Dreamscapes: 14th Annual Juried Youth Exhibition

Medium Photo presents the inaugural group exhibition of the Medium Photo Collective, a gathering of contemporary artists who use photography to examine the threads of identity, place, and human connection. This exhibition brings together a range of lens-based practices that explore how images can reveal and question our sense of belonging in an ever-changing world. Each artist engages with photography as both a personal and social language—one capable of reflecting the intimate and the universal at once. Photography, by its very nature, holds contradictions. It captures both presence and absence, reality and imagination, self and society. The works on view delve into these tensions, revealing how the medium can become a space of transformation and discovery. Through portraits, landscapes, and experimental imagery, the artists explore subjects such as aging, gender, environment, and resilience. Their photographs echo shared experiences while also expressing deeply individual perspectives, offering a layered view of what it means to live, remember, and connect in the present moment. Rather than serving as a simple mirror of reality, the exhibition positions photography as an act of relation—a dialogue between artist and subject, viewer and image, community and world. The Medium Photo Collective embodies this spirit of exchange, creating a platform where personal stories and collective identities intertwine. Rooted in the creative energy of San Diego yet resonating far beyond its borders, the exhibition celebrates photography’s power to question, to listen, and to unite. In these works, we find not fixed answers but an ongoing conversation about how we see ourselves and one another through the lens of time and experience. Opening Reception: Friday, November 7 | 5:30–8:30 PM Location: 5343 Banks St, San Diego, CA 92110 Image: Riley Arthur | Forgotten Sweethearts © Riley Arthur

On Everest is a poignant photographic series by Sasha Bezzubov, created between 2016 and 2024 during multiple treks through Nepal’s Everest region. The project focuses on the unseen labor force behind Himalayan tourism—the porters who carry the immense weight of the trekking industry, both literally and metaphorically. Through portraits and landscapes, Bezzubov honors these men and women who traverse steep, perilous terrain under extraordinary conditions, their resilience etched into every frame. Far from romanticized depictions of mountaineering heroism, Bezzubov’s work turns its lens toward the realities of those sustaining it. The porters’ loads, often exceeding 130 pounds, consist of everything from beer crates to construction materials. They are paid by weight and must cover their own meals and lodging, sharing beds and skipping food to save money. These photographs reveal a system of endurance and inequity—where physical strength meets social invisibility, and survival depends on shouldering impossible burdens. The landscapes are as commanding as the subjects. Sweeping Himalayan vistas appear as both majestic and menacing, capturing the sublime beauty of nature and the fragility of human presence within it. In Bridge, a lone porter crosses a suspended rope bridge, dwarfed by the vastness around him—a metaphor for human perseverance amid overwhelming forces. In Porters with Mattresses, two figures stand atop rocky slopes beneath stacks of vivid mattresses, their colorful cargo contrasting the muted tones of the land. These juxtapositions evoke both dignity and absurdity, underscoring the tension between labor and landscape. Bezzubov’s sensitivity and respect for his subjects are palpable. His images do not pity; they bear witness. Through On Everest, he extends his ongoing inquiry into the intersections of tourism, labor, and global inequality, inviting viewers to confront what is too often unseen. The result is a moving meditation on endurance, humility, and the human cost of beauty. Image: Sasha Bezzubov, Porters with mattresses, 2018 (25”x30” $3000 unframed, $3400 framed, also available as 20”x24” and 30”x40”) © Sasha Bezzubov

In 1966, the Bowdoin College Museum of Art presented an exhibition of photographs by John McKee, then a Romance Languages instructor at the College with an interest in photography. Titled As Maine Goes, the exhibition featured a series of black-and-white photographs that starkly depicted the environmental degradation of Maine’s coastal landscapes, highlighting issues such as pollution, seaside dumps, and the impact of unchecked development. What began as a sidelight became the defining part of McKee’s career—and these works served as a catalyst for environmental awareness and legislative action in Maine, contributing to the burgeoning environmental movement of the time. The exhibition was accompanied by a limited-edition catalog, with an introduction by U.S. Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas. Almost 60 years later, the Museum is refreshing McKee’s original exhibition in a new presentation that is no less relevant in the face of the changing climate and its impact on Maine. McKee, who died in 2023, bequeathed 54 photographs from the As Maine Goes series to the Museum, as well as 31 additional images from other later series. This exhibition is a rare opportunity to look backwards and forwards at the same time. John McKee: As Maine Goes is presented in conjunction with East-Northeast: Charting Moments in Maine, four exhibitions in summer of 2025 at the Bowdoin College Museum of Art featuring artists who drew inspiration from Maine. This exhibition is curated by Chris Zhang ’25 and Frank Goodyear, co-director of the Bowdoin College Museum of Art. Major support has been provided by the Estate of John H. McKee and the Stevens L. Frost Endowment Fund for the Bowdoin College Museum of Art. Image: John McKee. Tourist Accommodations, Old Orchard Beach. 1965

Zig Jackson: The Journey of Rising Buffalo brings together the performative and documentary approaches of photographer Zig Jackson, whose work sheds light on the everyday realities of Native American life. With a focus on community, sovereignty, and environmental respect, Jackson challenges misconceptions and reclaims Indigenous narratives through his lens. A member of the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara tribes, Jackson grew up on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation in North Dakota and attended several boarding schools, including the Intermountain Indian School in Utah. There, he forged lasting connections with peers from various tribes, realizing the shared struggles Indigenous communities face across the country. Jackson’s photography often engages with stereotypes to critique them. In some works, he dons a feathered headdress, performing exaggerated “Indian” tropes to expose their absurdity. In another series, he disrupts Western notions of land ownership by placing signs reading *“Entering Zig’s Reservation”* in public spaces, reclaiming landscapes that have long been sites of Indigenous displacement. His practice is deeply personal, serving as a visual archive of travels across North America, visits with friends, and everyday life on reservations. Through quiet yet powerful images, he explores complex social realities, including family structures, homelessness, veterans’ experiences, substance abuse, and access to natural resources. Blending humor with profound social critique, Jackson’s work offers an authentic and dynamic portrayal of contemporary Indigenous life. His photographs challenge marginalization while celebrating resilience, documenting both the hardships and the joys of Native communities with honesty and depth. Image: Zig Jackson (Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation, b. 1957), Indian Man on Bus, 1994, from Indian Man in San Francisco. Inkjet print. Loan courtesy the artist, © 2025 Zig Jackson / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.

In January 1944, at the height of World War II, Gordon Parks photographed Herklas Brown, owner of the general store and Esso gas station in Somerville, Maine. Parks traveled to the state under the auspices of the Standard Oil Company (New Jersey) to record its contributions to the war effort and to document the home front. His photographs chronicled oil and gas facilities and those who operated them, Esso gas station owners in small towns, and people whose work depended on fuel and other Standard Oil products. Consistent with his work before and after, Parks made it his mission to get to know his subjects and show their humanity. He photographed Brown at his Esso station, in his store, and with his family at the dinner table. Parks spent a month in Maine that winter and then returned in August to resume his work in the state. At a time when transportation, food, and lodging were a challenge, and notably as a Black man traveling alone, Parks nonetheless created a compelling documentary record of rural America that offers insight into this historic moment. These 65 photographs, which are being exhibited at the Bowdoin College Museum of Art in partnership with The Gordon Parks Foundation, highlight an important early chapter in Parks’ career—before he joined Life magazine in 1948 and began to achieve wider recognition. Gordon Parks: Herklas Brown and Maine, 1944 is presented in conjunction with East-Northeast: Charting Moments in Maine, four exhibitions in summer of 2025 at the Bowdoin College Museum of Art featuring artists who drew inspiration from Maine. This exhibition is curated by Frank Goodyear, co-director, and is accompanied by a catalogue of the same title published by Steidl. Generous funding support for this exhibition provided by Peter J. Grua ’76 and Mary G. O'Connell ’76, Robert A. Freson, Steven P. Marrow ’83, P ’21 and Dianne Allison Pappas P’21, the Roy A. Hunt Foundation, and the Elizabeth B.G. Hamlin Fund. Image: Gordon Parks. Untitled, Augusta, Maine. 1944

BAXTER ST at the Camera Club of New York presents Where would we find you if we need to find you?, a solo exhibition by Mongolian photographer and 2025 BAXTER ST Resident, Suniko Bazargarid. On view from September 10 to November 12, 2025, the exhibition unfolds as a meditation on migration, belonging, and the fragile structures that define how we move through the world. Bazargarid brings together personal photographs, archival material, and bureaucratic documents to trace the intersections between movement, memory, and identity, creating an intricate visual map of displacement and return. Having spent her formative years between Boston, Singapore, Bangkok, and Mongolia, Bazargarid’s work reflects an ongoing dialogue between intimacy and distance. Her photographs juxtapose the vast, open horizons of the Mongolian steppe with the coded textures of global transit—passports, identification photos, and border stamps. In this delicate layering of analog and digital imagery, the artist reveals the tension between emotional belonging and administrative categorization. Each image becomes both a record and a question, probing how individuals navigate systems of visibility and control while carrying their sense of home across shifting geographies. The exhibition’s title originates from a border officer’s inquiry: Where would we find you if we need to find you?—a question that echoes throughout Bazargarid’s practice as both a bureaucratic demand and a philosophical prompt. Through her lens, the viewer encounters the blurred lines between personal identity and state documentation, between the internal landscape of memory and the physical terrain of migration. Expansive Mongolian vistas serve as moments of calm reflection amid the fragmented realities of travel. Bazargarid’s images invite viewers to consider what remains constant amid movement—the traces of belonging that persist even when one is perpetually in transit. Image: © Suniko Bazargarid

The Hulett Collection presents Cowboys & Queens, a striking new exhibition by British photographer Jane Hilton, on view from September 19 to November 15, 2025. This vibrant series explores the collision and coexistence of two quintessentially American archetypes—the cowboy and the drag queen—each embodying freedom, individuality, and self-expression in their own dazzling way. Through Hilton’s lens, Cowboys & Queens becomes a portrait of a reimagined American Dream: one that embraces both tradition and transformation. The open skies and rugged landscapes of the West blend seamlessly with the glittering lights of nightclubs and cabarets, revealing unexpected parallels between the stoic cowboy’s endurance and the drag queen’s flamboyant artistry. Both figures challenge conventions, standing proudly as symbols of authenticity and liberation. Hilton’s inspiration spans from the cinematic visions of Sergio Leone and Quentin Tarantino to cultural icons like RuPaul, creating an aesthetic that is both timeless and daringly contemporary. Her photographs—at once raw, tender, and cinematic—capture the spirit of a “new Americana,” where diversity and defiance coexist in harmony. Renowned for her deep engagement with American culture, Jane Hilton has spent more than twenty-five years documenting the complexities of the American West. Her work reveals the extraordinary within ordinary lives, portraying individuals with honesty and empathy. Previous solo exhibitions include LA Gun Club at Eleven Gallery, London (2016); American Cowboy at Nailya Alexander Gallery, New York (2015); and Jane Hilton’s America at Schilt Gallery, Amsterdam (2014). Hilton’s work has been featured in major international publications, including The Sunday Times Magazine, The Telegraph Magazine, and the Financial Times Magazine. In 2014, she was honored with an Honorary Fellowship from the Royal Photographic Society and named one of the Hundred Heroines celebrating women’s impact on global photography. Hilton lives and works in London. Image: Pate Meinzer, Cowboy, Benjamin, Texas, 2009 Archival Digital C-Type 23 x 28" © Jane Hilton

The Grove Foundation for the Arts is proud to announce The Dialectical Third, its inaugural exhibition and lending program bringing together intimate and subversive Polaroids made by Andy Warhol in the 1970s and 1980s and collected and generously donated by Dr. Jeffrey S. Grove, founder of The Grove Foundation for the Arts. Owing to the persistence of both social and sexual taboos along with the explicitness of the images themselves and their celebration of marginalized identities and gender performance, the vast majority of these works have remained largely unknown to the broader public. In showcasing this collection now, The Dialectical Third represents The Grove Foundation for the Arts’ core mission of advocating for silenced communities and freedom of expression, while also providing a vital forum for engaging with Warhol’s challenging yet prescient work. “The Dialectical Third invites visitors into a liminal territory—not as passive observers, but as active participants in the alchemical process of meaning-making,” said Dina Giordano, Curator and Executive Director of The Grove Foundation for the Arts. “This exhibition takes as its philosophical foundation the notion that truth doesn’t reside in singular, fixed positions, but rather materializes in the dynamic tension between seemingly oppositional forces. Andy Warhol’s Polaroid series—which confront duality, representation, identity and embodiment—serve as a guide through this conceptual landscape.” Critically reconsidering the importance of Polaroid photography within Warhol’s art, The Dialectical Third consists of 148 Polaroids from key series such as Ladies and Gentlemen (1975), Sex Parts (1976), Torso (1977), and Querelle (1982), in addition to other key self-portraits and Polaroids as well. Accompanying these works will be two Sex Parts screen prints, a Querelle screen print, and two drawings, one from the Torso series. By bringing these works together, the exhibition demonstrates the varied importance that each medium maintained within Warhol’s art, from his early days of creating illustrations for fashion advertisements to the later function that photographs played in informing larger works such as the screen prints. In Ladies and Gentlemen, Warhol both confronts and celebrates the constructed nature of identity, performance, and the blurred lines between authenticity and artifice in a series of unguarded and candid portraits of transgender individuals and drag performers. Sex Parts evolved out of what would become the Torso series, where Victor Hugo Rojas—a former hustler—periodically brought men to Warhol’s Factory to have their torsos tenderly yet provocatively photographed, with each person remaining anonymous despite their body being vividly described. These visits gradually resulted in Rojas and the men engaging in sexual acts that Warhol then photographed. The Polaroids in Querelle—the result of a commission to create a poster for the film of the same name by Rainer Werner Fassbinder in 1982, his film adapted from Jean Genet’s 1947 novel Querelle of Brest—show Warhol transforming his photographs of sexual encounters through aesthetic experimentation, complicating the photographic binary between document and fiction. Though Polaroids have typically been understood as a reference point or source material for Warhol’s future works, these images also function as forms of aesthetic expression in their own right—ones that document intimate moments and explicit acts in equal measure. Rather than reinforce long-established theories and historical interpretations, The Dialectical Third aims to establish a new space for encountering Warhol’s work, one that embraces ambiguity and the possibility of contemporary meaning. The relationship between visibility and concealment structures the exhibition just as much as the collection itself, which is housed in a custom-crafted Louis Vuitton Malle steamer trunk designed to store and exhibit the Polaroids. The ability of the trunk to both hide the images within a luxury object and display them as aesthetic objects set against a visibly commercial background underscores the recurring tension in Warhol’s work between art and commerce, between high art and popular culture. The Dialectical Third will recreate the original function of the trunk while simultaneously breaking from its method of display. By isolating specific Polaroids on the wall and encouraging close viewing and patient reflection, the exhibition emphasizes the formal qualities of the Polaroids and their unapologetic documentation of queer intimacy, sexual performance, and gender experimentation. To further underscore the historical significance of this collection, along with the educational mission of The Grove Foundation, a new documentary film directed by Diane Crespo will screen within the exhibition space. The film features interviews with Dr. Grove and Dina Giordano that delve into the personal resonance of this work, an interview with leading Polaroid conservator J. Luca Ackerman, and interviews with Vincent Fremont, former studio manager for Andy Warhol and co-founder of the Andy Warhol Foundation, as well as with Jessica Beck, former Chief Curator at the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, PA, and a leading scholar on Warhol’s work. When viewed in tandem with the Polaroids, these differently connected perspectives reaffirm the sense of discovery and invention that resides in Warhol’s art. Image: Andy Warhol, Self-Portrait in Fright Wig, 1986 © Andy Warhol

Archive 192, founded in 2015 by photographers Louie Palu and Chloe Coleman, is a not-for-profit research archive dedicated to abstractionist photography by women. Conceived as both a creative and educational endeavor, the archive seeks to collect, preserve, and share works that redefine the boundaries of photographic abstraction. Its mission extends beyond preservation—aiming to eventually place its holdings within a host institution capable of caring for and expanding public access to this important body of work. The collection includes original prints, publications, artist books, audio recordings, and political ephemera that document women’s contributions to photography across generations. Since its inception, Archive 192 has operated as an independent, unconventional counterpoint to traditional museums and academic institutions. The archive’s name, a reversal of Alfred Stieglitz’s historic Gallery 291, symbolizes a conscious reimagining of photographic history—one that challenges established hierarchies and reconsiders who is represented in the canon. The founders’ philosophy emphasizes continual re-evaluation of art practices and the systems that shape them, calling for a more inclusive understanding of photography’s evolution. At its core, Archive 192 addresses the long-standing underrepresentation of women in the field of photography. By assembling a focused collection of both historical and contemporary works, the archive invites scholars, artists, and the public to reexamine how gender and creativity intersect in visual culture. With over 300 works and counting, the collection includes pioneering artists such as Florence Henri, Dorothy Norman, and members of the Guerrilla Girls, alongside contemporary figures like Claire A. Warden. Through rare prints, artist books, and cultural artifacts, Archive 192 offers a century-spanning journey into the world of experimental abstraction by women photographers—revealing the visionary artistry, social engagement, and cultural shifts that have defined this often-overlooked movement. Image: From series Habitus, 46-02-7, Sodium Chloride, © Claudia Fährenkemper

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.