Larry Fink

The sixties were a long time coming. The sixties keep coming back. For many parts of Africa, to refer to the 1960s is to gesture broadly toward a time of great transformation: the postcolonial turn. That decade’s beginning marks a wave of national independence movements coming to fruition in all parts of the continent with far-reaching consequences around the globe. However, that era of sweeping change is bound up in a chain of events long preceding that watershed decade, with ramifications that reach potently into our present. And any discussions merely offering a colonial/postcolonial dichotomy or framed exclusively through the nation-state betray the far more complex collective and individual experiences of that time and the visual representations taking place within it. This exhibition addresses photography in the context of Africa’s long 1960s—amid resistance, revolution, new nationalist and transnational movements, and the stuff of daily life therein. Focusing on Ghana, Mali, and South Africa, this exhibition features photographic prints, reprints, books, magazines, posters, and other material means through which photography’s relationships to real people and events were articulated, produced, and circulated. And it looks to contemporary works that engage and reflect on those material histories and might prompt us to ask: did the sixties ever end? Bridging the division often made between studio photography and reportage—even as many photographers worked across such categories in their practices—not all realisms brings studio and street together. This project explores documentary visions cultivated through international circulation of print media and transnational dialogues, and examines the multiple lives of single images made by photographers including Ernest Cole, Malick Sidibé, James Barnor, Peter Magubane, Paul Strand, Henri Cartier-Bresson, and more. Image: Malick Sidibé, Happy Club (Christmas Eve) (Nuit de Noël [Happy Club]), 1963, Gelatin silver print. Smart Museum of Art, The University of Chicago, Gift of the Estate of Lester and Betty Guttman, 2014.720. Courtesy of Jack Shainman Gallery, New York

The Center for Photography at Woodstock (CPW) announces the opening of the exhibition Black Photobooth: From the Collections of Näkki Goranin and Oliver Wasow. Featuring over 100 miniature portraits of Black Americans, mostly from the 1930s and 1940s, this surprising exhibition is drawn from two prominent private collections. Organized by CPW Executive Director Brian Wallis, Black Photobooth will be on view at CPW, 474 Broadway, Kingston, from March 25 through June 4, 2023, The introduction of the photobooth in the late 1920s marked a watershed moment in American culture. For the first time, folks from all walks of life could have their portrait taken, quickly, conveniently, and inexpensively. Inaugurated by Anatol Josepho in New York in 1925, the photobooth was a studio, darkroom, and photo delivery service all rolled into one tiny booth—without a photographer. Anyone could easily access these private portrait studios in drugstores, bus stations, and county fairs. For a quarter, the machine snapped the sitter’s picture and delivered a strip of direct-positive prints within a matter of minutes. “The modest vernacular portraits produced by the thousands in photobooths across the country comprise a rich record of visual representation and social history,” said Wallis. During the decades just before and after World War II, Black Americans made singular use of the widely accessible photobooths for self-representation. Many of the small, intimate portraits feature distinctive fashions or hairstyles, while others clearly document celebratory outings. The privacy of the photobooth provided an opportunity for spontaneity and freedom. Black Photobooth captures casual interactions of everyday life: farmworkers in overalls, women wearing their best Easter hats, revelers drinking, lovers kissing. The photographs in this exhibition range from small strips or single images to larger arcade photos, often featuring folky, hand-painted backdrops. Many of these small portraits were once gathered in frames and family albums, several of which are included in the exhibition. Artists Näkki Goranin and Oliver Wasow are both photography collectors and authors of studies of American photographic portraiture. Goranin is the author of American Photobooth (Norton, 2007); Wasow is the author of Artist Unknown (Art and Culture Center of Hollywood, 2011) and Friends, Enemies and Strangers (Saint Lucy Books, 2017).

In Light of Rome... comprehensively explores, for the first time in the United States, the contribution made by the cosmopolitan art center to the early history of photography and traces the medium’s rise there from a fledgling science to a dynamic form of artistic expression that forever changed the way we perceive the Eternal City. The exhibition ranges from 1842 to 1871, from the earliest pioneers—the French daguerreotypist Joseph-Philibert Girault de Prangey and the Welsh calotypist Calvert Richard Jones—to the work of the Roman School of Photography and its successors, among them James Anderson and Robert Macpherson of Britain; Frédéric Flachéron, Firmin Eugène Le Dien, and Gustave Le Gray of France; and Giacomo Caneva, Adriano de Bonis, and Pietro Dovizielli of Italy. Featuring 112 works, many never before seen publicly, by nearly fifty transnational photographers, this presentation and its accompanying catalogue will expand our understanding of Rome’s place in the evolution of early photography, and the pivotal role it played in the refinement and technical development of the nascent medium in the nineteenth century.

Oakland-based artist Sadie Barnette uncovers and reanimates stories of resistance, resilience, and love through an ongoing retelling of her family’s history. SPACE/TIME, a site-specific commission developed in dialogue with Afterimages: Echoes of the 1960s from the Fisher and SFMOMA Collections, celebrates life against the backdrop of political turmoil and everyday moments from the 1960s to today, highlighting intergenerational legacies and collective possibilities. Just as personal and political events collide and coexist in life, Barnette’s mural juxtaposes cellphone snapshots of birthday parties and weddings with large-scale images of her father in his army uniform in 1966, before he left for Vietnam, and in 1968, as a Black Panther after he returned. Barnette also revisits her own visual language, reusing images that recur in her work, such as pictures of a Martin Luther King Jr. Drive street sign, her aunt’s living room, and sparkly musical equipment. These references appear alongside self-portraits, items from her studio—including a jewel-encrusted calculator and a Hello Kitty Fizzy Pop—and her frequently used adornments: spray paint, glitter, and rhinestones. Drawings with the phrases “Right Here,” “Right Now,” “Everything,” and “Forever” consider the elasticity of time, while the tinted window featuring the words “Space” and “Time” envelops the surrounding architecture with Barnette’s signature pink. By bringing together cosmic imagery and a picture of her father in a swirling pink void, Barnette collapses the expansive arc of time that connects generations and dimensions.

Von Lintel Gallery is pleased to announce our second exhibition with photographer Alex Hedison, “A Brief Infinity”. Hedison is known for photography that brings attention to the ‘in between’ state. Previously, she focused on photographing exterior surfaces under construction that reflected the uncertainty of change. In 2020, with the isolation brought on by COVID-19, Hedison’s practice was interrupted. No longer able to travel to public spaces, she lost interest in picking up her camera which led her to improvise in the darkroom: ''I started experimenting with chemigrams; unlike traditional photography, chemigrams require nothing more than the interaction of chemicals and light on photographic paper. As I played with this process, I discovered that when black and white photo paper is given prolonged exposures to light, miraculous colors appear; bright hues alchemized, from pale pink to darker ruddy tones. Using clear packing tape, metallic paint, and varnish as forms of resistance, I began protecting the surface of the paper before submerging it into its chemical wash. I chose to photograph the chemigrams one instant to the next, making records in an abstract and shifting landscape. My intention paralleled what I consistently aim to do with my work: to chronicle the fleeting process of development. Each moment I photographed is a record of a transformation underway, a split-second in a state of flux brought into view within a single frame. I printed the images adding the silver metallic paint initially meant to block the chemical process from occurring. I used this same reflective material and painted directly onto the final photographic prints. My work is drawn from the in between, the unfolding experience between the knowable and uncertain, it is as brief as it is infinite.'' – Artist Alex Hedison

Winston Wachter Fine Art, New York is excited to announce Don’t Be A Square, an exhibition of new works by photographer, Margeaux Walter. In this series, the artist expands on her signature style of creating environments that tread a fine line between fantasy and reality while taking a closer look at the natural world. Walter investigates the current period in history known as the Anthropocene age and how human activity has started to have a significant irreversible impact on the planet’s climate. In December of 2019, Margeaux Walter began this body of work during a two-week stay in California, and then continued the series in 2021 when she was awarded the Joshua Tree Highlands Artist Residency. She set out to explore the disconnection between humans and the landscapes around them. In each of the photographs, Walter constructs “a glitch in time”, as if humanity has camouflaged itself into the surrounding land, yet cannot find harmony. Each “glitch” is portrayed in the form of a square, a shape rarely found in nature, which can be interpreted as a pixel or cubicle. The artist sought out landscapes with depth and saturated in deep hues. She needed to capture the scenes at just the right time of day while using various props to stage each story and herself as the characters. In the image Backstage, a sunset of pinks and blues illuminate a rocky foreground. A pink curtain floats in the center of the image, parted just enough to allow the viewer to see a character dressed to match. The photograph, Nap, while it appears to be a still and calm scene, has someone drifting away on a lake in all blue clothing, lying in a matching inflatable couch. Margeaux Walter plays with the contrast between the striking landscapes and subtle human present imbedded in the image to create a surrealistic tableau. Her work pulls the viewer in, requiring more than a quick glance, to spark a second thought about the relationship humans have with the environment and the impact even little changes can make

Luis De Jesus Los Angeles is very pleased to announce CARLA JAY HARRIS: Flight, an exhibition of new photo-based works, on view in Gallery 3 from April 29 through June 10, 2023. An opening reception will be held on Saturday, April 29th from 4 to 7 pm. Harris’ new works are a continuation of her series Celestial Bodies, begun in 2018. Celestial Bodies explores Harris’ multicultural background and a youth spent living primarily outside the United States. In her search for understanding and belonging she was drawn to stories of mythology, which have become a central theme throughout her work and tap into a sense of kinship. In Flight finds its inspiration in Black American folktales and has allowed Harris to make her work more personal with a deeper connection to her own history and ancestral memory. The first works in this series are inspired by the myths of the Flying African, based on old African folktales. The tales of the Flying African, often shared through oral traditions, spoke of enslaved Africans being lifted up and flying home through a magical passage over the ocean. These stories are filled with visual reminders of truth, freedom, and liberation; a secret language that spoke to those isolated and uprooted from their ancestral roots and removed from their native lands. Harris resonated with the powerful imagery of overcoming and transcending limits and was drawn to the unique overlaps with the themes within her own artistic practice. As a trained photographer and cinematographer, Carla Jay Harris uses art, poetry, and historical archives to inform her research and provide inspiration. Harris found joy and fulfillment through these stories in giving these oral traditions physical forms and highlighting histories too often forgotten. Her work is informed by her multidisciplinary practice and bringing together image making, storytelling, and cultural histories. Carla Jay Harris was born in Indianapolis, IN. She received her MFA from UCLA in 2015, a Bachelor’s degree with distinction from the University of Virginia, and completed post- Baccalaureate studies at the School of Visual Arts in New York. Harris’s work has been exhibited nationally and internationally at the California African American Museum, Los Angeles, CA; the Marjorie Barrick Museum of Art, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, NV; the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, CA; Museum of Fine Arts Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada; Colorado Photographic Arts Center, Denver, CO; the Southern, Charleston, SC; Moorpark Gallery, Moorpark College, Ventura, CA; Smack Mellon, Brooklyn, NY; and Paris Photo, Grand Palais Ephemere, Paris, France. She was awarded a 2020 residency at ACRE in Steuben, WI, and has been the beneficiary of several grants and fellowships, including the Hoyt Scholarship, Resnick Fellowship and a grant from the Pasadena Art Alliance. Harris’ works are included in the collections of USC Fischer Museum, Los Angeles, CA; California African American Museum, Los Angeles, CA; Museum of Art and History, Lancaster, CA; Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA; Escalette Permanent Collection of Art at Chapman University, Orange, CA; Museum of Fine Arts, Sherbrook, Quebec, Canada; Los Angeles County Public Art Collection, Los Angeles, CA; and numerous private collections. Carla Jay Harris lives and works in Los Angeles.

Photographer Marcia Resnick earned recognition as part of the legendary Downtown New York art scene of the 1970s and 1980s with portraits of major cultural figures such as Jean-Michel Basquiat, John Belushi, and Susan Sontag. Marcia Resnick was one of the most ambitious and innovative American photographers of the 1970s. Combining social critique with poignant, often humorous performance, her photographs explore—in a conceptual vernacular—aesthetic, social, and political issues at once timely and timeless. A part of the now-mythic creative community in Downtown New York, she created work that challenged traditional ideas about what a photograph could be. This exhibition brings together for the first time her extraordinary photographs from this period. This exhibition was organized by the Bowdoin College Museum of Art, the Minneapolis Institute of Art, and the George Eastman Museum.

Britain experienced profound changes in the 1970s and 1980s, when it was racked by deindustrialization, urban uprisings, the controversial policies of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, and the Troubles in Northern Ireland. Photography became a central form of creative expression during this period, supported and disseminated through new schools, galleries, artists’ collectives, magazines, and government funding. This Is Britain brings together the work of a generation of photographers who were commenting on the deep unrest of these pivotal decades. Vanley Burke, Pogus Caesar, Anna Fox, Paul Graham, Sunil Gupta, Chris Killip, Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen, Martin Parr, and others pictured communities, traditions, and landscapes affected by Britain’s shifting social and economic realities. Together, they photographed a nation redefining what it meant to be British and, ultimately, modern. Image: © Pogus Caesar, Handsworth Riots: Birmingham, United Kingdom, September 1985, printed 2022, gelatin silver print, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Alfred H. Moses and Fern M. Schad Fund, © Pogus Caesar/OOM Gallery Archive, ARS, New York, DACS, London

Within a decade of its introduction in 1839, the daguerreotype—the first commercially viable form of photography—emerged as a highly popular means of documenting family relationships. Affordable pricing fueled the popularity of the daguerreotype and technical innovations made it possible to produce successful images of multiple sitters. This paved the way for the boom in family portraiture. The portraits in this exhibition reflect the range of familial relationships documented by the camera during the daguerreian era. While they include nuclear family groups, they also speak to other meaningful family bonds— those shared by a young brother and sister; an aunt and a beloved niece; a young man and his father-in-law; a caring uncle and his nieces and nephews; and long-married couples.

Arthur M. Sackler Gallery | Gallery 22 Unstill Waters: Contemporary Photography from India  foregrounds landscapes of India, real and reimagined, as powerful means of examining environmental and social issues concerning us all. Through still and moving image, seriality, and portraiture, five leading contemporary artists explore rapidly changing natural and built environments in India, from riverbanks, ancient forests, and city streets to surreal symbolic settings. Ravi Agarwal and Atul Bhalla convey the profound importance of water in human life, highlighting enduring social and cultural connections to the sacred yet endangered Yamuna River. Gigi Scaria and Ketaki Sheth produce dynamic and disorienting portrayals of life in New Delhi and Mumbai. Sheba Chhachhi composes a provocative self-portrait that evokes a profound relationship to place as well as to her own focus on the representation of women in visual culture. Dynamic and varied in scale, format, and content, Unstill Waters also celebrates the spectacular recent gift of Sunanda and Umesh Gaur, which significantly expands the museum’s holdings of South Asian photography. Image: Yamuna Morning IV (detail), Atul Bhalla (b. 1964, India), 2007, Inkjet print on archival Hahnemüle paper, Gift of Drs. Umesh and Sunanda Gaur, S2019.6.6 © Atul Bhalla

We are delighted to host an exhibition of photographs by Janelle Lynch, on view in Lesley University’s , from April 4th through June 12th. The exhibition is running concurrently with her PRC Speaker Series presentation on April 20th at 6:30pm, which will be a hybrid event, in-person at University Hall and online via Zoom. to purchase tickets for the Speaker Series event. A post-event reception will be held at the gallery, and a public reception will be held the next evening, April 21st from 6-8pm. The exhibition features work from Janelle Lynch’s body of work, Another Way of Looking at Love (2015-2018). The series explores the interconnectedness of all life forms and supports a renewal of human relationships, and to the natural and the spiritual worlds. Of her work Lynch says, “For some images, I create points of connection with elements from the same species—Japanese barberry or burdock, for example—while for others, I combine multiple species, such as golden rod and pokeweed or burning bush and pine trees. Points of connection create spaces, which represent areas where new realities can be envisioned. The depiction of unity, together with color and light, show the beauty and magic of the natural world.” Another Way of Looking at Love follows Lynch’s belief that in our organic and spiritual essence, we are inextricably linked to each other and to Mother Nature. That we are hardwired for connection and our elemental sameness unites us and transcends our apparent differences. She captures images of nature to connect with each other and to the earth through wellness and the well-being of the world. The work is borne out of Lynch’s awe for the power of nature, and seeks to reimagine connections to one another, to the planet, and to the generative possibilities of the moment.