Matt Draper: Within One Breath

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.

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

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

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

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

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