Mitch Epstein: Old Growth

Pace is pleased to present an exhibition of work by the celebrated photographer and filmmaker Robert Frank at its 540 West 25th Street gallery in New York, on view from November 15 to December 21. This presentation, titled Robert Frank: Hope Makes Visions, marks the centenary of Frank’s birth and coincides with several other major exhibitions of his work around the world. Pace’s upcoming Frank exhibition—organized in collaboration with The June Leaf and Robert Frank Foundation—will be accompanied by a new book from Pace Publishing, featuring an essay by Ocean Vuong. Robert Frank: Hope Makes Visions will focus on Frank’s later work from the 1970s onward: the decades he spent experimenting with various cameras, printing methods, and media. Curated by Shahrzad Kamel, Director of The June Leaf and Robert Frank Foundation, the exhibition takes its title from a sketch Frank made of his work Fire Below—to the East America, Mabou (1979), which was included in a bequest the artist made of his photographs and papers to The June Leaf and Robert Frank Foundation upon his death in 2019, and one of many discoveries that inspired this presentation of previously unseen works from his oeuvre. Pace’s show will feature groupings of multimedia works based on various motifs that Frank revisited throughout his career, offering a new way of seeing his work that will deepen viewers’ understanding of his artistic processes and motivations. The photographs on view, some of which feature multiple frames in a single image, hand drawn etchings, and inscribed phrases, will showcase his long-standing interest in re-presenting older photographs from his past as new compositions, or ‘variants.’ Frank’s 2004 autobiographical short film True Story will also be presented in its entirety at the gallery. The atemporality of his photography and filmmaking—for which he pieced together fragments of not only images but also his own memories, dreams, and ideas—will be on full view in the exhibition.

CLAMP is pleased to present “Orange Blossom Trail,” an exhibition of photographs by Joshua Lutz, drawn from his recently published book of the same name, a collaboration with esteemed writer George Saunders. Lutz’s “Orange Blossom Trail” delves into the complex realities of life in Central Florida, a region often romanticized for its sunshine and theme parks, yet grappling with economic hardship, social inequality, and environmental fragility. Lutz’s lens captures this dichotomy, revealing a landscape imbued with both beauty and struggle. The exhibition features a selection of Lutz’s evocative photographs, offering glimpses into the lives of individuals navigating this challenging terrain. Images of lush landscapes interspersed with portraits of residents hint at the underlying tensions between the idyllic façade and the lived experiences of those who call it home. Lutz’s photographs capture moments of both quiet desperation and unexpected beauty. We see evidence of the region’s struggles in images of dilapidated buildings, neglected neighborhoods, and individuals grappling with poverty and isolation. Yet, amidst these challenges, Lutz also finds moments of resilience, hope, and human connection. Lutz’s work prompts viewers to consider the complexities of place and identity, and the human capacity for perseverance in the face of adversity. “Orange Blossom Trail” offers a nuanced and compassionate portrayal of a region often overlooked and misunderstood.

Charles Clayton ("Todd") Webb III was born in 1905 in Detroit, Michigan. After achieving success as a stockbroker during the 1920s, he lost everything in the financial collapse of 1929. In the aftermath, during the Great Depression, Webb took on various jobs, including gold prospecting, working as a forest ranger, and writing unpublished short stories. It was during this time, in the 1930s, that he developed an interest in photography, which soon overshadowed his writing. Photography allowed him to combine his passions for travel, meeting new people, and capturing their lives through his lens. In 1938, Webb became a member of the Chrysler Camera Club in Detroit, where he met fellow photographer Harry Callahan. His participation in a workshop led by Ansel Adams solidified Webb's dedication to "straight photography," known for its crisp focus and sharp details. After serving in World War II, he relocated to New York City, where he befriended Alfred Stieglitz and Georgia O'Keeffe. This connection introduced him to Beaumont Newhall, who later curated Webb's first major exhibition at the Museum of The City of New York. Around this time, Webb also worked with Roy Stryker and the Standard Oil Company, further establishing himself in the photographic world. In 1949, Webb moved to Paris, where he met his wife, Lucille. The couple lived in France for the next four years. Webb was awarded two Guggenheim fellowships in 1955 and 1956, allowing him to document the pioneer trails that early settlers took to Oregon and California. Unlike his contemporary, Robert Frank, who drove across the country, Webb journeyed on foot, photographing as he went from the East Coast to the West. Webb continued to photograph well into the 1980s, creating a distinctive body of work that has earned a significant place in American photographic history. Often called "a historian with a camera," Webb's images offer rich documentation of life across the globe. His work has been exhibited nationally and internationally and is held in numerous major museum collections, including the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Minneapolis Art Institute, and the Art Institute of Chicago. Todd Webb passed away in May 2000 at the age of 94 in Central Maine. His life, much like his photographs, may have seemed simple at first glance but revealed increasing complexity and depth upon closer inspection.

Pace is pleased to present Irving Penn: Kinship, an exhibition of work by the famed photographer Irving Penn, curated by artist Hank Willis Thomas, at its 508 West 25th Street gallery in New York. On view from November 15 to December 21, this show will spotlight works produced by Penn throughout his 70-year career, including selections from his Worlds in a Small Room series, his iconic portraits of artists, actors, and writers, and other genres of his images. These photographs will be exhibited within an installation designed by Thomas to replicate a structure that Penn used to photograph many of his high-profile subjects. Working for Vogue for nearly 70 years, Penn left an indelible mark on the history of photography. His inventive fashion photographs, which transformed American image-making in the postwar era, continued to appear in the magazine up until his death in 2009. The artist was also highly accomplished and experimental in the darkroom, having engineered, among other innovations, a complex technique for making platinum-palladium prints. A trained photographer, Thomas, widely known for his galvanizing public works around the US, is deeply interested in both the making and consumption of images. His investigations into subjectivity and perception inform his work in photography and other mediums, including sculpture, screenprinting, video, and installation. Penn’s Worlds in a Small Room works—for which he journeyed to Cuzco, Crete, Extremadura, Dahomey, Cameroon, San Francisco, Nepal, New Guinea, and Morocco to capture people’s portraits within a tent he used as a portable studio—have been particularly influential for Thomas, who was part of the artistic team behind the traveling, participatory installation In Search of the Truth (The Truth Booth), which debuted in 2011 and has since been presented around the world.

Daniel Cooney Fine Art is incredibly honored to present the work of the iconic Boston based photographer Jason Byron Gavann. The exhibition consists of 25 black and white and color images created between 1980 and 2006 in Boston, Provincetown and Paris. For over five decades Gavann has documented queer life in Boston and around the world. As a student at UMass Boston in the 1970’s a professor suggested that he “photograph what is most familiar." Gavann says, “A light went off in my head and I thought, I’ll photograph my friends.” The artist’s journey of finding inspiration in his friendships continues to this day. Growing up just outside of Boston, Gavann found sanctuary as a teen in the city’s Park Square. The area was a hub for young runaways, drag queens and sex workers. The formative environment influenced his photography as he developed a compassionate eye and yearned for a genuine connection. He learned to seek out compelling people radiating resilience that would create portraits that celebrate life. As a contemporary of the “Boston School” artists, Gavann created intimate portraits of Jack Pierson, Mark Morrisroe, Pat Hearn, Sharon Niesp and Tabboo! among others. The portraits will be included in the exhibition as Gavann’s influence on the group is significant, if not well documented. Pierson says of Gavann, “Jason’s spirit is a gift to us all. I don’t know anyone who makes working at your art and living a beautiful life look better.” Gavann’s portraits were recently included in Madonna’s “Celebration Tour” to honor artists lost to AIDS. He has exhibited his work domestically and internationally in both group and solo presentations. This year he was featured in Interview Magazine by curator Jackson Davidow.

Photo-Secession: Painterly Masterworks of Turn-of-the-Century Photography celebrates an intrepid group of photographers, led by preeminent photographer Alfred Stieglitz, who fought to establish photography as fine art, coequal with painting and sculpture at the turn of the 20th century. The Photo-Secession movement took cues from European modernists–who seceded from centuries-old academic traditions–to demonstrate photographic pictures' aesthetic, creative, and skillful value as art. An homage to Stieglitz, Photo-Secession includes some of the very images that established the appreciation of photography's artistic merits. The UMFA will present this exhibition concurrently with Blue Grass, Green Skies: American Impressionism and Realism from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art to draw attention to the cyclical dialogue between painting and photography in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. During this period, photographers manipulated their images at various stages of production to imitate painterly effects, while painters worked and reworked their oils to imitate the immediacy of photography, demonstrating a remarkable reciprocity between these two art forms.

The Center for Photographic Art (CPA) is excited to announce the 2024 International Juried Exhibition with over $5,000 in awards! Forty-five juror-selected photographs will be exhibited from November 23, 2024 through December 29, 2024 in our historic gallery in Carmel, California, and vie for eight cash awards totaling more than $5,000. These photographs will also be featured in an online gallery on the CPA website along with an additional forty-five juror selected images. 2024 IJE Juror: CPA is pleased to announce this year’s International Juried Exhibition juror: Elizabeth Avedon. Elizabeth Avedon is an independent curator, and photography book and exhibition designer. She is a sought after consultant for photographers; editing, sequencing, and advising towards their exhibition, book, and portfolio projects. Former Director of Photo-Eye Gallery, Santa Fe; Creative Director for The Gere Foundation; Art Director for Polo Ralph Lauren national advertising; and Photo Editor for Ralph Lauren Media’s RL Magazine, Elizabeth has received awards and recognition for her curatorial work, exhibition design and publishing projects, including the retrospective exhibition and book "Avedon: 1949-1979" for the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, and High Museum, Atlanta; "Avedon: In the American West" for the Amon Carter Museum, Corcoran Gallery, and Art Institute of Chicago. Also from the Leica Gallery, New York; the Menil Collection, Houston, Texas; and for the Estate of Diane Arbus, among others. She is an instructor in the prestigious Masters in Digital Photography program at the School of Visual Arts, New York and proud to have received a “Lifetime Achievement Award” from the Griffin Museum of Photography. Elizabeth brings a deep understanding of photography and a broad appreciation of diverse photographic styles, genres and mediums to CPA's 2024 International Juried Exhibition. Congratulations to the artists chosen for both our gallery and online exhibition!

All About Photo presents an exclusive online exhibition featuring the work of the American photographer Ghawam Kouchaki. On view throughout December 2024, this captivating showcase includes twenty street photographs from his acclaimed series ‘Tokyo No- No’ "Tokyo No-No" by Ghawam Kouchaki: A Striking Exploration of Modern Alienation Tokyo No-No examines modern alienation through the family unit in Tokyo, Japan—a phenomenon that transcends cultural boundaries and affects societies worldwide. Everywhere you look, people are struggling to meet expectations that feel increasingly out of reach. When we try to fit into the narrow margins set by others, we often find ourselves profoundly lonely, even among those closest to us. These moments weren’t unique to Tokyo, but something about the city’s relentless energy made them stand out. Hustle culture has infected everything—this constant pressure to capitalize on every second of your time, to never stop moving. I felt it too. I never once thought I should slow down and take in my surroundings. Instead, my mind was always searching for the next photo, always moving, just like the city around me. This isn’t just about Tokyo or America; it’s everywhere. People are told to follow a certain script: work hard, get a stable job, settle down, have kids. But for so many, that script is broken. Economic instability and the rising cost of living have turned milestones like starting a family or owning a home into luxuries most can’t afford. I’ve seen what happens when people try to live up to these expectations. They keep going through the motions, not because they want to, but because it’s all they know. They stay in jobs that drain them, relationships that don’t fulfill them, lives that feel like they belong to someone else. We know it’s not working, but we’re too afraid to try something new. We fall back on tradition, clinging to it because it feels safer than the unknown. Looking closer at the images, there’s a tension that’s hard to ignore—a sense of people teetering on the edge. Whether it’s in the haze of public drunkenness, the defiant stares of commuters heading to work, or the raw, unfiltered emotions spilling out onto the street when someone can no longer keep up appearances, these moments reveal people at their breaking points. These photos capture what happens when we ignore our reality for too long, as people search for release in ways that feel explosive, desperate, or self-destructive. These aren’t isolated incidents but symptoms of a deeper, systemic problem. A great photographer once said that to capture an effective photograph, you need to be a human being first. While I can’t make a direct, one-to-one comparison between my life and the lives of my subjects, their energy reflected my own feelings back at me. That’s what Tokyo No-No is about: creating space for reflection. I hope these photos act as a mirror for some, reaching those who feel trapped by the same pressures. Even for those who can’t quite articulate why they’re dissatisfied, I hope these images inspire a moment of pause—a chance to make small changes toward something better, no matter how insignificant those changes might seem.

As the George Eastman Museum approaches and celebrates its 75th anniversary, we are featuring a group of exhibitions that highlight a wide range of holdings from the museum’s collection. With this selection of objects in the Collection Gallery, we continue our broad survey of works to draw parallels and connections between photography, history, and culture. The objects chosen for this exhibition will chart a course through this history, identifying notable movements and trends while giving context to a breadth of photographic practices, technologies, communities, and traditions. In this exhibition, direct comparisons are made between early photographic print processes, such as the daguerreotypes produced by Southworth & Hawes in the United States and the salted paper prints of Hill & Adamson in Scotland. These objects showcase the resources and technologies that were present at the time of their making, as well as the competing interests that propelled their development in the 19th century. Other pairings in this exhibition examine the development of photographic styles and aesthetics, each a response to specific cultural or artistic trends that emerged throughout the 20th century: Pictorialism, Group f/64, photojournalism and reportage, abstraction and experimentation, and the influence of postmodern practices in contemporary art. The response to these photographic traditions has been varied and complex, and not without critical discourse and debate. These evolutions, however, have increased access to photographic tools and technologies while expanding our understanding of photography and its wider cultural implications. The history of photography has grown to encompass a multitude of voices and diverse perspectives, each of them bringing forth new challenges and provocative assessments of that which came before. This selection includes works by Julia Margaret Cameron, Alfred Stieglitz, László Moholy-Nagy, Dorothea Lange, Gordon Parks, Robert Frank, Imogen Cunningham, Diane Arbus, Andy Warhol, Nan Goldin, and many others. Certain photographs in the exhibition will be alternated over the course of the next year, when the exhibition will coincide with the George Eastman Museum’s 75th Anniversary exhibition in the main galleries. Image: Capitol Police Officer Eugene Goodman stands firm as rioters push toward the Senate chamber during the Jan. 6 siege in the United States Capitol © Ashley Gilbertson

Berkeley-based photographer Jenny Sampson has spent many years photographing the Bay Area skater community. Skaters have long been seen as rebellious, marked by their fashion, the noise they make rolling down the streets, and their unconventional use of urban spaces. This non-conformist image reflects the depth and determination of skate culture, where skaters fall, rise, and persevere with resilience. Working with the 173-year-old photographic process of wet collodion or tintype, Sampson captures the beauty and spirit of the thoroughly contemporary culture of skating. Creating these intimate portraits requires time, interaction, and collaboration, mirroring the inclusive nature of skater culture. Each portrait reveals a unique honesty, offering a glimpse into the skater or sitter’s true character. Sampson was born and raised in San Francisco. She earned a B.A. in Psychobiology at Pitzer College and has since dedicated her time to her photographic endeavors. She teaches high school darkroom photography, writes and photographs for WithitGirl, is a Rolls and Tubes Collective member, and is the Board President of the East Bay Photo Collective. Daylight Books published her monographs, Skaters and Skater Girls, in 2017 and 2020, respectively. A History of Photography, by Rolls and Tubes, was published in 2021.

M+B is pleased to present Bright Sun Sours, an exhibition of new works by Matthew Porter. This is the artist’s seventh solo show with the gallery. The exhibition opens on November 23, 2024 and will run through January 4, 2025 with an opening reception at the gallery on Saturday, November 23 from 6 to 8 pm. Bright Sun Sours is a collection of eight photographs, printed on an adhesive and mounted directly to the wall. The individual pictures are like chapters in a book of essays, connected by their visual style and recurring themes of cinematic romanticism. The medium’s inherent flexibility, along with the incorporation of techniques such as appropriation, digital montage, studio models, and AI tools, allows the artist to add to and manipulate photographs made in the studio or field. The result is less a coherent narrative than a series of glimpses into possible storylines, tempered by the realities of our time, and an underlying mood of concern. A man stands under a tree wearing a thong, a gas can in one hand and a bottle of water in the other. Perhaps he’s consolidating his resources, dressed for life under a blistering sun and a warming climate. The image seems absurd at first glance, yet the reality it posits is a future that’s one-part possible reality, the other a ridiculous post-apocalyptic genre piece. A young woman, wearing a sailor costume, checks her phone before stepping into her car, while her mother loads something into the trunk. Her outfit matches the one worn by Dasha Nekrasova, who first became internet famous for fending off a right-wing commentator by weaponizing the bored affectation of an acerbic teenager. Later, during the pandemic, she became a leading voice in the downtown right-leaning Manhattan cultural scene made famous for its roster of edge-lord artists and writers. Black Moon, Louis Malle’s mostly tedious 1975 fantasy horror film, contains a scene where the protagonist, a young woman frayed from a series of violent and dialectical conflicts, encounters a Unicorn. The brief conversation that ensues in probably the sanest thing that happens in the movie, and it wraps up with the Unicorn wandering off and proclaiming “I won’t be back for another hundred and fifty-four years.” The rest of us are stuck at the chateau for the remainder of the movie. Death Valley is famous for its cracked, parched look—a thick crust of salt baking in the sun, like snow that never melts. But during a recent storm, unprecedented rains flooded the basin with a few inches of water, turning the scorched desert into a placid lake. At sunrise and sunset, the water is still enough to reflect the mountains that surround the valley, mirroring the colors of the desert sky. The rest of it can be summed up quickly: An inverted truck, a tractor without its trailer, looms at the crest of a hill. The image is intended to feel like an 80s movie poster—a possessed piece of machinery that stalks a quiet neighborhood. Crumbling ruins, Greek columns, a tiny model placed next to the real thing. A figure in silhouette stands on a balcony, shielding their eyes from the ozone haze, like an insect fixed in amber. The balcony juts from the upper floor of a skyscraper, the tower modeled on the angular modernism of late 20th century science fiction. Butterflies clustered together for warmth, their wings opening in the dappled, late afternoon sunlight of a California winter. Matthew Porter (b. 1975, State College, PA) received his BA from Bard College and his MFA from Bard-ICP. Recent solo exhibitions include This Is How It Ends, Danzinger Gallery, New York, NY; The Sheen, The Shine, Gallery Xippas, Geneva, Switzerland, and Skyline Vista, M+B, Los Angeles, CA. His work has also been included in the thematic exhibitions Autophoto at the Fondation Cartier, Paris; Matter of Memory: Photography as Object in the Digital Age at the George Eastman Museum, Rochester, NY; Polaroids: The Disappearing at Nathalie Karg Gallery, New York, After Photoshop at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; and Perspectives at the International Center of Photography Museum, New York. Porter's curatorial projects include Soft Target, organized with Phil Chang at M+B, Los Angeles; Seven Summits at Mount Tremper Arts, New York; and The Crystal Chain at Invisible Exports, New York. He is the co-editor of Blind Spot magazine Issue 45 and his writings and interviews have been featured in Triple Canopy, Blind Spot, Artforum and Canteen. The artist’s work is held in the permanent collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Cincinnati Art Museum, Ohio; and the UBS Art Collection, New York, among others. Matthew Porter lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.

Casemore Gallery is pleased to present "Mercy, Give and Take", a group exhibition that explores the idea of opposition in the photographic works of John Gossage, Raymond Meeks, Awoiska van der Molen, Sean McFarland, and Aspen Mays. The show pairs works from each of the included artists, with each pairing sharing common visual elements—buildings, landscapes, photographic tools—but in markedly juxtaposed states, whether life or death, turmoil or serenity, idyll or menace, pushing up or giving way, or even transposal of space. In doing so, the viewer has the opportunity to look beyond the idea of opposition as having two parts, and ponder all that lies between. John Gossage (b. 1946) Staten Island, New York is an artist who has, more than most contemporary photographers, become noted for his intellectually engaging, subversive and well-crafted artist books and other publications. In them, the artist utilizes under-recognized elements of the urban environment—unused and abandoned patches of land, refuse and detritus, barbed wire, graffiti, and other disruptions—to explore themes as disparate as surveillance, memory and the relationship between architecture and power. Gossage was the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2012. His photographs have been featured in numerous solo and group exhibitions over the past 45 years. His many one-person exhibitions have included The Better Neighborhoods of Greater Washington, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC (1976); Photographs of Berlin, Cleveland Museum of Art, (1989); LAMF, Sprengel Museum, Hannover (1990); One Work in 39 Parts, The Saint Louis Museum of Art, (1994); There and Gone, Sprengel Museum, Hannover, (1998); The Romance Industry, Comune di Venezia, Venice (2003); Berlin in the Time of the Wall, Gallerie Zulauf, Freinsheim (2005); The Pond, National Museum of American Art, Washington, DC (2001); and Three Routines, Art Institute of Chicago (2014). Aspen Mays (b. 1980) received her MFA in photography from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2009. Solo exhibitions of her work have been mounted by the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago; Light Work, Syracuse; and the Center for Ongoing Projects and Research, Columbus. Mays was recently included in the exhibition Anna Atkins Refracted: Contemporary Works at the New York Public Library (2019). Mays was the recipient of a 2006 Rotary Fellowship and was a 2009 Fulbright Fellow. She lives and works in the San Francisco Bay Area, California, where she is Assistant Professor at California College of the Arts. Raymond Meeks (Ohio, 1963) has been recognized for his books and pictures centered on memory and place, the way in which a landscape can shape an individual and, in the abstract, how a place possesses you in its absence. Raymond Meeks lives and works in the Hudson Valley (New York). He is the sixth laureate of Immersion, a French-American photography commission sponsored by Fondation d’entreprise Hermès. Exhibitions from this commission were presented in New York (ICP September, 2023) and currently in Paris (Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson September, 2024). The Inhabitants, a book made in collaboration with writer George Weld, was published in August 2023 by MACK Awoiska van der Molen (1972) is a Dutch photographer known for her monumental black-and-white analogue images that represent her experience of the primordial and psychological space in the world she photographs. In 2019 van der Molen was shortlisted for the Prix Pictet, the global award in photography and sustainability. In 2017 she was both shortlisted for the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize and the recipient of the Larry Sultan Photography Award. Van der Molens' work has been shown at Foam Fotografiemuseum, Amsterdam; Huis Marseille, Amsterdam; Kousei-Inn, Kyoto; Les Rencontres d’Arles, France; Pier 24 Photography, San Francisco; Victoria & Albert Museum, London; The Photographers’ Gallery, London; FoMu, Antwerp; and Fotomuseum, Den Haag. Sean McFarland (b. California, 1976) creates work that explores the relationship between photography and the history and representation of landscape, particularly western landscapes and the skies above. With a focus on experimentation, the artist joins aspects of other mediums with photography to uncover the experience of seeing, the passing of time, and the knowledge that we and what we know cannot live forever. McFarland received a MFA from California College of the Arts, Oakland (2004) and a BS from Humboldt State University, Arcata, California (2002). His solo exhibitions include the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA (2017); Visual Studies Workshop, Rochester, New York (2015); San Francisco Camerawork, San Francisco (2009), and White Columns, New York (2004). His work has been included in group exhibitions at the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, Berkeley, CA (2018); George Eastman Museum, Rochester (2016); Aperture, New York (2014-15); and Bay Area Now 6, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco (2011). His work is in the permanent collections of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive; National Gallery of Art, Washington DC; George Eastman Museum; and the Milwaukee Art Museum. Francisco, and teaches at San Francisco State University. Image: Raymond Meeks, Halfstory #955 Canajaharie NY 2016, 2019