens of the dirty pretty town that we call home. You probably know him from his website Driven By Boredom, which has become a fixture in NYC nightlife photography. If you’ve been to a great party over the last six years, then you’ve definitely seen Igor with his camera. While his nightlife photos are consistently posted and shared online, it’s rare you get the opportunity to see his work up close and personal in a gallery setting.
Which is why we’re happy to announce that our next 350 Broadway art show will be Nate “Igor” Smith’s These New York Streets. The show is an exhibition of Igor’s 35mm street photography, a definite departure from his DBB style, almost all of which is being seen here for the very first time. These New York Streets will be kicking off with an opening reception this Friday night, June 29th at 7PM. Come out and show your support for Igor. Who knows: he might even take your picture.
So you’re used to seeing Nate “Igor” Smith’s NY photography on Driven By Boredom but maybe you’re luckier, and that time your face got busted bloody in a skateboarding misfortune or in that bodega scuffle, you were captured on 35mm and now you’re his solo show at Mishka NYC. Good for you.
Now that’s a defining moment. In the street and at your party, Igor is relentless and he really wishes he would have shot his friend’s fall, gushing blood on the sidewalk. Also, presumably, attractive ladies. There are always attractive ladies. In, uh, the pictures.
A staple on the NYC party scene, photographer Nate Smith (if he’s taken your picture, you probably call him Igor) has been shooting LES and Brooklyn partiers, AVN and alt-porn starlets, and even Juggalos since 2006 — and before that, similar ilk in Richmond, Virginia. For his first New York show, at Mishka, Igor says “no naked girls, no party pics.” Rather expect some raw shots from your own NY City streets, all in 35mm. Some of the grittier stuff feels ripped out of Vice — and indeed, Igor has shot for them, too.
Photog Nate “Igor” Smith opens his first New York City show at Mishka in Williamsburg tonight. Known around town for his party photography, Igor shies away from the expected –“no naked girls, no party pics” — and instead shows off raw shots of the city’s streets.
Nate “Igor” Smith is known for his work on the photo website Driven By Boredom, but he has another side, a street side that doesn’t involve canned shots of people posing at events, a side that relies on happenstance to capture that perfect moment in time.
Nate’s vision is raw and voyeuristic, catching sight of moments that the subjects would probably rather forget. These are scenes of city life-sometimes violent, sometimes strange, but always extremely NYC.
Nate “Igor” Smith is responsible for much of the wild nightlife coverage you see both on our site and his online home, Driven By Boredom. This Friday, June 29th, Mishka NYC is hosting an exhibition of Igor’s work called “These New York Streets.” As you can tell by the photos above, this is a bare-knuckle, bloodshot-eye’s view of a New York that still very much exists.
I hope you were one of the many heads that was lucky enough to cruise out to our South Williamsburg location to enjoy the opening festivities forNate “Igor” Smith‘s photo show These New York Streets. We thoroughly enjoyed Igor’s raw and exciting 35mm snaps of NYC, from beatdowns to blood to butts. We also, of course, enjoyed the great company of fans and friends.
New York Observer Velvet Roper:
On Friday, friends and admirers of Mr. Smith crowded into the small store to check out the prints on display. The scenes included a fire hydrant explosion, a man splayed out on the street with his nose bloodied, gothic nightlife entertainers still dressed in black glitter and angel wings getting into a cab the next morning and other intense New York City moments.
Ms. Dynamite said that Mr. Smith’s unique perspective comes from his persistence with the camera. “He’s everywhere,” she told us. “If there’s a concert with a mosh pit, he will just get in there and hold up his camera and just mosh and take pictures. It is complete insanity.”
In this exhibit Smith decided to take on the task of capturing more than just the booming nightlife of the city. Instead, he captured violence, blood, crime, public indecency, and poverty.
In not specifying who or what or where these pictures were, Smith succeeded in making every different neighborhood, every different seam of New York City bleed into a single unit.
Smith’s first solo show is a little gem, and even if it’s but a spoonful of his talent, I left Mishka with a sense of the rawness of New York.
Vice:
Comments (0)Nate “Igor” Smith is an unbearded photographer from Richmond who runs a site called drivenbyboredom, which is sort of like Last Night’s Party if Brontes was more into punk and hung out with slightly nuttier girls instead of nightly sluttier ones.
Igor threw his first solo show at the Mishka store last Friday. It’s a series of stuff he shot on these New York streets called These New York Streets and it includes a huge, uncropped print of this beloved old DON’T, a bunch of photos of insanely harsh fights and their aftermath, and a mood-cleansing row of summer sidewalk shots, bikers BBQing, kids in the hydrant, etc and so forth.