Michael Phipps: The River Runs Wild

For more than five decades photojournalist Stephen Shames (b. 1947) has used his work to call attention to a wide range of social issues—from the rights of children to poverty, race, and climate change. In 1965, while still a student at the University of California, Berkeley, Shames became the official photographer of the Black Panther Party at the invitation of party cofounder Bobby Seale. From then until 1973 he made hundreds of powerful images capturing the Panthers’ activities. Many record the everyday lives and critical work of the women who comprised more than 65 percent of the party’s membership. This exhibition brings together 27 photographs by Shames that feature the women, or “comrade sisters,” as they were known, of the Black Panther party. They document the efforts these women undertook at community schools, free medical clinics, voter registration sites, community nutrition programs, and elder care centers across the United States, and some feature party leaders such as Ericka Huggins and Kathleen Cleaver. Shames’s photos reframe the male-dominated reputation of the Black Panthers, making it clear that the party’s unsung women were at the very heart of the collective movement—and ensuring the lasting legacy of the comrade sisters in the process. Image: Stephen Shames, Oakland, California: Kathleen Cleaver, Communications Secretary and first female member of the Party’s decision-making Central Committee, talks with Black Panthers from Los Angeles who came to the “Free Huey” rally in DeFremery Park (named by the Panthers Bobby Hutton Park) in West Oakland (detail), 1968. © 2023, Stephen Shames.

What creative possibilities are offered by the gaps, absences, and silences in historical records? Magnum Foundation is pleased to present an upcoming exhibition of work from our Counter Histories Initiative, featuring four photographers who excavate records of state surveillance, national mythologies, and revolutionary histories—and the stories they omit. In Puerto Rico, Christopher Gregory-Rivera uncovers the hidden stories found in government files, documenting decades of surveillance against independence activists. In Poland, Agata Szymanska-Medina makes visible the apparatus of state power in the present, exposing a nationalist party’s campaign to undermine an independent judiciary. In Nepal, Prasiit Sthapit preserves a history of activism against the state, collecting the stories of musicians who energized the country’s Maoist revolution. And in Algeria, Abdo Shanan fills gaps in the national record, responding to a public iconography dominated by independence heroes with his own archive of ordinary citizens. Together, they offer a wide range of approaches that challenge the power structures embedded in archives and suggest the radical possibilities of alternative narratives. All four artists are grantees of Magnum Foundation’s Counter Histories Initiative supporting projects that revisit and reframe the past in the context of the present, offering an expanded and collaborative approach to historical inquiry and photographic storytelling.

Eli Klein Gallery is thrilled to present Order out of Chaos, Liu Bolin’s ninth solo show at the gallery. The exhibition will debut the artist’s much anticipated new sculpture series Chaos - marking an important evolution of the “invisible man” who now transforms others “invisible.” The exhibition will also present Liu’s recent photographs, continuing the development of his world-renowned Hiding in the City series. Running through May 25, 2024, this show is the artist's response to the increasingly digitized society. For the first time, Liu’s performance of “concealing” becomes an act of “sensing,” with him holding a 3D scanner performing the action of scanning his subjects, whether they be a woman holding a cat, a man texting on a smartphone, or the artist himself. The subject is always in a meditative state. When the scanning process begins, the target completely releases him/herself (disappearing) from his/her physical state, and only communicates with his/her inner self. Liu Bolin is the observer and sensor throughout the performance: he deliberately uses an out-dated 3D scanner due to its unique capability to create a fragmented and torn aesthetic when the sculptures were produced, hinting at the impossibility of disappearing completely in the digital world. The out-dated scanner and computer program create a system of colors that are applied arbitrarily as per the different layers of scans. Liu did not attempt to alter these color patterns upon painting the sculptures, an act of yielding power to the machine. Trained professionally as a sculptor, Liu Bolin surprisingly sourced his inspiration of Chaos from Rondanini Pietà - Michelangelo’s final unfinished work. Even though Michelango’s work had been completed 450 years prior to Chaos, Liu views this sculpture as the grand master’s most contemporary work which actually depicts multiple faces and out-of-the-body limbs. Liu believes that Rondanini Pietà, which seems eerily modern, hints at the inevitability of machine-produced imagery taking over contemporary visual culture. Chaos - Me, the largest scale sculpture in the exhibition, shows Liu Bolin’s own body, and is hollow so as to permit inspection inside out. This is because Liu believes the process of self-inspection creates a “fourth dimension,” which is illustrated by the fact that this sculpture comes in numerous parts and can be assembled at varying distances In the Hiding in the City series, Liu Bolin continues to explore the possibility of his body’s disappearance in a physical sense by concealing himself. This selection of photos showcases his acute observations and questioning of global cultural, social, and political issues. Central Park is a collaboration between Liu Bolin and Annie Leibovitz, capturing the autumn scenery of New York's Central Park. Liu is performing in this photograph, of which Annie Leibovitz is the photographer. HK Message Wall is displayed to the public for the first time since its creation, documenting Liu Bolin's reflections on the proposed Anti-Extradition Law Amendment in Hong Kong in 2019. Liu Bolin blends into the wall of the Tai Po Market station in the Hong Kong subway, which is covered with slogans, drawings, and graffiti. Hidden within these writings and images, which were quickly removed by the authorities, are the voices of some courageous Hong Kong people advocating for their rights and interests through non-verbal resistance. Hiding in Italy - Fruit Juices was shot by Liu Bolin in the suburb of Verona, Italy. Liu Bolin hides among the colorful and vibrant fruit juice shelves to demonstrate the connection between commodities and consumer life, furthering his critique on the global inequality in food access.

A hundred years ago, Aldo Leopold cooked up a fine idea in the Gila and we tagged these end-of-the-line places with the moniker “Wilderness” – so a celebration is in order. And an opportunity to come closer to that ideal. – Michael P Berman The Gila Wilderness area is located within the Gila National Forest in Southwest New Mexico and was designated on June 3, 1924. “One hundred years ago, Aldo Leopold held with conviction that wilderness is a value unto itself and a precious resource to be protected. He also had the influence and power of persuasion to effect change,” said Gila National Forest Supervisor Camille Howes. “He argued for large swaths of land to be set aside for ecosystem function and recreation, where man is only a visitor. Convinced of his wisdom, the Southwestern Region of the Forest Service answered the call for protection by designating the Gila Wilderness.” “At this historical political, social, ecological moment, so much is framed in terms of wins and losses. As we’re celebrating the win of 100 years of Wilderness, I think it’s safe to say no one victory is ever only triumph, and no forfeiture only ever defeat. The Gila has given us so much, but there is so much yet to be determined in terms of what a new paradigm of land management looks like that meets the threats of the 21st century. The Gila is the landscape to inspire that vision, and Michael Berman’s photographs provoke that sense of possibility and wonder, calling on us to look deeply at all that is wild, and ask ourselves, ‘What is my responsibility to this land?'” -Leia Barnett, Greater Gila New Mexico Advocate, WildEarth Guardians Here is a question: Which place has created more security for the American people, Trinity or the Gila Wilderness? ….. both cannot be the future. Nuclear weapons and wilderness write two different endings for Homo Sapiens. Whatever answer is given to this question exposes who we are and what kind of world we will help create. – Charles Bowden Michael P. Berman is no stranger to the Gila Wilderness. Living in Southern New Mexico, photographing in and around the area for years, culminated into the book, Gila (University of New Mexico Press, 2012) with over a 100 of his photographs and essays by the likes of Charles Bowden and many others. Berman is known for wandering the terrain of the American West, Mexico, Norteno and the extensive grasslands of Mongolia. Mr. Berman’s classically executed black and white photographs participate in and extend the tradition of western landscape photography; each body of work is distilled from extensive exploration of a cohesive landscape over time. After completing a series of photographs he then cuts up the negatives and prints and uses them as the basic medium for installations and paintings. The works in this exhibition consist of both traditional black and white prints, alongside Berman’s well-known ‘plates’ in which he uses mixed media on aluminum to combine both his photographs, acrylic, and varnish. In addition he ‘composite’ photographs, all of which he uses from his original images of the Gila to recreate a new visual representation that conjure up the emotional response felt while living and breathing within the Gila Wilderness. For me that territory is the mountains and canyons north of where I live – the Gila and Aldo Leopold Wilderness. And it is here again and in all seasons that I have lit out. Honestly I’ve never felt the magic of the place so deeply … and yet been bedeviled by how poor a job we … the collective we, all of us, myself included … do when it comes to protecting the land. We are part of something greater than ourselves. And the trick, in these times, is to be quiet enough to perceive our place in where we are and what is actually out there. – Michael Berman Image: Gila Composite, 2024 © Michael P. Berman

Marian Goodman Gallery New York is delighted to present an exhibition by Giuseppe Penone that will be on view from 3 May - 29 June. Shaped by a conceptual movement in the 1960s and 1970s that sought to ground art in everyday materials, Penone has worked in a distinctive realm within the tradition of arte povera with a unique body of work that prioritizes process, time, phenomena, the body and nature as sculptural materials, offering a continuous reinterpretation of these forms and their meaning. On view will be a selection of key photographic works, sculptures, and recent works on canvas which span the years 1970-2023, highlighting a conceptual theme that has propelled his practice and continues to resonate today. Central to this is the notion of touch and its importance to the artist: "to touch, understand a form, an object is like covering it with prints. A trace formed by the images that I have on my hands," wrote Penone in 1969. Beyond the conventions of sight, the imprint for Penone is touch transformed into a fossilized gesture that records and shapes our reality and our perceptions. An index of the individual it is simultaneously unique and "the most democratic image that can be conveyed -- an image that leads human beings back to matter, to nature." Touch and breath, forms which belong to everyone, transmute the tactile into the visual, underlying Penone's notion of living sculpture. A point of departure in this exhibition is an early sculpture from 1979-82 titled Cocci (Shards), which traces the imprint of the artist's cupped hands holding a fragmented vessel, preserved through poured plaster. These solidified forms delineate both the residual shards of a vessel and the shape of the artist cupping his hands around it, reminiscent of the primordial gesture of trying to keep hold of what is fluid. Inspired by the gestures and actions in Cocci, two decades later in 2004-05, Penone undertook a similar process: creating larger plaster shapes tracing the imprint of the hand, substituting children's wooden blocks for vessel fragments, and casting the blocks into steel. With the plaster shapes in bronze, and the wooden blocks in steel, Geometria nelle mani (Geometry in the Hands), 2005, was created. A series of five sculptures on view here, they contain a memory of Cocci. Their seemingly natural bronze surfaces resemble human imprints and are juxtaposed with stainless steel geometries, creating a dialectic of forms. Within each of the sculptures lies a hidden complexity: a small void of the same shape as the wooden block through which we're able to glimpse the artist's hand - the principle of creation at the heart of Penone's practice. In a group of early works from 1970-1973, Coincidenza di immagini (Images Coincidence) and Svolgere la propria pelle (To Unroll One's Skin), photographs of a part of the body correlate to ink prints of their respective skin areas establishing a relationship between the visual representation and the perception of touch, and revealing the richness of the image of the skin. These works suggest that the physical encounter with the universe is more profound than the experience of it through sight. Trattenere 6, 8, 12, 16 anni di crescita (To Retain 6,8,12,16 Years of Growth), 2004-2020, is a cast in bronze of a hand grasping the trunk of a young tree, retaining a hold upon it even as the tree continues to grow around it for six, eight, twelve, sixteen years. From his first works, Alpi Marittime in 1968, for Penone the tree retains a memory of an action over time, giving life to the relationship between forms and the the imprint of the hand within a sculpture. Installed on the wall and suspended by a steel cable are the works from Avvolgere la terra - il colore nelle mani (To Enfold the Earth – the colour of the hands), 2014, each formed by enlarging a handful of clay bearing the imprint of the artist's hands, and revealing that imprint in terracotta and pigments of red, light pink, blue, and yellow. In his most recent works, a series titled Impronte di Luce (Imprints of Light), 2023, Penone turns to painting, exploring gesture and imprint in an entirely new context. In each of these works gestures of the hands imprinted on paper with ink are enlarged and transported onto canvas to create colorful compositions. The brilliantly hued colors of the background of the canvases are derived from Le Corbusier's 'architectural polychromy,' a chromatic palette of 63 colors formulated in 1931 and enriched in 1959. Each canvas has the proportions of a 183 x 183 cm perfect square, inspired by the 'Modulor,' Le Corbusier's anthropometric system of proportions and measurements based on the golden ratio. ; Resembling both imprints of bodies and abstract shapes, the dancing forms that emerge on these canvases appear anthropomorphic and vegetal. The inspiration for Impronte di Luce was an exhibition at the priory of Couvent de la Tourette, France in 2022, in which Penone responded to the original skin of Le Corbusier's building with a series of frottage drawings tracing the grain of wood in the walls, again interpreting them in the context of Corbusier's architecture and color scheme. The rubbings of the building anticipate the current works on view, reimagining them in a related palette and new form as gestures of the body: "The imprint reveals the golden ratio that I have in my hands," says Penone. Giuseppe Penone was born in Garessio, Italy in 1947. He lives and works in Turin. Giuseppe Penone has had recent solo exhibitions at the Galleria Borghese, Rome (2023); Centre Pompidou, Paris (2022); Philadelphia Museum of Art (2022); Villa Medici, Rome (2021); Palais d'léna - CESE, Paris, France (2019); Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Wakefield, UK (2018); Chateau La Coste, Le Puy-Sainte-Réparade (2017); Palazzo della Civilità, Rome (2017); Louvre Abu Dhabi, UAE (2017); MART, Rovereto (2016); Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam (2016); Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas (2015); Musée Cantonal des Beaux-Arts, Lausanne, Switzerland (2015); the Beirut Art Center, Lebanon (2014); the Musée de Grenoble, France (2014); the Château de Versailles, France (2013); Kunstmuseum Winterthur (2013); Madison Square Park, New York (2013) and Whitechapel Gallery, London (2013). In 2023 Penone became a Foreign Associate Member of the Académie des Beaux-Arts. Among his many awards he recently received the McKim Medal (2017) and the prestigious Praemium Imperiale International Arts Award for Sculpture in 2014. Giuseppe Penone has exhibited at Documenta V (1972), VII (1982), VIII (1987) and XIII (2012) and at the Venice Biennale in 1978, 1980, 1986, 1995, and 2007. Earlier this year The Logic of the Vegetal - Metamorphosis was presented at Desert X AlUla 2024 located in northwest Saudi Arabia. In May 2024, Penone will unveil a new site-specific sculpture commissioned by the Princess Estelle Cultural Foundation for its sculpture park on Royal Djurgåden, Sweden, in celebration of its five-year anniversary.

Jackson Fine Art is pleased to present new exhibitions from acclaimed artists Lalla Essaydi and Shanequa Gay, each offering a captivating dialogue between cultural heritage and feminine identity in their respective series, "Conflicted Identities" and "Gateway to the South." Through a dynamic blend of visual storytelling and multimedia art, both artists invite viewers to delve into rich tapestries of personal experience, societal norms, and the enduring legacy of colonialism. In "Conflicted Identities," Lalla Essaydi explores the complexities of cultural identity within the context of Islamic culture. Born in Morocco in 1956, Essaydi's work reflects her own experiences growing up in a postcolonial society grappling with issues of tradition, modernity, and gender. Through innovative visual and conceptual strategies, she challenges conventional representations of women in Islamic art, reclaiming their narratives and agency. Central to the series is Essaydi's use of beer bottle caps to construct colonial dresses for her models, a powerful metaphor for the intersection of tradition and modernity, East and West. Moroccan-born artist Lalla Assia Essaydi has gained global recognition for her powerful portraits of Arab women, rooted in her rich Moroccan heritage. By incorporating Arabic calligraphy, henna, and textile art into her photographs, Essaydi offers a nuanced portrayal that challenges Western stereotypes of the veiled Arab woman. Born in 1956, the year of Morocco's independence, Essaydi's work delves into the complexities of postcolonial identity, navigating the intersection of East and West. In her recent series, "Conflicted Identities," she creates dresses from beer bottle caps, symbolizing the clash between Morocco's Muslim identity and the prevalence of alcohol. With a background in traditional Muslim society and Western art education, Essaydi bridges cultural divides, inviting viewers to resist stereotypes and embrace pluralism in her art. Her work is included in many private and public collections, including the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; the Spelman Museum of Art, Atlanta; The Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago; the Louvre Museum, Paris; and the Arab Museum of Modern Art, Qatar, among many others Image: Lalla Essaydi Conflicted Identities #3, 2023

TEN NINETEEN presents Back Home, an exhibition of new work by Tiffany Smith (b. 1980), comprising self-portrait photography, video, and a site-responsive installation. The exhibition honors migratory Caribbean histories and locates them in the blend of African diasporic traditions that emerge within the cultural practices and architecture of New Orleans. “Back home” is an idiom that situates one’s place of origin as elsewhere, or describes a return to ancestral roots. Smith grew up in Nassau, Bahamas, and Miami, Florida. Her people come from all over the Caribbean: Bahamas, Jamaica, Trinidad, Guyana, and Barbados. Having lived in New York City for more than a decade, Smith recently relocated to New Orleans, the "northernmost Caribbean city," a place that reminds her of home. Her installationconsiders the legacies of Caribbean migration between New Orleans and the West Indies. Within the exhibition, home is an abstract concept reflected in the physical, fragmented elements of house and garden spaces. Blending locally salvaged materials and flashy, polished surfaces, Smith has built false walls, impenetrable openings, stairs to nowhere, and compromised columns to evoke a dream-like scene from her memory of a family home in an ongoing conversation between past and present. Smith’s garden spaces feature predominantly native plants set in grass, soil, and sand terrain. Planted with species that thrive locally, including plants with culturally relevant medicinal and culinary uses, the gardens serve as living ancestral altars, acknowledging the ingenuity and resilience required to navigate an ever-changing terrain. Informed by gardening traditions though the African American South and the Caribbean diaspora, Smith honors the garden as a site where traditions and cultural practices are inherited. Interspersed through the installation are Smith's self-portraits from the series For Tropical Girls Who Have Considered Ethnogenesis When the Native Sun is Remote (2014-2024). Using early ethnographic photographs and family photos as points of departure, Smith creates fantastical self-portraits that question identity constructs and the psychological implications of iconography. She masquerades in costumes and sets that mine the personal and collective memory of the Caribbean, using her own experiences and stories to reclaim its representation. Image: Rosette Beach, 2024 © Tiffany Smith

Jackson Fine Art is pleased to present new exhibitions from acclaimed artists Lalla Essaydi and Shanequa Gay, each offering a captivating dialogue between cultural heritage and feminine identity in their respective series, "Conflicted Identities" and "Gateway to the South." Through a dynamic blend of visual storytelling and multimedia art, both artists invite viewers to delve into rich tapestries of personal experience, societal norms, and the enduring legacy of colonialism. Shanequa Gay's "Gateway to the South" offers a poignant reflection on family history and Southern Black traditions. Drawing inspiration from her maternal great-grandfather's photographs, Gay celebrates the resilience and creativity of her ancestors while exploring themes of identity, heritage, and spirituality. Through a rich tapestry of multimedia works, Gay blurs the lines between past and present, weaving together narratives of joy, candor, and myth. Her collaged panels feature hybrid characters that embody the complexities of human existence, offering a profound meditation on the power of art to illuminate the past and shape the future. Together, "Conflicted Identities" and "Gateway to the South" create a compelling dialogue between cultures and continents, inviting viewers to reconsider preconceived notions and engage with the complexities of human experience. Both Essaydi and Gay offer nuanced reflections on the intersections of identity, memory, and imagination, challenging viewers to explore the boundaries of tradition and the fluidity of feminine identity. "Conflicted Identities" by Lalla Essaydi and "Gateway to the South" by Shanequa Gay will be on display at Jackson Fine Art April 11 — June 29, 2024. A public opening reception with both artists present will be held on the evening of Thursday, April 11th from 6:00 to 8:00pm. Visitors are invited to immerse themselves in this thought-provoking dialogue between two visionary artists and explore the rich tapestries of personal experience and cultural heritage woven throughout their work. Image: Shanequa Gay x James Battle only a few are invited to toil here, 1930s- 2024

Casemore Gallery is pleased to announce the opening of Some Polar Expiation, an Enormous Cat, a Complete Collection of Cinematic Houses at Night, a Starlet, a Mentor, some Assorted Reveries & a Message from the Future, the largest survey of Todd Hido’s photographs ever assembled, including pictures from his most recent body of work, The End Sends Advance Warning, a very rare presentation of his complete House Hunting pictures, and a selection of additional key images from throughout his career. The exhibition will be held at Minnesota Street Project’s 6,000-square-foot space at 1150 25th Street (formerly the home of the McEvoy Foundation). Hido (born in Kent, Ohio, 1968) first found his photographic vision through an obsessive exploration of the suburban landscape of his childhood that became the pictures in House Hunting. Through his lens, the idyllic promises of American suburbia were exposed as something darker and entropic. In these images, chipped paint, broken picket fences, and muddy ground reflect homes almost sulking in twilight mist. The muted interior light emanating from thinly curtained windows conceals the lives of the people within, hiding in an anxious, protective posture from the changing world outside. Also in the exhibition is “Dad On The Bed” an image by the late Larry Sultan, an important mentor to Hido, from his series Pictures From Home. According to Hido, “Like Larry, I wanted to photograph the notion of family, but without making pictures of my own family. He showed me that pictures of domesticity didn’t need to consist of portraits, but that the places families inhabit can in fact be just as powerful and revealing. House Hunting was born in part from his mentorship.” While House Hunting, Outskirts, and other subsequent bodies of his suburbia-focused work ultimately gave Hido a sense of closure around his own childhood experiences, these works and their focus on exteriors inspired him to further his practice by creating a sui generis visual language of landscape photography. By shooting in rainy or inclement conditions, sometimes through the windshield of his car, and other unusual conditions, he found new ways to see the world around him. These landscapes feel mysterious and dark, boldly cinematic, beautiful but menacing, not so much expansive as claustrophobic, often apocalyptic. These further explorations of landscape ultimately led him to go beyond the United States mainland to photograph in diverse locations around the world. His most recent body of work, The End Sends Advance Warning, features pictures from the Bay Area of California, where he currently lives, but he has roamed as far as the Hawaiian Islands and their meteorological opposites; the shores of the Bering Sea, and Nordic fjords above the Arctic Circle. Hido’s signature visuals remain vividly present, but there is a new focus. Irrespective of its title, this latest body of work is about hope and beauty and why we seek it so desperately at this time. The pictures are not without the sense of foreboding that echoes the global political and environmental dynamics currently in play, but they see beyond that. Mystery and majesty abound and a planet greater than us emerges, with an enduring and transcendent beauty that radiates optimism for the future. Rounding out the show are a selection of key images from additional bodies of Hido’s work through the years, from cinematic portraits of his model and muse Khrystyna Kazakova, to a whimsical image of a large and imposing cat in front of garish wood paneling. In all, the exhibition features more than 90 images, the largest-ever assembly of Hido’s work. Todd Hido’s photographs have been the subject of solo exhibitions at the 49th edition of Les Recontres d’Arles, France, the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, and the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Le Locle, Switzerland. Other major institutions that have exhibited Hido’s work include the Whitney Museum of American Art; the Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.; Pier 24: Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago; Miami Art Museum, Florida; Netherland Architecture Institute, Rotterdam; Palazzo Ducale, Genova, Italy; and the Samsung Museum of Modern Art in Korea. Work by Hido is held in over 50 public and private collections including the Guggenheim Museum, New York; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; The Getty; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; the Art Institute of Chicago; the Smithsonian; and Fotomuseum Winterthur. In addition to The End Sends Advance Warning and House Hunting, he has six additional monographs and numerous other publications. His work has influenced multiple Hollywood productions, such as Spike Jones's Her, Sam Levinson's Euphoria, Issa López's True Detective: Night Country, and the upcoming directorial project by Jason Momoa, Chief of War. He is also one of the subjects of Momoa's HBO Max documentary project on creative makers, On The Roam.

When photographer Barbara Bosworth was a child growing up in Novelty, Ohio, she would go on nighttime walks with her father, and they would gaze up at the sky. This practice, which became a lifelong passion, inspired the photographs in this exhibition. Timed to coincide with the total solar eclipse visible in Cleveland on April 8, it explores Bosworth’s photographs of light—from eclipses, sunrises, and sunsets to the luminescent glow of fireflies and a flashlight. Light is essential to both photography and astronomy. British scientist and astronomer Sir John Herschel coined the term photography in 1839 by combining Greek words that mean “drawing with light.” The camera and telescope, which Bosworth has used together in some of the photographs on view, each collect light. Her pictures of stars are the result of the impact on film of light that has traveled millions of years to get there. Nine monumental color images of the sky and heavenly bodies are joined by six intimately scaled black-and-white scenes of life and light on the earth. Seen together, they suggest how we endow astronomical phenomena with personal meaning. Bosworth’s art elucidates bonds between humans and the natural world that often go unnoticed. Image: Ramkishore Singh of Rewa (detail), c. 1885–87 © Raja Deen Dayal

All About Photo is pleased to present 'Reimagined Landscapes: Iceland' by Attila Ataner Part of the exclusive online showroom developed by All About Photo, this exhibition is on view for the month of June 2024 and includes fourteen photographs from the series ‘Reimagined Landscapes: Iceland’ Reimagined Landscapes: Iceland I visited Iceland over the course of August and September of 2006, at a pivotal time in my life. My memories of this enchanted place are bound up with its landscapes. Iceland consists of many incredible vistas … vast open spaces, open skies, mountains, streams and ponds, barren black rocks, volcanic sands, mossy stones, crashing ocean waves … soft misty light on some days, harsh sunny contrasts on others. All of these have now melded together in me. Everything I remember and feel about Iceland is now refracted through time and distance. As such, I reimagined and re-edited the photos from my trip in ways that now feel more authentic. These images embody my memories; this is how Iceland sits in my mind and heart today. Remarkably, I still return to Iceland in my dreams, and this is how I see things, more or less, as I dream. In order to make these final images, I paired and grafted together various sets of photos from my trip. I also re-framed them in a 1:2 aspect ratio, in keeping with traditional Asian scroll paintings … an aspect ratio that is meant to emphasize the conjointment of Earth and Sky.

With great pride, THE WERK, and Fire Island Pines Historical Preservation Society present FIRE ISLAND The Photography of Meryl Meisler, a celebration of 1970s Gay Culture. Meryl Meisler captured the sexy, free-spirited, post-Stonewall/pre-AIDS summers on Fire Island with her camera in the late 1970s. FLASHBACK August 4, 1962: Shocking news! Meryl and friends at Girl Scout Camp Edey in Bayport, Long Island, New York, were stunned—Marilyn Monroe was found dead. The femme fatale blonde bombshell was gone. A fairy tale came to an end. A few days later, the Camp Edey Girl Scouts began whispering about another fairy tale. During a nearby beach sleepover, the girls told stories of Fire Island, a place in the ocean where naked fairies lived in little houses with cute names like "Shirley Temple." Meryl’s curiosity piqued; she looked across the Great South Bay for the island with naked fairies but could not see a thing. Summer 1977: Partying at Studio 54 in Manhattan, Meryl befriended a trans woman named Alexa, who introduced her to Barnett, a Manhattan beautician. Barnett was recovering from a breakup with his business and romantic partner. Enjoying Meryl's company, he invited her for a weekend at his beach house, "SURVIVOR" in Cherry Grove, Fire Island. Meryl brought along her disco buddy JudiJupiter. Fortunately, Meryl also brought her camera. The wild scene quickly awoke Meryl's dormant childhood memory—this was THE Fire Island, the land of naked fairies. Barnett welcomed Meryl and JudiJupiter to come again anytime, and they did, many summer weekends until Barnett sold "SURVIVOR" in 1979. Fire Island was eye candy for a young lesbian photographer with a quirky eye. Back in her apartment darkroom, she developed the film, made just two prints, and tucked the work away until decades later. Many of the images in this show have never been previously exhibited. Meryl's black-and-white photographs capture the queer communities of Cherry Grove and The Pines at what many consider the golden era of unbridled sexual liberation. Friends, families, lovers, young people, elders, drag queens, fashionistas, butches, femmes, straight & sassy, bikinied, high-heeled and barefooted disco dancers, boaters, nude sun-bathers, fun-loving festive people of all diverse backgrounds, sexual and gender identities, ethnicities, races, colors and creeds rejoicing together on Fire Island.