Lou York Times Interview

From the New York Times:

Lou Reed, the cold-eyed chronicler of downtown grit, is heading this week to a most uptown spot: Hermès, the Upper East Side purveyor of $300 silk scarves. The Gallery at Hermès, at 691 Madison Avenue (at 62nd Street), is presenting half of a two-part show of Mr. Reed's photographs of New York.... At the Kasher gallery on a recent morning, Mr. Reed spoke with Ben Sisario about the island he calls home, the photographs he has taken of it, his forthcoming book of them ("Lou Reed's New York") and the gallery space they now share with high-end accessories.

Q So if someone were to say there's a photography show called Lou Reed's "New York" -

A Well, there is.

Q One might expect images of people. But this is almost nature photography. The city as nature.

A Exactly. It's water and light. We're an island. You forget we're an island. And I like that. There's this whole other thing to New York. It's very, very beautiful. I keep seeing it and saying, "My God, look that this."

Q It's easy to forget that in this city of buildings there are such beautiful sunsets.

A They're really there. If you don't believe me, you go down to the Hudson River. Watch what happens. Last week there was one that was so astonishing. The book's done, but I just can't stop doing this. You just go, "My God, who's doing this light show?"

Q So ... why Hermès?

A Because the owner of Hermès is a big fine art and photography fan. I went over there, and they had a Ralph Gibson show, on the top floor of Hermès, of all places. So I thought, "Wow!" And then they asked me would I like to do it. I mean, you don't get paid or anything. You don't get a free Hermès scarf, either.

Q Do you like their scarves?

A No, I don't own one thing from Hermès because I can't afford it. But I don't want to have to make excuses about "Why are you showing something at a store on the Upper East Side"? That would be really boring to have to go through that. I'm just interested in showing these pictures of this city in a nice setting.

Q Does it say anything about New York that Lou Reed has a show at Hermès?

A It's part of the charm of the city that you can be in two places at once. What I was interested in was having more people have the opportunity to see the photographs, and the person who's in charge of Hermès loves photography and loves being able to show photographs and photographers. So I think the impulses are all correct.
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Now that is Advancement.