In Real Life

The Texas Oral History Project presents an intimate portrait of life in Texas today, capturing the voices, memories, and aspirations of residents across the state. Through a series of large-format black-and-white photographs and oral interviews, the project illuminates the diversity of experiences that define 21st-century Texas. Each portrait is paired with the subject’s story, offering a glimpse into their past, present, and hopes for the future. Founded by Evan Michael Solís, a native Texan and educator with extensive experience in journalism, the project combines slow, deliberate photographic practice with attentive listening. Each participant sits for an interview lasting between thirty minutes and three hours, while their portrait is made with a 4×5 large-format camera. The cumbersome process encourages patience and presence, creating a quiet space for reflection. The resulting images are rich in emotional and material detail, revealing both the individuality and shared humanity of the subjects. Now in its second year, the archive contains approximately 150 portraits and stories, collected across 15 cities and one Native American reservation. Participants represent more than 70 towns and cities, spanning ages from 12 to 102, and embody a wide spectrum of backgrounds and life experiences. Each print is carefully developed by hand, often under unconventional conditions, with scratches, splotches, and marks preserved as evidence of the artisanal process. These imperfections reflect the human touch inherent in every stage of creation, emphasizing the project’s focus on authenticity and labor. The exhibition showcases not only the portraits themselves but also the process behind their making, including darkroom notes and collaborative efforts by Solís and his team. Through this work, the Texas Oral History Project invites viewers to witness the textures of everyday life, honor the narratives of ordinary and extraordinary Texans, and consider how memory, place, and personal history converge to shape identity in the modern world. Image: Noa Alcantar, AKA Lobito. Born on November 18th, 2011 in El Paso, Texas © Evan Michael Solís

Arthur and Anne Goldstein’s passion for photography marked the beginning of a remarkable collecting journey that has enriched the cultural landscape of the Zimmerli Art Museum. Their generous donation of nearly one hundred photographs offers an intimate glimpse into the evolving language of twentieth-century art, where photography emerged not merely as documentation, but as a medium of experimentation, performance, and personal expression. The exhibition presents thirty black-and-white works that capture the bold creativity of the late twentieth century. Among the highlights is a rare early self-portrait by Robert Rauschenberg, revealing the artist’s fascination with self-construction and visual play long before his groundbreaking mixed-media works. Equally striking is Hannah Wilke’s performalist self-portrait with Donald Goddard from her series So Help Me Hannah, in which she explored identity, vulnerability, and the performative nature of femininity through the lens of her camera. Beyond these iconic figures, the exhibition unfolds through an array of portraits, landscapes, and urban vignettes that portray both the ordinary and the extraordinary. Each photograph reflects a moment of tension between reality and invention—whether in the stark geometry of a cityscape, the intimacy of a human gesture, or the subtle choreography of light and shadow. Together, these works trace photography’s transformation into an avant-garde tool that questions perception, challenges conventions, and redefines artistic truth. By situating these photographs within the broader dialogue of contemporary art, the Zimmerli Art Museum celebrates not only the Goldsteins’ discerning eye but also the enduring power of photography to shape how we see ourselves and the world around us. This collection, rich in history and imagination, honors a moment when the camera became a means of both introspection and invention, bridging art and life in lasting ways. Image: Robert Riger, "Willie Mays Steals Third Base, Brooklyn, NY", 1955. Gelatin silver print on paper. Gift of Anne and Arthur Goldstein. © Robert Riger

This exhibition celebrates the six-decade-long photographic practice of Kunié Sugiura, highlighting her relentless experimentation and her capacity to merge scientific curiosity with artistic vision. Born in Nagoya, Japan, in 1942, Sugiura was among the first students at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago to focus on photography during the 1960s. Since moving to New York City in 1974, she has maintained a studio practice that consistently challenges conventional boundaries, producing works that exist independently of the prevailing trends and discourses that have shaped photography over the decades. Sugiura’s oeuvre spans sculptural assemblages that integrate photography with painting, large-scale photographic canvases, and inventive photograms exploring botanical, human, and animal forms. Her approach often emphasizes process and experimentation, allowing chance, transformation, and the inherent properties of materials to guide her visual explorations. Through this lens, photography becomes not merely a tool for documentation but a medium for discovery, reflection, and poetic resonance. Despite her long-standing life and career in the United States, Sugiura retains deep connections to her Japanese heritage, which subtly informs her work. These influences surface in both the delicate sensibilities and conceptual rigor of her imagery, revealing an attentiveness to nature, temporality, and cultural memory. Flowers, animals, human gestures, and geological formations appear across her works, each element revealing both playful observation and meditative inquiry. Across every phase of her practice, Sugiura has explored the intersections of place, time, and identity, producing works that invite viewers to reconsider the possibilities of photographic expression. By embracing experimentation, hybridity, and discovery, her images offer a distinctive vision of the medium, where observation, imagination, and process converge. This exhibition traces the innovative trajectory of her career, providing insight into a lifetime of exploration and the unique ways in which she continues to expand the language of photography. Image: © Kunié Sugiura

In conjunction with the long-awaited unveiling of STORIES: The AIDS Monument in West Hollywood, the Herb Ritts Foundation, in partnership with Fahey/Klein Gallery, and ONE Gallery, is proud to present Herb Ritts: Allies & Icons – an intimate exhibition of Herb Ritts’ photographs that honor the activists, artists, and cultural leaders who helped transform the global fight against AIDS. Herb Ritts (1952–2002) is one of the most celebrated photographers of the late 20th century and early 21st century. His approach to the medium was always fresh and bold, while simultaneously capturing the strength and vulnerability of his subjects. With his clean modernist style, bold contrasts, and sculptural forms, Ritts transformed his subjects into enduring icons. In the spirit of the AIDS Monument itself, the photographs on view remember, celebrate, and educate with portraits of those that confronted one of history’s greatest crises. This exhibition, Herb Ritts: Allies & Icons, brings together striking black & white portraits of the cultural figures who stood at the forefront of AIDS activism — including Elizabeth Taylor, Elton John, Magic Johnson, Madonna, Barbra Streisand, Sharon Stone, Tina Turner, Keith Haring, and many others. Each subject used their voice, fame, and influence to fight stigma, support research, and bring compassion to a world gripped by fear. “Herb photographed the icons of his time. The notorious, the edgy, the culturally significant, and in doing so, gave us a visual record of an era marked by both beauty and profound loss. He sought not just to portray but to reveal, coaxing from his subjects a vulnerability that could disarm and a power that could inspire.” David Fahey, founder of Fahey/Klein Gallery and co-curator of Herb Ritts: Allies & Icons. The exhibition coincides with the dedication of STORIES: The AIDS Monument, a collaboration between the City of West Hollywood and the Foundation for the AIDS Monument (FAM). The Monument, designed by artist Daniel Tobin, honors the lives lost, the survivors, and the communities and caregivers who fought tirelessly for dignity, treatment, and remembrance. Ritts himself lived with AIDS and was a steadfast supporter of amfAR, The Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation, Project Angel Food, APLA, and was a charter member for the Elton John AIDS Foundation. He used his platform to shift the narrative from silence to compassion, contributing books such as Duo and Notorious to raise significant funds for AIDS research and awareness. The exhibition is presented in partnership with the Herb Ritts Foundation and coincides with the public dedication of STORIES: The AIDS Monument on November 16, 2025, at West Hollywood Park, followed by a community celebration at The Abbey. For more information about STORIES | The Foundation for the AIDS Monument, please visit: aidsmonument.org. Image: Earvin “Magic” Johnson, Hollywood, 1992 Silver Gelatin Photograph 20 x 16 inches Signed, titled, dated, numbered verso Signed by Herb Ritts © Herb Ritts

Mónica de Miranda, born in Portugal to Angolan parents in 1976, belongs to a generation shaped by both liberation and aftermath. Emerging just after Portugal’s withdrawal from its African colonies and the fall of dictatorship, her work probes the lingering marks of colonialism—those etched not only onto landscapes but also into memory and identity. Across photography, film, and installation, de Miranda constructs poetic spaces where history and imagination merge. Her images—abandoned colonial structures overtaken by foliage, solitary Black figures wandering through radiant terrains, and the intertwining of text and image—offer meditations on freedom, loss, and the cyclical renewal of nature. Path to the Stars follows the journey of a woman veteran of Angola’s War of Independence as she travels along the Kwanza River, a site burdened with historical resonance. Once a route of both conquest and enslavement, the river becomes, through de Miranda’s lens, a realm of renewal and reflection. The film blurs the boundaries between the physical and the metaphysical—the natural pulse of life along the river intertwines with spectral presences and ancestral echoes. Birds, insects, and flowing water merge with voices from the past, suggesting a world where the living and the departed coexist in fragile harmony. Drawing inspiration from Portuguese and Angolan literary traditions, de Miranda invokes the poem Path to the Stars by Agostinho Neto, Angola’s first president and a key figure in its struggle for independence. The film’s title and imagery echo both his vision of hope and the monumental mausoleum built in his honor. Through her work, de Miranda reimagines the intersections of politics, ecology, and spirituality, transforming sites of historical trauma into places of restoration and transcendence. This exhibition, curated by Gemma Rodrigues with Sofia Liv Iagnemma ’28, honors de Miranda’s poetic reclamation of landscape, history, and self. Image: © Mónica de Miranda

Between Seeing and Feeling explores the profound relationship between vision and touch, revealing how photography can capture the essence of human emotion through more than sight alone. Drawing from the California Museum of Photography’s permanent collection, the exhibition presents over thirty photographs by artists such as Graciela Iturbide, Vivian Maier, Kenji Nakahashi, and Catherine Opie. Together, their works trace a tactile history of the medium, where the act of seeing becomes inseparable from the act of feeling. Though photography is often considered a visual art, the selected works challenge this assumption by emphasizing the sensory depth inherent in images. Textures, gestures, and physical presence echo through each frame, suggesting warmth, vulnerability, and connection. The exhibition is inspired by the idea of the haptic turn—a growing awareness of how art engages all the senses, not only the eyes. Here, photographs become almost tangible, inviting the viewer to sense the weight of a hand, the softness of skin, or the quiet energy of a shared space. In this context, touch emerges as both subject and metaphor. It represents the intimacy between photographer and subject, as well as the emotional contact forged between image and audience. Through this lens, the works in Between Seeing and Feeling evoke movement, sound, and empathy, extending photography’s boundaries beyond its flat surface. Organized in the wake of a global pandemic—a time when physical connection became limited—the exhibition offers a meditation on distance and closeness, absence and presence. It invites viewers to reconsider the emotional capacity of photography, reminding us that images can reach us not only through our eyes but also through our sense of touch. In bridging the gap between vision and sensation, these photographs reveal what it truly means to feel an image. Image: Kenji Nakahashi, Memory (Saye’s Memory), 1985. Collection of the California Museum of Photography/UCR ARTS, anonymous gift in memory of Kenji Nakahashi. © Center for Creative Photography, Arizona Board of Regents.

Edwynn Houk Gallery presents Ron Norsworthy: American Dream, an exhibition that examines the delicate balance between aspiration and reality inside Black middle-class domestic spaces. Norsworthy’s new body of work continues his exploration of interior worlds shaped not only by personal history but by the cultural narratives that have long framed the idea of success in America. Through layered photographic constructions, he invites viewers to enter rooms where elegance and uncertainty coexist. The exhibition features ten sculptural reliefs composed from photographs meticulously built into multi-inch structures. Their exposed plywood edges serve as reminders of the manual labor behind both the physical works and the broader social climb they symbolically echo. Alongside them, Norsworthy introduces three Layer Maps, works on paper that distill the spatial logic of the reliefs into precise, flattened compositions. These pieces offer insight into the architecture of his thinking and the visual rhythms that guide his constructions. Within these interiors, stability proves elusive. Walls lean slightly, reflections multiply in unexpected ways, and staircases suggest paths toward unseen destinations. Every detail carries meaning, pointing to the duality described by W. E. B. Du Bois—the sense of being both inside and outside one’s own experience. Figures appear suspended between action and pause, as if navigating spaces made of both memory and projection. Norsworthy intertwines references from art history, popular culture, cinema, and his personal archive, creating environments where icons and intimate objects occupy equal significance. Photography, for Norsworthy, is a material that shapes cultural identity as much as it documents it. His works reveal the structures behind the idealized images that define the American Dream, exposing the tension between aspiration and construction. Through his layered approach, he shows photography not merely as representation but as the very framework through which America imagines, performs, and sustains its collective vision. Image: Ron Norsworthy. More or Less, 2025 Mixed media collage in relief on wood panel 35 x 45 inches (89 x 114 cm) © Ron Norsworthy

Saïdou Dicko’s work is deeply personal, drawing inspiration from his home in West Africa, Burkina Faso, incorporating textiles and the rich tradition of African studio photography. Each of Dicko’s works is a unique object, no two are the same. On view in the gallery will be two, new bodies of work: vibrant photographs with digital textile backgrounds from the Shadowed People, and a brand-new series entitled Fragile. In Fragile, Dicko reveals his hand as a painter, enveloping his subject with washes of color, floral vines and tendrils, and along the border has adhered ‘fragile tape’ used in transporting precious objects and works of art — perhaps a comment on the fragility of the environment, human life, or childhood. For the Shadowed People, Dicko hand-paints each subject thereby creating a silhouetted form; the backgrounds are vivid patterns and colors from Fulani cloth—an homage to the resilience of traditional West African craftsmanship in the face of global industrialization. Dicko is both an artist and humanitarian: 50% of his sales benefit the artist’s non-profit organization, Nafoore Cellal, which has built a health center, pharmacy, and organic vegetable garden in a pastoral zone in Burkina Faso. Dicko has been exhibited in numerous international exhibitions and been honored with significant photography prizes in Europe and Africa. He lives and works in both Burkina Faso and Paris. This is his second solo exhibition with the gallery. Image: Untitled, 2025, Hand-painted archival pigment print; digital collage without retouching © Saïdou Dicko

Erik Madigan Heck is one of the most sought-after photographers working today, attracting collaborations and commissions from fashion and cultural icons such as Comme des Garçons, Gucci, Nike, and The Metropolitan Opera. He is praised for his talent to use color as a poetic medium, transforming each image into a vivid narrative that speaks to the emotional resonance of photography. The Tapestry marks a creative evolution in Heck’s artistic journey. This body of work infuses his love of painting and textile arts into his fashion sensibility. Inspired by the ambient light of Edgar Degas, patterned interiors of Edouard Vuillard and Gustav Klimt, and rich textures of antique tapestries, this series is a romantic exploration of color and form. Widely collected in both private and public collections, his work is held by the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. The flowing, lyrical design in Heck’s newest monograph, The Tapestry (2024), presents more than one hundred and eighty photographs in a richly colorful and immersive new collection that spans photography, fashion and broader spectrum of visual art. This will be Heck’s third solo exhibition with the gallery. Image: Vogue Italia Reconstructed, The Tapestry, 2023, Erik Madigan Heck

Nailya Alexander Gallery in New York presents its Holiday Show, a carefully curated exhibition that brings together photographs by Pentti Sammallahti, Christopher Burkett, and Alexey Titarenko. United by a deep commitment to traditional darkroom practice, the three artists share an approach rooted in patience, craft, and a reverence for the physical print. Each photograph is handmade, resulting in nuanced tonalities and subtle variations that affirm the photograph as a singular object rather than a reproducible image. Alexey Titarenko’s New York works offer a lyrical meditation on the city, shaped by his masterful command of experimental darkroom techniques. Through partial bleaching, selective gold toning, and the Sabattier effect, his prints seem to hover between reality and memory. Scenes such as winter views of Central Park unfold in hushed light, where trees, mist, and architectural rhythm merge into a contemplative whole. These images feel less like documents of place than inward reflections, where the atmosphere of the city mirrors the artist’s own emotional register. Pentti Sammallahti’s photographs move effortlessly across geographies, yet remain deeply anchored in a sense of quiet observation. Whether made in Northern Europe, Asia, or the United States, his images reveal a gentle attentiveness to animals, landscapes, and fleeting moments of harmony. There is an unforced lyricism in his work, as if each photograph were discovered rather than constructed. This restrained approach allows space for memory and feeling, inviting viewers to project their own experiences into the scenes he records. Christopher Burkett’s practice stands as a testament to devotion and precision. Working exclusively with Cibachrome paper, he has spent decades refining a method that yields extraordinary depth and luminosity in color. His large-format photographs of natural forms are defined by their radiant clarity, where light seems to emanate from within the subject itself. In this Holiday Show, Burkett’s glowing prints, alongside the tonal subtlety of Sammallahti and the poetic atmosphere of Titarenko, create a contemplative dialogue about light, time, and the enduring power of traditional photographic craft. Image: Alexey Titarenko (b. 1962) Central Park in Winter, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir, New York, 2024, at Nailya Alexander Gallery New York © Alexey Titarenko

Perspective Gallery’s upcoming show Grand Vistas: Intimate Views offers two very different but deeply connected visions of place, inviting viewers to experience the world through the distinct eyes of photographers Frank Monnelly and Jane Feely. The exhibition runs from December 4 to December 28, 2025, bringing together grandeur and quiet contemplation in a compelling photographic dialogue. In Denali: Sublime Majesty, Frank Monnelly takes to the skies in a Cessna 185 to photograph North America’s tallest peak from vantage points few will ever reach. From above, Denali becomes a cathedral of stone and ice: vast ridges open like ship hulls beneath clouds, glaciers thread through valleys like liquid glass, and snowfields gleam in high-altitude light. The aerial photographs convey not just scale but reverence — suggesting the mountain as both a place of raw natural power and a timeless monument. On December 6, during the opening reception, the gallery will also screen the world premiere of Monnelly’s collaborative video on aerial photography, adding a dynamic layer to the still images on view. By contrast, Jane Feely’s Japan: With a Beginner’s Mind invites quiet, close-up observation. Inspired by the Zen Buddhist principle of shoshin — the beginner’s mind — her photographs treat Japan as a space for wonder and gentle discovery. Feely doesn’t race for dramatic vistas; instead, she lingers on subtle textures, soft light, and everyday details: the curve of a stone lantern, the pattern of rain on a pavement, the shimmer of a temple roof in mist. Her images encourage viewers to slow down, to look again, and to find beauty in the often-overlooked corners of travel. Together, Monnelly and Feely’s works form a conversation about how we perceive the world — whether from above or up close, through grandeur or intimacy. Grand Vistas: Intimate Views challenges us to recognize that every landscape, whether vast or small, can inspire awe, respect, and reflection. Image: Frank Monnelly, Denali: Sublime Majesty © Frank Monnelly

Paul Paletti Gallery is proud to present Sam Abell: A Journey Through Decades and Continents, an exhibition celebrating the extraordinary career of one of photography’s most thoughtful and enduring voices. Over the course of fifty years, Abell has cultivated a practice defined by observation, patience, and a deep engagement with the world around him. Known widely for his thirty-three years as a staff photographer at National Geographic, Abell has traversed continents capturing the quiet rhythms of life, the subtle interplay of light, and the fleeting gestures that define human experience. This exhibition draws from the breadth of Abell’s oeuvre, spanning his early explorations to the mature works that have solidified his reputation as a photographer’s photographer. Through meticulously composed images, viewers encounter landscapes, gardens, marketplaces, and intimate human moments that reflect both the particularities of place and the universality of experience. Abell’s photography is marked by a contemplative stillness, allowing the viewer to linger, consider, and enter the delicate space between image and imagination. Abell has authored six monographs, including Stay This Moment, Amazonia, and Seeing Gardens, each demonstrating his ability to evoke emotion and narrative through carefully observed details. His photographs are as much about what is seen as what is suggested, creating a dialogue between the world captured in the frame and the mind of the viewer. In his own words, he seeks “to photograph that which is ineffable”, and this aspiration permeates the works on display. In addition to his photographic practice, Abell has contributed to the art form through writing and teaching, shaping generations of photographers who follow his patient, observant approach. Recognized with Lifetime Achievement Awards from the Photo Society and the Los Angeles Center of Photography, and recently inducted into the International Photography Hall of Fame, his legacy endures not only in his images but in the inspiration they provide. Sam Abell: A Journey Through Decades and Continents invites audiences to experience a lifetime of observation, artistry, and quiet reflection through the lens of a master photographer. Image: © Sam Abell