The Polaroid Project: At the Intersection of Art and Technology

Ed Kashi has spent nearly five decades documenting the pulse of the modern world—its struggles, hopes, and transformations. A pioneering photojournalist and filmmaker, Kashi’s career embodies a deep commitment to storytelling as an act of empathy and responsibility. His latest book, A Period in Time: Looking Back while Moving Forward: 1977–2022, gathers over two hundred photographs that trace his lifelong pursuit to witness history as it unfolds. More than a visual record, the book offers a reflection on how photography can both reveal and preserve the fragile connections between people and place. From his earliest assignments in the late 1970s to his long-term projects in the Middle East, Europe, and the Americas, Kashi’s work captures not just events, but the human emotions that define them. His images of the Kurdish struggle, his exploration of identity in the Middle East—rooted in his own Iraqi heritage—and his portraits of aging in America all demonstrate a profound sensitivity to the resilience of the human spirit. Each photograph is an act of witnessing, a meditation on endurance and dignity amid upheaval. The book also unveils Kashi’s inner world. Through excerpts from personal “dispatches” sent to his wife, Julie Winokur, readers gain access to the solitude, ethical weight, and emotional cost of a life spent on the frontlines of global storytelling. These intimate moments remind us that behind every image lies the experience of the photographer—his doubts, discoveries, and devotion to truth. Published by the Briscoe Center for American History at the University of Texas at Austin, A Period in Time stands as both archive and testament. It invites readers to see photography not simply as documentation, but as a living dialogue between past and present—a tool for understanding humanity and, ultimately, ourselves. Image: Ed Kashi Youth gather around a makeshift bonfire in The Fountain, a Loyalist housing estate in a Protestant enclave of Londonderry, Northern Ireland, 1989 © Ed Kashi

From 1949 to 1978, photography in the People’s Republic of China was reserved for governmental propaganda: Its function was to present an idealized image of life under Chairman Mao and communist rule. In 1978, as China opened to global trade and Western societies, photography as documentation, art, and personal expression experienced a sudden awakening. Personal photographic societies formed, art schools began teaching photography, and information on Western contemporary art became available. In the late 1990s, a new generation of Chinese artists, many initially trained as painters, revolted against traditional academic definitions of photography. Building on the work done in the previous decades by Western artists, they dissolved the boundaries between photography, performance art, conceptual art, and installation. In so doing, they brought photography into the foreground in Chinese contemporary art. This exhibition presents works from the museum’s collection by eight key artists from that generation. Born between 1962 and 1969, these artists grew up during the Cultural Revolution (1966–76), when conformity was required and past intellectual and artistic products—whether artistic, family history, or documentary—were banned and destroyed. They also experienced the cultural vacuum that followed this erasure. As adults, these artists lived in a radically different China—newly prosperous, individualistic, and consumerist. They helped develop a new visual idiom, producing artworks that addressed their country’s recent history, its swift societal transformation, and their own resultant shift in identity as Chinese. Image: 1/2 Series, 1998. Zhang Huan (Chinese, b. 1965)

Edition ONE Gallery will host renowned photographer David Michael Kennedy for a special exhibition on Friday, October 17th, 5 - 7 PM. The show coincides with the release of Bruce Springsteen's highly anticipated Nebraska '82: Expanded Edition, a five-disc box set featuring the legendary Electric Nebraska sessions, and the theatrical release of his biopic, Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere. David’s photograph for Springsteen's Nebraska album cover is among the most recognizable images in rock history. The image was originally captured in winter 1975, depicting a desolate road seen through a car windshield during a snowstorm.br> "The cover shot was taken from the window of an old pickup truck in the dead of winter," Kennedy recalls. The photo encapsulates the stark, reflective mood of Springsteen's acoustic album, becoming a lasting symbol of American loneliness and resilience.br> The exhibition will feature prints from Kennedy's photoshoot with Springsteen, which also appear on the album covers in the box set. Visitors will have a rare chance to see and acquire the images that define the visual identity of one of America's most influential albums.br> Kennedy is also renowned for his mastery of platinum/palladium printing, creating work that extends beyond music photography to evocative Southwest landscapes and portraiture, including striking images of Native American ceremonial dance. His early work documents a wide range of iconic musicians, among them Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson, Muddy Waters, Yo-Yo Ma, and Debbie Harry.

The term mono no aware (the pathos of things) expresses the Japanese concept of appreciating the transient beauty of life and objects. The project focuses on three subjects: 14th-century Japanese Noh masks; the stones and trees that surround the remains of ancient shrines; and the wildflowers and grasses that bloom briefly near Izu’s home. Izu invites viewers to encounter the depth of his subjects through lustrous images that explore impermanence and refined aesthetic through three ideas: yugen (mystical and profound), sabi (beauty with aging), and wabi (austere beauty). The gelatin silver and platinum palladium prints on view are uniquely matted using antique silverleaf recovered from historic folding screens and trimmed with fabrics taken from vintage kimonos, making every work a one-of-a-kind fusion of photographic artistry and Japanese heritage.

n Japanese, utsuroi refers to the gradual and inevitable transformation from one state to another. It suggests that nothing is reliable and everything is ephemeral. Produced between spring and autumn of 2020, “Utsuroi” is a series reflecting the internal and external states experienced during the height of the pandemic, when I lived in isolation at my home in upstate New York. With minimal outside interaction, my loneliness forced me to introspect and face my inner self. Weighed down by the heaviness of the deaths and sorrows around the world, yet unable to do anything or go anywhere, I was engulfed by feelings of helplessness and blockage. I found some reprieve in solitary walks down to the lake, during which I became keenly aware of the cyclical nature of the water lilies that appear year after year.

Last Art School at Hunter College Art Galleries emerges as a vivid reflection on the shifting landscape of higher arts education. Curated by Lindsey White, the Arthur & Carol Kaufman Goldberg Visiting Curator and Artist in Residence, the exhibition captures a period of transformation and tension within academic institutions. As educators, researchers, and students across the United States face censorship, dismissal, and dislocation, White’s project turns toward the power of networks, mutual support, and creative resilience. It becomes both an artistic statement and a gesture of solidarity, grounded in a legacy of activism and shared purpose. Set within the 205 Hudson Gallery, White constructs a theatrical environment that brings together her own works alongside those of peers who navigate the evolving dynamics of art education. The exhibition includes artists such as Mario Ayala, Alex Bradley Cohen, Dewey Crumpler, Alicia McCarthy, and others whose contributions explore hierarchy, transformation, and utopia through the lens of personal experience. Some works explicitly confront the institution as subject, while others approach the theme more obliquely, revealing the humor, contradiction, and fragility of creative life within academia. Integral to the exhibition are archival materials from the San Francisco Art Institute Legacy Foundation and Archive, as well as children’s drawings from the Rhoda Kellogg Collection. Kellogg’s belief that spontaneous visual expression is fundamental to human development resonates deeply with White’s vision of education as an open, imaginative space. The SFAI archive, meanwhile, stands as a poignant reminder of community-driven art education following the institute’s closure in 2022 after 151 years. Beyond the gallery walls, Last Art School extends into a communal dining and meeting space, where conversation, collaboration, and shared meals become acts of resistance and renewal. By creating room for dialogue, documentation, and care, White reimagines the art school not as a fixed institution, but as a living, collective practice. Image: Lindsey White. Courtesy of the artist. © Lindsey White

Galerie XII Los Angeles presents Moving Still, an intimate journey into the lives of filmmakers as seen through the lens of photographer Lauri Gaffin. Blending evocative imagery with personal narrative, Gaffin offers a rare, behind-the-scenes exploration of cinema’s creative heartbeat. With more than four decades of experience, her work captures both the spectacle and the quiet humanity that unfold beyond the camera’s gaze. From independent treasures like Fargo and Land of the Lost to blockbuster productions such as Iron Man, Gaffin’s photographs chronicle the diversity and unpredictability of the film world. Her camera has followed crews through the icy expanse of Edmonton and across the sun-scorched deserts of the Mojave, revealing a visual rhythm shaped by persistence, humor, and curiosity. Each frame testifies to her unrelenting search for beauty in the controlled chaos of filmmaking. Through candid images and reflective writing, Gaffin illuminates the collaborative essence of cinema. Her portraits of directors, actors, and technicians uncover the shared trust and improvisation that sustain production life. In revisiting Fargo, she captures the brilliant precision of cinematographer Roger Deakins and the mischievous energy of the Coen brothers—moments where vision and spontaneity converge. Yet, Gaffin’s story reaches beyond the set. Interwoven with memories of personal hardship, family pressures, and the delicate balance between professional devotion and private struggle, her work resonates with authenticity. Her photographs become more than documentation—they are meditations on endurance, creativity, and belonging. As curator Britt Salvesen notes, Moving Still is “so much more than an illustrated filmography.” It stands as a luminous tribute to the artistry of filmmaking and the transformative gaze of photography, reminding viewers that the motion behind every still image is, ultimately, the pulse of life itself. Image: Motel, Land of the Lost, 2009 Archival pigment print. 40.64 x 60.96 cm / 16.0 x 24.0 in Edition of 5 © Lauri Gaffin

DC Moore Gallery presents Duane Michals: The Nature of Desire, an exhibition devoted to the artist’s poetic and psychological exploration of desire, particularly his fascination with the male form. Through his distinctive combination of photography and handwritten text, Michals creates a dialogue between image and language that examines the emotional and spiritual dimensions of longing. The exhibition includes works inspired by the writings of Walt Whitman and Constantine Cavafy, both of whom profoundly influenced Michals’s reflections on beauty, intimacy, and the human connection. Michals’s photographs often unfold in sequences, each frame a fragment of thought, gesture, or revelation. By inscribing his images with personal reflections, he transforms photography into a form of visual poetry—a meditation on what it means to yearn, to imagine, and to love. He once wrote, “In photography I tried to reveal to myself the exact point of desire.” This pursuit moves beyond physical attraction toward the metaphysical, uncovering how desire binds us to one another through memory, imagination, and the longing for transcendence. In works such as The Nature of Desire (1986), Michals approaches eros as both revelation and mystery, echoing the lyrical humanism of Whitman’s Leaves of Grass and the tender melancholy of Cavafy’s verse. His scenes—men bathing, touching, or lost in contemplation—suggest moments suspended between dream and reality. The everyday gestures he captures become symbols of grace, vulnerability, and fleeting beauty. These images, infused with nostalgia and introspection, remind us that desire is not merely a force of attraction but a profound expression of being alive. In preserving such ephemeral moments, Michals offers an invitation to share in his vision: that to desire is to recognize both our isolation and our deepest longing for communion. Image: A Man Dreaming In The City, 1969 Gelatin silver print 4 3/4 X 7 inches (image); 8 x 10 inches (paper) Edition 16/25 © Duane Michals

Hans P. Kraus JR. Gallery presents Form Follows Function in Early Photographs, on view through November 26, 2025. The exhibition gathers a remarkable selection of early works that reflect architect Louis Sullivan’s enduring principle that “form ever follows function.” Through the lenses of pioneers such as William Henry Fox Talbot, Victor Regnault, Félix Teynard, Henri Le Secq, and Frederick H. Evans, the show explores how photography captured architecture not merely as structure, but as living expression—each form molded by its use and purpose. William Henry Fox Talbot, the father of the calotype, found artistic pleasure in documenting the ancient architecture of Oxford. His salt print of the Radcliffe Camera, taken from the High Street, stands as one of his most poetic compositions—a balance of structure and light that transforms stone into image. Talbot’s work embodies the dialogue between form, material, and emerging photographic vision. French physicist and photographer Henri-Victor Regnault captured the harmony between science and aesthetics in his 1852 salt print of a carpenter’s house in Sèvres. The play of shadow and geometry turns a simple domestic scene into an abstract meditation on design. Félix Teynard, a civil engineer and one of the earliest photographers of Egypt, brought technical precision and poetic sensitivity to his 1850s image of the Pyramid of Cheops. His work remains among the most comprehensive visual documents of the Nile Valley’s monumental past. American photographer George Barker expanded this tradition across the Atlantic, transforming scenes of Niagara Falls and later Florida’s developing towns into narratives of modern growth. Finally, Frederick H. Evans, celebrated for his spiritual studies of cathedrals, reveals architecture as a vessel of light and devotion. His 1912 image of Durham Cathedral epitomizes his belief that photography could render the sacred geometry of space with almost mystical fidelity. Image: Félix Teynard (French, 1817-1892) "Pyramide de Chéops (Grande Pyramide), Égypte," 1853-1854 Salt print from a paper negative made ca. 1851-1852

Influence and Identity: Twentieth Century Portrait Photography from the Bank of America Collection invites viewers to explore how photography has shaped the public image of some of the most influential figures of the modern age. Presented at The National Arts Club’s historic Gramercy Park building, the exhibition spans the transformative decades from the 1920s through the 1960s, a period when portrait photography flourished as both documentation and art. Through 83 masterful works by renowned international photographers, visitors encounter the likenesses of icons such as Marilyn Monroe, Winston Churchill, and Miles Davis—each portrait revealing as much about its subject as it does about the evolving cultural spirit of the time. Drawn from the prestigious Bank of America Collection, the exhibition highlights photography’s power to define identity, influence perception, and shape collective memory. Whether through the lens of glamour, leadership, or rebellion, these images offer an intimate study of fame, character, and creativity. They remind us that portraiture is never merely about appearance—it is about presence, legacy, and the invisible dialogue between artist and sitter. This exhibition is made possible through the Bank of America Art in our Communities® program, an initiative that shares the bank’s extensive art holdings with museums and nonprofit institutions around the world. By offering these curated exhibitions at no cost, the program helps sustain cultural organizations while enriching local communities with access to exceptional art. Since its inception in 2008, the program has lent exhibitions more than 175 times, fostering engagement, education, and inspiration across generations. Influence and Identity stands as both a visual chronicle of the twentieth century and a reflection on the enduring power of the photographic portrait to reveal, conceal, and ultimately define what it means to be seen. Image: Yousuf Karsh (Canadian, b. Armenia, 1908–2002). Georgia O’Keeffe, 1956. Gelatin silver print. Bank of America Collection. © Yousuf Karsh

Stephen Daiter Gallery presents Dawoud Bey: Syracuse 1985, an exhibition that revisits a pivotal moment in the photographer’s early career. On view through November 28, the show features work created during Bey’s first artist residency at Light Work in Syracuse, New York. Invited in 1985, just after the acclaim of his Harlem, U.S.A. series, Bey was given the rare opportunity to live and work without distraction for an entire month. Immersed in the rhythm of city life, he spent his days wandering Syracuse with his camera, capturing the quiet poetry of ordinary moments from dawn to dusk. The images that emerged from this period reveal an artist refining his vision, finding meaning in the gestures and faces of everyday people. Commuters waiting for buses, workers hurrying through morning light, students crossing busy intersections—all appear bathed in a luminosity that feels both spontaneous and deliberate. Bey described this time as a return to the streets, a renewed search for those fleeting instants when the world aligns and becomes a powerful visual statement. His Syracuse photographs mark a shift toward a deeper engagement with the human presence in urban space, emphasizing empathy, observation, and rhythm. The exhibition features the original twenty-six prints produced during Bey’s residency, along with a selection of additional early works from Syracuse. Together, they offer insight into a defining chapter of his artistic development—an exploration of light, form, and community that would continue to shape his practice for decades. Accompanying the exhibition is a fully illustrated catalog, Dawoud Bey: Syracuse 1985, which celebrates the lasting impact of this formative project and the enduring spirit of an artist who continues to find profound beauty in the everyday. Image: A Woman Alone at the Bus Stop, Syracuse, NY, 1985 © Dawoud Bey

Duncan Miller Gallery is proud to announce Icons of Fashion, an extraordinary exhibition celebrating the visionaries who shaped the global fashion landscape. Featuring portraits of over 40 of the world’s most renowned designers and couturiers, this exhibition offers an intimate look at the creative forces behind the industry’s most iconic styles. Design legends such as Coco Chanel, Salvatore Ferragamo, Jean-Paul Gaultier, Karl Lagerfeld, Valentino Garavani, Cristóbal Balenciaga, Lily Dache, Gianni Versace, and many others are captured through the lenses of the world’s greatest photographers. The collection includes the work of Herb Ritts, Harry Benson, Irving Penn, Bruce Weber, Cecil Beaton, Jean-Loup Sieff, Horst P. Horst, Yousuf Karsh, Peter Hujar, David Bailey, Dorothy Wilding, and more. Image: Salvatore Ferragamo, 1957 by James Jarche