Vince Aletti

 ( 1945 Births ) 

Vince Aletti (born 1945) is a curator, writer, and photography critic.

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Career

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Music industry Aletti was a contributing writer for Rolling Stone from 1970 to 1989. He was the first person to write about disco, on 13 September 1973, in Discotheque Rock '72: Paaaaarty! an article published by the magazine. Excerpts:

• One of the most spectacular discotheque records in recent months is a perfect example of the genre: Manu Dibango's "Soul Makossa." Originally a French pressing on the Fiesta label, the 45 was being largely undistributed by an African import company in Brooklyn when "a friend" brought it to the attention of DJ Frankie Crocker. Crocker broke it on the air on New York's WBLS-FM, a black station highly attuned to the disco sound, but the record was made in discotheques where its hypnotic beat and mysterious African vocals drove people crazy.
• in the last year they've returned not only as a rapidly spreading social phenomenon (via juice bars, after-hours clubs, private lofts open on weekends to members only, floating groups of party-givers who take over the ballrooms of old hotels from midnight to dawn) but as a strong influence on the music people listen to and buy.
• The best discotheque DJs are underground stars, discovering previously ignored albums, foreign imports, album cuts and obscure singles with the power to make the crowd scream and playing them overlapped, non-stop so you dance until you drop.

He gave a negative review to Funkadelic's Maggot Brain in 1971, describing it as "a shattered, desolate landscape with few pleasures," competently performed but "limited." He was particularly critical of the record's second side, panning it as "dead-end stuff," and asked "who needs this shit?"

He also wrote a weekly column about disco for the music trade magazine Record World

(1974–1979), and reported about early clubs like David Mancuso's The Loft for The Village Voice in the late 1970s and 1980s. Aletti was a senior editor at The Village Voice for nearly 20 years until leaving in early 2005.

Aletti worked with New York deejay Ritchie Rivera to curate a double-album disco compilation for Polydor Records, which released it in 1978 as Steppin' Out: Disco's Greatest Hits. Music critic Robert Christgau found it superior to Casablanca Records' Get Down and Boogie and Marlin Records's Disco Party, writing in (1981): "Although local talent (Joe Simon, the Fatback Band) is represented, I find the spacey, lush-but-cool Euro-disco that predominates even more enticing, no doubt because the filler in which such music is usually swamped has been eliminated. New discoveries include the Chakachas' legendary 'Jungle Fever' and 'Running Away' by Roy Ayers, ordinarily the emptiest of 'jazz' pianists. This is disco the way it should be heard—as pure dance music, complete with risky changes."

In 1979 and 1980, Aletti also worked as the A&R Rep for Ray Caviano’s RFC Records.

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Photography Aletti is best known for his contributions to fine art photography. He reviewed photography exhibitions for ''The New Yorker until 2016.

Aletti has also curated numerous photography exhibitions, and has contributed writing for dozens of photography books. In 1998, Aletti was the curator of a highly praised exhibition of art and photography called Male, which was followed up in 1999 by Female, both at Wessel + O'Connor Gallery in New York. In conjunction with those shows, he was the co-editor the book "Male/Female: 105 photographs" published by Aperture in 1999, featuring his interview with Madonna, which was later anthologized in Da Capo's Best Music Writing (2000).

In 2000, he was the co-curator of an exhibition called Settings & Players: Theatrical Ambiguity in American Photography at London's White Cube. The following year Aletti organized Steven Klein American Beauty a retrospective exhibition of Steven Klein's fashion work for the Musée de l'Élysée in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Aletti was one of the two featured writers of The Book of 101 Books: Seminal Photographic Books of the Twentieth Century (2001).

In 2005, Aletti was the recipient of the Infinity Award for writing by The International Center for Photography.

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Exhibitions curated by Aletti

• 1998: Male. Wessel + O'Connor Gallery, New York.
• 1999: Male/Female. Wessel + O'Connor Gallery, New York.
• 2000: Settings & Players: Theatrical Ambiguity in American Photography. White Cube, London.
• 2001: Steven Klein American Beauty. Musée de l’Élysée, Lausanne, Switzerland.
• 2008: Male: work from the collection of Vince Aletti. White Columns, New York.
• 2010: Dress Codes The Third ICP Triennial of Photography and Video. International Centre of Photography, New York. Curated with Kristen Lubben, Christopher Phillips, and Carol Squiers.

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Bibliography

1990–1999

• Catalogue of an exhibition held at the Grey Art Gallery & Study Center, New York University, Jan. 17-Feb. 24, 1990, and the Fine Arts Gallery, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, B.C., Canada, Aug. 1-Sept. 15, 1990.

2000–2009

• Settings and Players: Theatrical Ambiguity in American Photography. London: White Cube, 2001.
• Four Days in LA: The Versace Collection. London: White Cube, 2001.
• The Book of 101 Books: Seminal Photographic Books of the Twentieth Century. New York: PPP Editions, 2001.
• Snapshots: The Eye Of the Century. Berlin: Hatje Cantz Publishers, 2004.
• David Hilliard. New York: Aperture, 2005.
• Reviews the Gregory Crewdson photographs at the Luhring Augustine Gallery.
• Ingar Krauss: Portraits. Berlin: Hatje Cantz Publishers, 2006.
• Mark Cohen:True Color. New York: powerHouse Books, 2007.
• Face of Fashion. New York: Aperture, 2007.
• Hedi Slimane: Rock Diary. Zurich: JRP|Ringier, 2008.
• Bruce of Los Angeles: Inside/Outside. New York: Antinous Press, 2008.
• Look at me: Photographs from Mexico City by Jed Fielding. Chicago: University Of Chicago Press, 2009.
• Avedon Fashion 1944-2000. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 2009.
• The Disco Files 1973-78: New York's Underground Week by Week. New York: DJhistory.com, 2009.

2010–2019

• Male: From the Collection of Vince Aletti. New York: PPP Editions, 2010.
• Reviews the 'Pictures by Women: A History of Modern Photography' exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA).
• Michael Thompson: Portraits. Bologna: Damiani, 2011.
• Discusses Mark Morrisroe.
• Reviews the 'Radical Camera' exhibition at the Jewish Museum.
• Saul Leiter. Heidelberg: Kehrer Verlag, 2012.
• New York at Night: Photography After Dark. New York: powerHouse Books, 2012.
• Vivian Maier.
• Reviews 'Faking It: Manipulated Photography Before Photoshop' at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
• Retrospectives of Roman Vishniac and David Seymour at the International Center of Photography.
• Retrospective of Bill Brandt at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA).
• Photography and the American Civil War at the Met.
• A Different Kind of Order at the International Center of Photography.
• War/Photography : Images of Armed Conflict and Its Aftermath.
• A Respect for Light: The Latin American Photographs: 1974-2008. New York: Glitterati, 2014.
• Peter Hujar: Love & Lust. San Francisco: Fraenkel Gallery, 2014.
• Mark Cohen: Dark Knees. Paris: Lebal, 2014.
• Stephen Irwin. Berlin: r/e projects, 2015.
• David Wojnarowicz: Brush Fires in the Social Landscape: Twentieth Anniversary Edition. New York: Aperture, 2015.
• Online version is titled "'Sarah Charlesworth: Double World sic'". Reviews the 'Sarah Charlesworth: Doubleworld' exhibition at the New Museum.
• Peter Hujar: Lost Downtown. New York: Pace MacGill Gallery, 2016.
• Issues: A History of Photography in Fashion Magazines. London/New York: Phaidon Press, 2019.

2020–

• Reviews the "William Klein: YES" retrospective at the International Center of Photography.
• Reviews the exhibition of Barney's photographs at the Kasmin Gallery.

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Bibliography notes

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External links

• Video: An Evening with Nan Goldin and Vince Aletti: Remembering Peter Hujar
• Video: Vince Aletti: Face of Fashion: Fashion Photography, Art Direction, and Magazine Design
• Video: Saul Leiter in Conversation with Vince Aletti
• Video: Vince Aletti on Peter Hujar’s Love & Lust
• Video: Talk with Mark Cohen and Vince Aletti at LE BAL, Paris
• Video: Joe Szabo & Vince Aletti | Rolling Stones Fans

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