Being and There: Joseph Lawton

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

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).

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

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

Spina 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

Zameen Aasman Ka Farq - As far apart as the Earth is from the Sky contemplates the affection between Indian men: the holding of hands, interlocking of pinkies, or the intimate leaning into one another. This physical touch offers a window into the complexities of friendship, love, sexuality, and queerness. Marc Ohrem-Leclef uses photographs and texts to visualize the many forms love takes on for his collaborators, from the open and socially accepted to the unspoken. Individuals across the gender, class, and religious spectrum share how they experience touch, its importance, and evolving norms—both expanding and constricting-amid LGBTQ+ identity politics. How do straight, cisgender men hold same-sex affection dear? What does it mean for queer-identifying collaborators? Many collaborators trust Ohrem-Leclef with their deeply personal histories only because he is an outsider. Often, they bond over a shared search for belonging and community-his own, being rooted in his queer, bicultural identity. Seated together in their rooms, in fields, and in parks, many speak of the "love that flows" when they hold a friend's hand in certain ways. Some, bound by circumstance, are unable to articulate their desire for same-sex love; others, living fluid lives in traditional cultural spaces—usually outside cities—have no need to name their identities. Zameen archives a profoundly human desire to connect through touch. What is perceived as "queer" or "traditional" remains in flux, set against rapidly-shifting standards and differing gazes. Ultimately, Ohrem-Leclef looks to his collaborators, who construct spaces for themselves, irrespective of labels. Image: © Marc Ohrem-Leclef

Following World War I, light abstraction emerged as a central preoccupation of photographers and filmmakers who began using innovative methods of projecting, reflecting, and refracting rays of light to create non-traditional works of photographic art. Abstracted Light: Experimental Photography, on view August 20 through November 24, 2024 at the Getty Center, focuses on light abstraction as one of the primary aesthetic concerns of avant-garde photography from the 1920s to the 1950s. Drawn from the rich holdings of the J. Paul Getty Museum’s collection, the exhibition features photographs by international artists including László Moholy-Nagy (Hungarian, 1895–1946), Francis Bruguière (American, 1879–1945), Man Ray (American, 1890–1976), Tōyō Miyatake (American, born in Japan, 1895–1979), Asahachi Kono (Japanese, 1876–1943), and Barbara Morgan (American, 1900–1992).. The exhibition is presented in conjunction with PST ART: Art & Science Collide, a groundbreaking regional cultural collaboration that unites more than 70 exhibition and performance spaces around a singular theme, the intersection of art and science.. “Whether explicitly or implicitly, light is the physical, conceptual and aesthetic fundament of photography,” says Timothy Potts, Maria Hummer-Tuttle and Robert Tuttle Director of the Getty Museum. “This exhibition focuses especially on the myriad ways light has been harnessed, abstracted, and manipulated in the creation of some of the most inventive and innovative photography of the 20th century. Abstracted Light will make a major contribution both to PST ART, as well as to the history of photography.”. The works in this exhibition represent a variety of approaches to light abstraction, starting with the photogram process. One of the earliest forms of photography, a photogram is made by placing objects directly on chemically treated paper and exposing them to light to capture their silhouettes. Photographers revived this technique as they sought novel ways to create abstract images. The Hungarian-born artist Lászlo Moholy-Nagy, working in Germany, became one of the photogram’s fiercest advocates, writing that it enabled photographers to “sketch with light” in the same way that painters work with paintbrushes and pigment. In Paris, the American expatriate Man Ray also embraced the photogram, mistakenly claiming that he had invented the technique and naming it the “Rayograph” after himself. Through international exhibitions and photography journals, the popularity of the photogram spread far and wide.. Another technique modern photographers adopted to create dynamic abstract compositions came to be known as “light painting.” This method involves moving a light source in front of the camera during a long exposure. The motion of the light creates glowing patterns and shapes on the negative that may appear as ethereal calligraphy. A photographer can achieve a similar effect by moving the camera itself during the exposure while aiming it toward static light sources, such as street lamps or neon signs, capturing a sort of luminous graffiti. These methods may be combined with other experimental techniques, such as superimposing multiple exposures, to create even more elaborate abstractions.. Included in the exhibition are four short films of the 1920s and ’30s (screening continuously) in which avant-garde artists explored light abstraction using innovative techniques that pushed the boundaries of the art form. Their experiments with varying styles of animation, as well as with a montage, multiple exposures, and other special effects, challenged conventional cinematic storytelling, providing audiences with immersive and mesmerizing visual experiences.. One gallery is devoted to the work of Thomas Wilfred (American, born Denmark, 1889–1968), a pioneer in light art which he referred to as “Lumia.” From the 1910’s to the 1960s, he designed and built a series of mechanical devices that generate choreographed displays of moving abstract forms. Wilfred’s inventions include the organ-like Clavilux, a keyboard controlling arrays of projectors for public performances, and self-contained Lumia instruments resembling television sets for adventurous collectors, four of which will be on view in the exhibition.. “I am excited to bring together such an exciting array of photographs, films and Lumia instruments which demonstrate the incredible synergy and energy of vanguard artists working across the globe in light abstraction,” says Jim Ganz, Getty Museum’s senior curator of photographs and the organizer of the exhibition. “This show provides a rare opportunity to view some of Getty’s most important 20th-century photographs which have not been displayed here in many years.”. Abstracted Light: Experimental Photography is curated by Jim Ganz, senior curator in the Department of Photographs. A companion exhibition, Sculpting with Light: Contemporary Artists and Holography, on view August 20 through November 24, 2024, features artists who incorporated the technology and magic of holography into their work in the late 1990s through 2020.. This exhibition is part of PST ART, a Getty initiative presenting over 70 exhibitions at institutions across Southern California tied to the theme Art & Science Collide. PST ART is presented by Getty. Lead partners are Bank of America, Alicia Miñana & Rob Lovelace, Getty Patron Program. The principal partner is Simons Foundation. Image: Untitled, about 1950, Hy Hirsh. Ansco Printon chromogenic print 7 7/8 × 9 7/8 in. Getty Museum, 2013.63. Gift of Deborah Bell

In honor of the 100th anniversary of Surrealism we are pleased to present an exhibition “Out of this World” featuring vintage photographs that honor some of the leading figures of the Surrealist movement along with some lesser-known artists that were contributing to the art of surrealism with surprising images many of which have rarely been exhibited. The Museum of Modern Art presented its’ landmark exhibition “FANTASTIC ART DADA SURREALISM” in 1936-1937, an ambitious textbook survey documenting the art of that category and its precedents and distillation to other cultural art forms and mediums. The hefty MoMA catalog identifies the genre of art as “The fantastic and the marvelous in European and American Art” and further described this art in terms of the “the irrational, the spontaneous, the enigmatic and the dreamlike.” Surrealism permeated the culture in portrait photography, advertising photography, fashion photography, dance photography and almost any other form of photography that permitted the artist the leeway to experiment with images that piqued their imagination. Louise Dahl-Wolfe, one of the foremost fashion photographers of the post World War II era, collaborated with Russian artist Pavel Tchelitchew in the early 1940s to create a wildly imaginative surrealist set for a color-infused fashion layout for Harper’s Bazaar. This dreamy technicolor lit tableau features three models surrounded by drapery, fabric and news papered walls amongst the iconography of a fashion designers’ studio. Another interior and one of the most important pictures in the exhibition is a diptych photomontage by Frederick Kiesler (photography by Percy Rainford) of the interior of Marcel Duchamp’s 14th Street New York studio festooned with all the detritus that this trailblazing artist could manage to populate his studio with. This image was published in Charles Henri Fords 1945 issue of the art magazine View that was dedicated to Marcel Duchamp. Portrait photographers gravitated to surrealism to create complex and innovative images that went far beyond static portraiture. George Platt Lynes’ portrait of the actress Ruth Ford, (sister of Charles Henri Ford), created a delightful study of the actress who was often referred to as “the hummingbird” by her many artist friends. In Lynes’s image a hummingbird sits on top of Ford’s veil-wrapped visage while three eggs are floating on the upper right margins of the picture frame. Hi Williams was the go to photographer in the American food industry in the 1930s famous for his mastery of the carbro printing process, an early color printing technique, that was both laborious and expensive to produce. He created a still life photograph of utilitarian rubber items: a toy duck, a gas mask, a ball shoe and glove etc. all sitting on a sandy platform with a painted backdrop featuring blue sky and clouds. If it wasn’t clear that this was an homage, he titled this colorful 1941 photograph “Rubber Dali”. Image: Harry Richardson Cremer (American, active c. 1920–1949), Untitled, c. 1930, Gelatin Silver Print

The Rebecca Hossack Art Gallery, Little Havana Project presents an exhibition of new work by the British artist Jason Shulman. Featuring a series of long- exposure photographs of critical moments of our recent history, the show marks a new chapter in the artist’s decade-long practice of multimedia experimentation. By manipulating temporality and technology, Shulman opens a new door to our perception of some of the most iconic events and images of our shared cultural world. The project began when the London-based Shulman decided to photograph the coverage of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi: training his camera on his television, he took a series of long-exposure photographs of selected events, freezing dreamlike, fluid, action-charged representations of what the rest of the world was experiencing as HD motion on their screens. This idea of gathering all the light present in an event led to his celebrated series 'Photographs of Films' where the entire running time of a movie is captured in a single image. His new body of work takes iconic filmed moments from history as the subject for visual investigation. The 'History Photographs' inhabit a liminal third space between the moving and the static, opening up a new way of experiencing culturally familiar events. From Muhammad Ali’s knock-out punch on George Foreman, to the interment of Queen Elizabeth II and Marilyn Monroe’s rendition of ‘Happy Birthday Mr. President’ to Stanley Kubrick’s masterpiece, '2001: A Space Odyssey,' Shulman reconfigures the flow of the moving-image through his own fixed lens, extending the exposure-time on his camera for seconds, minutes, or hours, to create a new category of representation. He captures feelings that are not seen by the naked eye, giving us the aura rather than just the details of what has happened. The atmospheric shift created through his process provides a transformative lens to an unseen world which is strangely dynamic and suffused with surreality. Currently living and working in London, Shulman has exhibited across Europe and the United States since the 1990s, and his works are held in important private collections across the globe. His work has been shown at COB (2021); Somerset House, London (2014); Shoreditch Town Hall, London (2014); La Maison Rouge, Paris (2013); The Wand, Berlin (2013); MONA, Tasmania, Australia (2012); The Rachofsky House, Dallas, Texas, USA (2011) and White Cube Gallery (Hoxton), London (2008). His work was also presented at Photo London, Somerset House, London (2017) and the Third Moscow Biennale, Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, Moscow (2009)

All About Photo presents an exclusive online exhibition featuring the work of the American photographer Carolyn Moore. On view throughout November 2024, this captivating showcase includes twenty street photographs from his acclaimed series ‘My Heart Exposed’ My Heart Exposed Photography to me, represents a composite of my personal feelings, emotions, values and experiences expressed on a canvas. It is as if the artwork is an open window where artist and viewer peer one to the other in a silent exchange. Images from “My Heart Exposed”, Volume 1, are created in a process that includes entering a meditative state where feelings, intuition and curiosity drive choices made in an experimental photographic process. This process lends an element of unpredictability, and as a result parameters are set for embracing surprises and allowing the image to evolve. The decisions I make are influenced by my innermost feelings and thus, each image presents a visually poetic reflection of my unique story. My personal story is made all the more poignant by the recent loss of family and intense emotional turmoil of the past year. This chaotic and complicated year of love, loss and strife made maintaining a sense of self a major challenge. I am often reminded of time spent in nature with lost family members, and I cherish the thought of loved one’s hands guiding me in a shared love of nature and an expression that uses plants as an artistic voice. I invite viewers to draw on their own experiences and allow their hearts to embark on a journey of reflection and discovery within each image. “My Heart Exposed”, Volume 1 are sunshine exposed Lumens with hand painted cyanotype on expired photographic paper. While developing this technique, I have experimented with different types of photographic paper, timing of exposure and elements that change the chemical reaction between plants and paper. Images evolve and change during the development process and I present captures of those stages in unaltered true color. While some images are fixed and will remain stable, others will continue to evolve and eventually dissipate altogether. Curated by Ann Jastrab, Executive Director Center for Photographic Art