New York Film Festival’s World of Cinema

Caleb Stein’s  excellent new book, “Down by the Hudson,” comes weighted down with text. His exhibition of some of its contents at Palo, in the East Village, keeps the focus of our attention on his black-and-white photographs, which hold it with a sense of ease that never undermines their moody soulfulness. Stein’s subject is the life in and around a swimming hole near Poughkeepsie, where the bodies are young, stripped down, and mostly male. The atmosphere is humid—not just sensual but erotic—and Stein is often close enough to touch. But his work’s power is in its restraint, so even when he’s looking at gnarled tree roots, a dangling hand, or the painterly reflections on water in motion, he’s never distracting us. He’s filling in the details, pulling us closer, and turning a show into an experience.