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Art In Review
Dafydd Jones by Ryan Weideman
The New York Times, February 19, 1993
Heaven help you if Dafydd Jones fixes you in his viewfinder. Mr. Jones, a welshman
who photographs for The New York Observer, specializes in deliciously cruel
pictures of the social elite at play. In this delightful selection of pictures,
he demonstrates an uncanny talent for making elegantly dressed people at glitzy
parties look foolish.
In one picture, Brooke Astor and Iris Love appear with faces scrunched up like
those of the dachshunds they clutch. Elsewhere, two women lean behind a beaming
Chuck Scarborough to share a confidence. Leona Helmsley, meanwhile, is caught
in closeup, mouth open in mid-jeer.
In taking unflattering pictures of people at parties, Mr Jones is continuing
a noble photographic tradition whose practitioners have included Weegee, Garry
Winogrand and Larry Fink. Mr. Jones goes about his business with cheery zest
and a wicked eye. Sure, his pictures are unfair, but so is life, as the sight
of all these people so conspicuosly and expensively enjoying themselves makes
clear. Mr Jones carries off his duties as social satirist with admirable skill.
