Press

For the artist and writer Leanne Shapton, it is Diana getting in and out of cars that holds the most appeal. She began doing monochromatic watercolor studies of these images in year 2020 and eventually published the paintings in 2022 as a small book appropriately titled In Cars: On Diana. The images are abstracted and yet simultaneously crystal clear; further proof of how familiar a figure she cuts in our subconscious. Now, the watercolors are on view at Dashwood Projects in Manhattan, which is also publishing a new edition of the tome with new watercolor additions. We spoke to Shapton via email...

Though it may be tempting to think that the deepest meaning of these photographs, perhaps even their ultimate point, is to be found beneath the surface of what they plainly show, Báez reminds us time and again how resolutely photographic they are, how thoroughly they are inscribed with the materiality of their making. Put differently, these pictures insist not only on the moment captured at the release of the shutter, they also vividly evoke the moments preceding it and those that followed. Time and duration—how they feel and how Báez registers them—are as crucial to these pictures as are their capacities for metaphor.

by Zach Ritter

Dashwood Books in New York 
Recommended by: Andreas Kokkino of Hyper Hypo in Athens
What Makes It Great: “David and Miwa always know what book you need. They are both so knowledgeable about photography and so sweet.”
What You’ll Find: “David sold me my first book by Daido Moriyama 15 years ago or so and opened my eyes to the (for me) yet unexplored world of Japanese photography.”