Justin Jay at Gallery 151

As pure dumb luck would have it, the candy yellow, vaguely surfy shape stuck to the corner of my eye at just the moment my New York walking fog had uncharacteristically cleared. I didn't know where Gallery 151 was, and frankly I'd forgotten about the photo show, but there I was hustling past the the whole thing last week. I popped in, shot some camera phone photos and went on my way, all without breaking stride. And I guess that's the problem of the Justin Jay show. Not the images themselves, as the larger-printed photos are beautiful and the access on display interesting enough, rather it was the scope, or lack of scope that sent me on my way so quickly. There are three walls at the 151 Gallery. Two of them with a few of the larger, more delicate photos each, and then the a back wall with a grid of more snap-shot style pics. I could have spent quite a long time in a room with three walls full of the smaller photos in a grid. I would have soaked up the scenes and emotions, ranging from luaua shots to water shots, beach activity of all stripes. Or maybe it could have been a smaller grid of the large prints on one wall and the other two walls covered in a wider display of the photographer's archive. Or maybe the show needed to have the larger prints even larger. Huge so we can see every particle of water, every hair on the snout of that pig. Either way, anyway, the only the thing the show lacks is the right format. It all comes down October 27th. Go see for yourself.