Heirloom: Weaving Memory with the Now

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

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

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

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

Edition ONE Gallery in Santa Fe marks its 10th anniversary with Hail! Hail! Rock ’n’ Roll 2025, an electrifying exhibition opening on December 5, 2025. Celebrating a decade of dedication to fine-art photography, the gallery brings together a remarkable roster of music photographers whose images have defined the visual language of rock, blues, soul, punk, and country. Through their lenses, the evolution of American music unfolds—not just as sound, but as style, attitude, and cultural revolution. Since its founding in 2015, Edition ONE Gallery has become a cornerstone of contemporary photography in Santa Fe, known for presenting artists who expand the boundaries of visual expression. Over the past ten years, the gallery has fostered a vibrant creative community—one that values the tangible power of the printed image and celebrates the art form’s enduring vitality. The 10-year milestone reflects both a legacy of collaboration and a commitment to innovation in photographic storytelling. Hail! Hail! Rock ’n’ Roll pays tribute to the photographers who were there when music history was being made—on the stage, behind the scenes, and in the fleeting moments of artistic creation. Their images immortalize not just the musicians, but the pulse of an era, where rebellion and rhythm converged in unforgettable ways. The exhibition features an extraordinary ensemble of legendary photographers, including Henry Diltz, Donald Graham, Dennis Keeley, David Michael Kennedy, Elliott Landy, George Lange, Lisa Law, Graham Nash, Neal Preston, Bob Seidemann, Pamela Springsteen, Glen Wexler, and Baron Wolman. Together, their works form a visual symphony featuring icons like Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, Stevie Nicks, and Willie Nelson. Each photograph stands as both testimony and tribute—capturing the passion, chaos, and creativity that defined the golden age of rock ’n’ roll. Image: Steven Tyler by Donald Graham © Donald Graham

Over his nearly six-decade career, Robert Rauschenberg (1925–2008) continually captured the zeitgeist of his time, from moon landings to the globalization of contemporary art. For his paintings, sculptures, prints, photographs, and performances he mined cultural detritus, imagery, and objects. Through stacking, layering, and transferring elements into nonlinear narratives, Rauschenberg achieved what he believed was a true representation of the twentieth century: “I was bombarded with TV sets and magazines, by the excesses of the world . . . I thought an honest work should incorporate all of these elements, which were and are a reality.” The term “flatbed picture plane” in this show’s title refers to the flatbed printing press, a horizontal bed in which a surface to be printed rests. Art historian Leo Steinberg coined the phrase during a lecture in 1968, claiming it denoted a monumental perspectival shift that took place in artmaking in the early 1950s: from the vertical to horizontal. Steinberg believed this change began with artists including Rauschenberg who, rather than continue to employ the “window to the world” approach—one that “affirms verticality” and had dominated painting since the Renaissance—began treating artwork surfaces as if they were horizontal tabletops or studio floors. They also shifted their subject matter from nature to culture: “The pictures of the last fifteen to twenty years insist on a radically new orientation, in which the painted surface is no longer the analogue of a visual experience of nature but of operational processes.” This exhibition examines Rauschenberg’s work through the concept of Steinberg’s flatbed picture plane. Created with a variety of printmaking techniques, each of the works presented here was conceived with horizontality in mind and reveals new images and meanings as the beholder meanders through the composition. Acquired for Sheldon Museum of Art’s collection between 1970 and 2018, the nine editioned works in this exhibition are presented together for the very first time. Robert Rauschenberg and the Flatbed Picture Plane is organized by Christian Wurst, associate curator for exhibitions.

Peter Fetterman Gallery presents Nouvelle Vague, an evocative survey celebrating the essence of French photography through the eyes of some of the twentieth century’s most admired artists. Bringing together works by Edouard Boubat, Raymond Cauchetier, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Jean-Philippe Charbonnier, Robert Doisneau, Willy Ronis, Sabine Weiss, and others, the exhibition pays tribute to a generation that forever transformed the language of visual storytelling in postwar France. Emerging from the ideals of the French Humanist movement of the 1930s, these photographers created a visual style that balanced documentary realism with poetic sensibility. Their images captured fleeting moments of tenderness, humor, and quiet beauty within the rhythms of everyday life. Whether depicting lovers in a Parisian street, children at play, or workers returning home at dusk, their work sought to reveal the universal dignity and emotional depth of human experience. Positioned between journalism and fine art, these photographs offered an empathetic lens through which to view a world rebuilding itself after the devastation of war. The Humanist spirit that animated these artists extended beyond photography, influencing film, literature, and visual art throughout the mid-twentieth century. Their collaborations with publications such as LIFE, Paris Match, and Vogue helped disseminate this lyrical realism to a global audience, shaping the visual identity of modern France. Today, these images endure as timeless meditations on connection, resilience, and the quiet poetry of the ordinary. Nouvelle Vague invites viewers to revisit the golden age of French photography while reflecting on its continuing relevance in a fractured contemporary world. The exhibition reaffirms photography’s enduring power to convey empathy and to remind us, across generations and borders, of our shared humanity. Image: Robert Doisneau 1912-1994 Le Baiser Blotto, 1950/Printed Later Signed in ink on recto; titled and dated in ink on verso Gelatin Silver Print Image: 14-1/8" x 11-3/4", Paper: 20" x 16", Mat 24" x 20"

The Griffin Museum is excited to present Gathering Place | A Family Album, an exhibition exploring the rituals, warmth, and complexities of coming together. From holiday dinners and everyday meals to quiet corners and inherited objects, the photographers featured in the show reflect on how we gather, remember, and connect. On view at the Jenks Center in Winchester, MA, from October 1 to January 3, 2026, Gathering Place | A Family Album brings together photographic works that celebrate the intimate spaces and shared traditions that define family—chosen or inherited—through still-lifes, portraits, domestic scenes, or elsewhere. Featured artists: Aga Luczakowska, Alexandra Frangiosa, Alina Balseiro, Ankita Singh, Ashley Smith, Betsy Woldman, Catie Keane, Chris Ireland, Christopher Perez, Cynthia Smith, Dana Matthews, David Manski, Diane Bush, Elizabeth Calderone, Faith Ninivaggi, Francine Weiss, Hannah Latham, Heather Pillar, Iaritza Menjivar, Isaac Glimka, John Benton, Julia Arstorp, Justin Carney, Kathy M. Manley, Ken Rothman, Xenia Nikolskaya, Kim-Sarah I, Laura Kirsch, Linda Moses, Magdalena Oliveros, Mona Sartoveh, Naomi Shon, Natia Ser, Peter Balentine, Sarah Malakoff, Shea Baasch, Steven Edson, Susan Lapides, Susan Rosenberg Jones, Talya Arbisser, Tristan Partridge and Virginia Nash. Image: Kayla, Roxbury, Massachusetts @ Linda Moses

The exhibition Family Portrait gathers photographs from the Addison’s collection to explore how artists have represented the idea of family across nearly two centuries. From the earliest daguerreotypes to contemporary color prints, the exhibition traces the evolution of one of photography’s most enduring subjects. Through these works, the notion of family emerges not as a static construct but as a living, shifting web of relationships, emotions, and memories. Since photography’s beginnings in the nineteenth century, artists have used the camera to capture both the familiar and the extraordinary moments that define domestic life. Some have turned their lenses inward, documenting their own families in scenes that reveal tenderness, humor, and vulnerability. These images often expose the quiet rituals and fleeting gestures that shape everyday existence—the embrace of a child, the glance of a parent, the shared silence of grief or joy. In this way, photography becomes an intimate language of belonging and connection. Other photographers have approached the family portrait as a broader meditation on time, change, and memory. Their works extend beyond the personal to consider the social and cultural meanings attached to kinship. Through their compositions, we see how generations influence one another, how traditions endure or fade, and how images themselves act as vessels of remembrance. Whether solemn or exuberant, private or public, each photograph tells a story of continuity and loss, of affection and transformation. Family Portrait ultimately reveals how photography holds within it the paradox of family life—its constancy and its impermanence. As faces age and moments pass, the photograph endures, preserving traces of our shared humanity and reminding us that the act of looking is itself a form of connection across time. Image: Eugene Richards, Family Album, Dorchester, Massachusetts, 1976. Gelatin silver print, 8 1/4 x 12 inches. Addison Gallery of American Art, Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts, museum purchase, 1977.134

During the 1930s and early 1940s, George Hurrell (1904–1992) reigned as Hollywood’s preeminent portrait photographer. Hired by the Publicity Department at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) when he was only twenty-five, Hurrell advanced rapidly to become the studio’s principal portraitist. With a keen eye for artful posing, innovative lighting effects, and skillful retouching, he produced timeless portraits that burnished the luster of many of the “Golden Age’s” greatest stars. “They were truly glamorous people,” he recalled, “and that was the image I wanted to portray.” In 1933, Hurrell left MGM to open a photography studio on Sunset Boulevard. There, he created some of his most iconic portraits of MGM stars as well as memorable images of leading actors from the other major studios. After closing his Sunset studio in 1938, Hurrell worked briefly for Warner Bros. and Columbia Pictures before serving with a military film production unit during World War II. Following the war, candid photographs, made with portable, small-format cameras, rose to replace the meticulously crafted, large-format studio portraits that epitomized Hurrell’s style. For George Hurrell, Hollywood’s “Golden Age” had come to an end. “When we stopped using those 8 x 10 cameras,” he declared, “the glamour was gone.” This exhibition has been made possible in part through the generous support of Mark and Cindy Aron. Image: Clark Gable and Joan Crawford by George Hurrell / 1936, Gelatin silver print / National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; acquired in part through the generosity of an anonymous donor