Mona Kuhn: Paradise Lost

Ken Light | American Stories:1969-1995 showcases three decades of work by photographer Ken Light, highlighting significant moments in American history from 1969 to 1995. Light’s images focus on social issues, human rights, and the lives of overlooked communities, providing a powerful look at the stories of this period. The exhibition includes work from some of Light’s twelve published books, with selections from Report to the Shareholders, Course of the Empire; Midnight La Frontera; What’s Going On? 1969-1974; Valley of Shadows and Dreams; Coal Hollow, Delta Time; Texas Death Row; To The Promised Land; and With These Hands. A booklet accompanies the exhibition, featuring works by Ken Light and a text by Brian Wallis, Executive Director of the Center for Photography at Woodstock. Image: DeWitt Clinton High School, Bronx, 1972 © Ken Light

Highlights from the museum’s collection of contemporary photography hang in Avery Court. Featuring recent gifts alongside familiar collection works, the installation surveys diverse approaches to portraiture and landscape by some of the leading artists of the past four decades, including Nan Goldin, Paul Mpagi Sepuya, and Ellen Carey. Image: Philip-Lorca diCorcia (American, born 1951), Roy, ‘in his 20s,’ Los Angeles, California, $50, 1990-92. Chromogenic print; ed. 12/20. Alexander A. Goldfarb Contemporary Art Acquistion Fund, 2017.20.1

For me, photography is not a means by which to create beautiful art, but a unique way of encountering genuine reality.” ― Daido Moriyama Please join us for a rare and special exhibition of works by renowned photographer Daido Moriyama. The Center for Photographic Art is honored to present 33 images from this master photographer spanning five decades, 1966 - 2007. From his early series such as Japan: A Photo Theater and Karyūdo (A Hunter) to more recent projects and prints, we'll get to view the progression of this legendary artist's work. A selection of Moriyama's books will also be on view. On opening night we have the pleasure of hearing Asako Shimazaki, one of Moriyama's students, speak about his long career and his influence. Not to be missed! Daido Moriyama was born in 1938 in Ikeda City, Osaka, Japan. Switching from designer to photographer, he worked as an assistant for Takeji Iwamiya and Eikoh Hosoe, before embarking on his career as a freelance photographer in 1964. For series such as “Japan: A Photo Theater,” which appeared in Camera Mainichi in 1967, he received the New Artist Award from the Japan Photo-Critics Association. Large-scale exhibitions of Moriyama’s work have been held at a number of major institutions including at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (1999; traveling to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Japan Society, New York), the National Museum of Art, Osaka (2011), and London’s Tate Modern (two person exhibition with William Klein 2012-13). In 2012, Moriyama received the Infinity Award from the International Center of Photography (New York), was ordered Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2018 by the French government, and he was also the winner of The Hasselblad Foundation International Award in Photography in 2019 which cemented his international reputation. Moriyama has also produced more than 150 photobooks since 1968.

Laura Aguilar: Nudes in Nature showcases photographic works by a groundbreaking yet underrecognized artist who challenged perceptions of beauty by examining the female body in dialogue with the natural world. Born and raised in California’s San Gabriel Valley, Laura Aguilar created photographic representations of historically excluded and marginalized groups of women from various communities across Los Angeles. She eventually turned the camera on herself to consider the multitude of factors that defined her own identity as a Chicana and a lesbian who lived in poverty and with depression and learning disabilities. Later in her career, Aguilar began to capture intimate portraits of nude, large-bodied women in natural settings. She created various series within this framework to highlight the inherent connections between nature and the female form. Laura Aguilar: Nudes in Nature brings together nearly 60 photographic works from the most-recognized of those series, including Nature Self-Portrait (1996) Stillness (1999) Motion (1999) Center (2000–2001) and Grounded (2006–2007). Featured works either directly explore the relationship between physical features of the body and the landscape or adopt an abstract approach. Exhibited in conversation, they encourage reflection on the ways female bodies are perceived within the natural world in comparison to how they are viewed in social and cultural spaces. All of the images in Nudes in Nature were made in the Southwestern region of the United States. With this particular backdrop, the exhibition provides a unique opportunity to consider Aguilar’s trailblazing work within the context of our desert region. Image: Motion #59, 1999 © Laura Aguilar Trust of 2016

By cutting out, reshuffling, and layering multiple photographs, artists create composite artworks called photomontages and collages. First coined by Berlin Dada artists John Heartfield and Raoul Hausmann at the beginning of the First World War, the photomontage was originally conceived as a form of social and political critique. With further developments from Cubist and Surrealist artists, both techniques gained widespread appeal for their capacity for abstraction, experimentation, and narrative building. Photomontages and collages can create both seamless compositions, as well as generate new relationships and dialogues between individual pictures. Cut Up/Cut Out: Photomontage and Collage explores these photographic techniques as enduring forms of artistic engagement, highlighting several new acquisitions and contemporary examples from the Norton’s Collection, as well as a selection of special loans. These hybrid forms can even point us to the foundations of our contemporary digital experience, as such widespread and rapid access to information continues to change and accelerate our ability to cut, mix, and paste each day. Image: Pittsburg Memory 1964 © Romare Bearden

Gallery Luisotti is thrilled to announce its fall PST ART exhibition, Mark Ruwedel: Los Angeles, Landscapes of Four Ecologies. This exhibition will celebrate Ruwedel’s decade long project, which has never before been shown in all four parts. Mark Ruwedel’s Los Angeles, Landscapes of Four Ecologies includes photographs and handdrawn maps, capturing the Los Angeles Basin’s distinct natural environments. Ruwedel’s photographs find evidence of fires, floods, landslides, and coastal erosion, all entangled within the city’s urban infrastructure. Landscapes of Four Ecologies takes its name from Reyner Banham’s 1971 publication, Los Angeles: The Architecture of Four Ecologies, yet surveys those interstitial spaces Banham downplayed: the river, the coast, the hills and canyons, and that which is“haunted by the desert” (in Joan Didion’s words.) In this PST ART: Art & Science Collide exhibit of nearly three dozen carefully crafted pictures, one will find many scenes containing fragments of long-forgotten endeavors. Like an archaeologist, Ruwedel does his best to tread lightly so that others might have the experience of uncovering for themselves faint traces of that which precedes and may still survive us. If we look intently, we might be struck by how brief and small – though still consequential – is our time on earth. The ultimate beauty in these pictures may be the way they, like the writings of Carey Mc Williams, Joan Didion, Mike Davis, Jared Farmer etc., leave us with a deeper and less settled sense of our complex habitat. Image: Mark Ruwedel, Pacific Palisades #5, 2015

Peter Fetterman Gallery is delighted to announce the upcoming exhibition, "Her: The Great Women Photographers," celebrating the extraordinary talents of women in photography. Opening on August 17th, 2024, this exhibition promises to illuminate the gallery with the diverse and powerful works of some of the most influential female photographers. "Her: The Great Women Photographers" will feature the remarkable works of artists such as Lillian Bassman, Sarah Moon, Ruth Bernhard, Julia Margaret Cameron, Cig Harvey, Bernice Abbott, Judy Dater, Eve Arnold, Doris Ullmann, Martine Franck, Flor Garduno, Judy Glickman Lauder, Ilona Langbroek, Grace Robertson, Anastasia Samoylova, and Sabine Weiss, amongst others. With each carefully curated work, a testament to the unique vision and artistic prowess of these pioneering women. The exhibition will include a selection of iconic images, as well as some unseen gems. "Her: The Great Women Photographers" is a must-see event for art lovers and photography enthusiasts alike. The exhibition will be on view from August 17th to November 23rd at Peter Fetterman Gallery, located in Santa Monica, CA. Image: La Robe Rouge 2010 © Sarah Moon

Bruce Silverstein Gallery is pleased to announce our second solo exhibition for Sarah Sense, a contemporary Indigenous artist, curator, and writer. Featuring over twenty unique, hand-woven, sculptural photographs, I Want to Hold You Longer examines the intricate and often fraught history of Indigenous basket-making and collecting. This exhibition considers the traditional practices of Chitimacha and Choctaw weaving and their purposes, reflecting on their personal and collective histories. Using historical, colonial documents and maps interwoven with contemporary photographs of ancestral lands, Sense reflects on the connections between individual memory and collective heritage. I Want to Hold You Longer invites viewers to see each piece as a vessel, a conduit between personal and collective memory, carrying a genealogy, a history, and a profound desire for continuity and survival. Works in this exhibition include documents from the American Antiquarian Society, MA, British. French, and American colonial maps from the British Library, and allotment maps from the Choctaw Cultural Center, OK. These colonial documents, when woven together with Sense’s landscape photographs of her ancestral homelands, entwine two known histories: one of historical marginalization, violence, dispossession, and survival, and one of responsibility, freedom, and joy. I Want to Hold You Longer is a story of longing, connection, and memory. Sense takes us on a journey from her family’s collection to the collections of the Montclair Art Museum, NJ, the Brooklyn Museum, NY, and the Worcester Art Museum, MA. During her visits to these collections, Sense recalls holding the baskets and feeling the emotion and hand of the weaver. Sense expresses: “The hands that wove the basket seem to be touching mine [...] I hold it longer and feel the words, ‘I want to hold you longer.’” Image: Worcester Bear, 2024 © Sarah Sense

The allure of analog and historical photographic processes lies in their tangible and tactile nature, contrasting with the digital precision of modern photography. Enthusiasts and artists drawn to these methods are captivated by the hands-on approach and the unique, unpredictable results they yield. For them, each step—from loading film to developing prints—is a deliberate, intimate act that imbues their work with a sense of craftsmanship and authenticity. Beyond mere nostalgia, these processes offer a deeper connection to the art form’s roots, where patience, skill, and experimentation are valued over instant gratification. Photographers who embrace analog and historical processes often form a passionate community bonded by their dedication to preserving traditional techniques. They revel in the rich history and idiosyncrasies of older cameras, films, and darkroom practices, cherishing the nuanced textures and imperfections that digital methods often smooth over. This community includes both seasoned veterans who have honed their skills over decades and a new generation captivated by the evocative charm and artistic freedom that film and alternative processes offer. Analog photography methods have been a source of solace for many through the decades and a new and vibrant discovery for those just learning of these endearing methods. The photographs created through these methods are not just images, but personal and emotional narratives woven into physical media. They celebrate not only the technical mastery required but also the slower pace and a deeper appreciation for the art of capturing light and shadow. This celebration invites you to connect with the stories behind the photographs and appreciate the art of photography. After six years of Analog Forever Magazine, Michael Behlen and Michael Kirchoff consider a common refrain made by photographic artists who have appeared online or in print. The dominant digital era of photography has resulted in many feeling disconnected or lost in their visual findings. For many, the soul had left the body. It was the pull from these historical processes that brought them back into the fold of “making” once again. Revealing the artist’s hand evident within these works has given them a far more compelling voice. A passionate analog resurgence has strengthened their core beliefs and allowed them the means to create art that fulfills their innermost desires. Image: Tulips and my hand on black glass, © Mark Sink

Joseph Bellows Gallery is pleased to open the fall season with the work of Bevan Davies. Bevan Davies: New York Typologies will feature vintage black and white photographs of lower Manhattan made in the mid-1970s. Davies utilized a large-format view camera to generate images of great depth and clarity, pursuing an approach to documenting the urban landscape of the Empire City that the late photographer Lewis Baltz described as “rigorously contemporary while acknowledging a use of the camera which dates from the inception of the medium.” This exhibition will showcase varying aspects of the city’s architecture, presenting serial images devoted to these cast-iron edifices. Bevan Davies’ large-scale ferrotyped* prints flawlessly mirror the illuminated surfaces of Gotham’s doorways, storefronts, and facades. Davies writes of his approach as “an effort being made to let the camera almost see by itself.” These New York facades, taken in the early morning hours, describe the architectural subjects frontally and are defined by the chiaroscuro of the building. In his introduction to Davies’ book, New York 1975, published by Nazraeli Press, Joshua Chuang, (then, the Miriam & Ira D. Wallach Associate Director for Art, Prints and Photographs, and The Robert B. Menschel, Senior Curator of Photography at The New York Public Library), observed: “When first exhibited in 1976, their formal austerity and apparently neutral stance invited comparison with the contemporaneous work of Lewis Baltz, Bernd and Hilla Becher, and other photographers featured in the seminal 'New Topographics' exhibition. Distance, however, has revealed their concerns and temperament to be more akin to those of Marville or Atget, both of whom had a special feeling for the life and death of buildings (and thus of place), or Walker Evans, whose pictures Lincoln Kirstein praised for their “clear, hideous and beautiful detail, their open insanity and pitiful grandeur.” Davies’ sense of the urban landscape is furthered by his astute and rhythmic organization of his subject within the ground glass of his camera. His photographs both survey and celebrate the urban landscape, allowing traces of its inhabitants to inform the architecture and metropolitan spaces, revealing an everyday poetry of the city. Bevan Davies (American, 1941 - ) studied humanities at the University of Chicago in the early 1960s. After moving to New York, he continued his studies with Bruce Davidson in his New York studio, where he met Mary Ellen Mark, Diane Arbus, Ralph Gibson, and Danny Lyon. Davies' first New York exhibition was held at Witkin Gallery in 1969. Sonnabend Gallery featured Davies' work in solo and group exhibitions in their SoHo gallery in the mid-and late 1970s. During this period, Davies' work was also exhibited at Larry Gagosian’s Broxton Gallery in Westwood, CA and internationally at Galerie Wilde, Cologne, at Stills Gallery in Edinburgh and in group exhibitions of American contemporary photography at The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; George Eastman House: Ringling Museum of Art: Institute of Contemporary Art, University of Pennsylvania; and the La Jolla Art Museum. Bevan Davies’ work can be found in numerous public and private collections, including the New York Public Library, J. Paul Getty Museum, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Center for Creative Photography, George Eastman Museum, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Black Dog Collection, among others. Monographs on Davies’ work include Los Angeles, 1976 (Nazraeli Press, 2014), and New York 1975 (Nazraeli Press, 2017). His work was included in the survey exhibition catalog, Ed Rusha and Some Los Angeles Apartments (Getty, 2013). Recently his work was featured in Geoff Dyer’s collection of essays on photography entitled, See/Saw (Graywolf Press, 2021).

pina Americana, my study of a very narrow corridor of the central United States, was born with violence on the mind and trepidation in the heart. In reaction to the gaining momentum of a fractious American identity, and what it means for our future as a nation going forward, ‘Spina Americana’ (American Spine) attempts to understand a critical and often misunderstood area of the United States, in a time of political division not seen here since the 1850s. I decided to focus my attention on a 100-mile-wide path of land, 50 miles east/west of the geographic center. It runs vertically from Mexico to Canada, traversing the spine of the United States, as an independent and unique feature that deserves its own examination, where most of its occupants have been ignored politically, socially, and culturally for many decades. The commonly used expression for this area is “flyover country”, which denotes a land of banality and unimportance, culturally and otherwise. This series reflects my general philosophy towards photography as an anvil for activism, as well as my opening argument for a new direction in the hope for a more collective and persistent empathy. As Americans, our duty, I believe, is to always remember that in the end, the only thing holding the line between our honour and the windblown dust of a collapsed empire, is us. My hope is that this work and the work that is to come, will serve as a call to action for individuals convinced they are powerless against the forces actively opposing this very kind of national cohesiveness. Love (without prerequisite) has been endlessly shown as a powerful force; it only requires a sense of duty, proper action and the will to initiate it.

TOUCH / do we exist without photography features the work of Kris Sanford, Andrés Pérez, and Matthew Finley. They all use photographic archives to weave narratives that should be an integral part to our societal record without a past of collective marginalization and fear. In each case, the artists weave vintage photographs into queer narratives of historical representation. Kris Sanford: Through the Lens of Desire “Through the Lens of Desire creates implied narratives using snapshots from the 1920s- 1950s. Vernacular photographs from that era were created as private keepsakes and the unselfconscious intimacy they depict feels authentic and relatable. As modern viewers, we witness personal moments that were never intended to be public. By purposefully selecting images that picture men together and women together I am creating an imaginary queer past. I am drawn to the subtle points of contact and the spaces between the figures pictured. Each gesture or distracted glance holds a story, and it is these stories that reflect my own desire and experiences.” Andrés Pérez: Dead Family “Dead Family is an investigation that looks at the family archive as a binary historical document that protects heteronormative narratives imposed by patriarchal structures. These impositions imply a sexist order that separates the masculine from the feminine and marginalizes identities that are outside of this political-biological mechanism. Diverse identities have no visibility in the action of “family portraiture.” Matthew Finley: An Impossibly Normal Life “Imagine a world where it doesn’t matter who you love, just that you love. An Impossibly Normal Life is an artifact from another world, a more loving, inclusive one where who you love is of little societal importance. This fictional story, centered on my imagined uncle’s idealized life, is created from collected vintage snapshots from around the world.” Image: © Matthew Finley