Photography owns December's first Sunday Times

Thanksgiving is over. The next day was the biggest shopping day of the year—dubbed "Black Friday" by retailers across the nation—marking the start of 2006 holiday shopping madness. The New York Times' Sunday paper was filled with shopping guides and reviews for holiday releases. In the Arts Section, a considerable bit of this was themed after photography—scads of photobook reviews, including the newest by Annie Leibovitz, and listings of photographic workshops (gifts for hard-core photographers, to be sure).

Other articles aren't product-oriented, although their inclusion can only mean good things for those involved. A new exhibition of vintage works by Francis "Fritz" Leddy, chief of the East Hampton Village Police Department and long-time black-and-white photographer. Most of the pieces date from 1942 to 1949, a time of great transition in the East End. The exhibition is showing at the Guild Hall Museum in east Hampton.

An obituary for photojournalist and documentarian Leonard Freed appears as well, as well as an article about venerable photography galleries like Pace/MacGill, Marian Goodman, SoHo, and others diversifying their selections instead of staying strictly with fine art photographs.

I don't know if someone pushed the CHECK OUT PHOTOGRAPHY! button for this particular issue, at this particular time. There's no doubt, though, that many will appreciate it.