Matthew Brandt: From the Ashes

Influence and Identity: Twentieth Century Portrait Photography from the Bank of America Collection invites viewers to explore how photography has shaped the public image of some of the most influential figures of the modern age. Presented at The National Arts Club’s historic Gramercy Park building, the exhibition spans the transformative decades from the 1920s through the 1960s, a period when portrait photography flourished as both documentation and art. Through 83 masterful works by renowned international photographers, visitors encounter the likenesses of icons such as Marilyn Monroe, Winston Churchill, and Miles Davis—each portrait revealing as much about its subject as it does about the evolving cultural spirit of the time. Drawn from the prestigious Bank of America Collection, the exhibition highlights photography’s power to define identity, influence perception, and shape collective memory. Whether through the lens of glamour, leadership, or rebellion, these images offer an intimate study of fame, character, and creativity. They remind us that portraiture is never merely about appearance—it is about presence, legacy, and the invisible dialogue between artist and sitter. This exhibition is made possible through the Bank of America Art in our Communities® program, an initiative that shares the bank’s extensive art holdings with museums and nonprofit institutions around the world. By offering these curated exhibitions at no cost, the program helps sustain cultural organizations while enriching local communities with access to exceptional art. Since its inception in 2008, the program has lent exhibitions more than 175 times, fostering engagement, education, and inspiration across generations. Influence and Identity stands as both a visual chronicle of the twentieth century and a reflection on the enduring power of the photographic portrait to reveal, conceal, and ultimately define what it means to be seen. Image: Yousuf Karsh (Canadian, b. Armenia, 1908–2002). Georgia O’Keeffe, 1956. Gelatin silver print. Bank of America Collection. © Yousuf Karsh

Hans P. Kraus JR. Gallery presents Form Follows Function in Early Photographs, on view through November 26, 2025. The exhibition gathers a remarkable selection of early works that reflect architect Louis Sullivan’s enduring principle that “form ever follows function.” Through the lenses of pioneers such as William Henry Fox Talbot, Victor Regnault, Félix Teynard, Henri Le Secq, and Frederick H. Evans, the show explores how photography captured architecture not merely as structure, but as living expression—each form molded by its use and purpose. William Henry Fox Talbot, the father of the calotype, found artistic pleasure in documenting the ancient architecture of Oxford. His salt print of the Radcliffe Camera, taken from the High Street, stands as one of his most poetic compositions—a balance of structure and light that transforms stone into image. Talbot’s work embodies the dialogue between form, material, and emerging photographic vision. French physicist and photographer Henri-Victor Regnault captured the harmony between science and aesthetics in his 1852 salt print of a carpenter’s house in Sèvres. The play of shadow and geometry turns a simple domestic scene into an abstract meditation on design. Félix Teynard, a civil engineer and one of the earliest photographers of Egypt, brought technical precision and poetic sensitivity to his 1850s image of the Pyramid of Cheops. His work remains among the most comprehensive visual documents of the Nile Valley’s monumental past. American photographer George Barker expanded this tradition across the Atlantic, transforming scenes of Niagara Falls and later Florida’s developing towns into narratives of modern growth. Finally, Frederick H. Evans, celebrated for his spiritual studies of cathedrals, reveals architecture as a vessel of light and devotion. His 1912 image of Durham Cathedral epitomizes his belief that photography could render the sacred geometry of space with almost mystical fidelity. Image: Félix Teynard (French, 1817-1892) "Pyramide de Chéops (Grande Pyramide), Égypte," 1853-1854 Salt print from a paper negative made ca. 1851-1852

Duncan Miller Gallery is proud to announce Icons of Fashion, an extraordinary exhibition celebrating the visionaries who shaped the global fashion landscape. Featuring portraits of over 40 of the world’s most renowned designers and couturiers, this exhibition offers an intimate look at the creative forces behind the industry’s most iconic styles. Design legends such as Coco Chanel, Salvatore Ferragamo, Jean-Paul Gaultier, Karl Lagerfeld, Valentino Garavani, Cristóbal Balenciaga, Lily Dache, Gianni Versace, and many others are captured through the lenses of the world’s greatest photographers. The collection includes the work of Herb Ritts, Harry Benson, Irving Penn, Bruce Weber, Cecil Beaton, Jean-Loup Sieff, Horst P. Horst, Yousuf Karsh, Peter Hujar, David Bailey, Dorothy Wilding, and more. Image: Salvatore Ferragamo, 1957 by James Jarche

Stephen Daiter Gallery presents Dawoud Bey: Syracuse 1985, an exhibition that revisits a pivotal moment in the photographer’s early career. On view through November 28, the show features work created during Bey’s first artist residency at Light Work in Syracuse, New York. Invited in 1985, just after the acclaim of his Harlem, U.S.A. series, Bey was given the rare opportunity to live and work without distraction for an entire month. Immersed in the rhythm of city life, he spent his days wandering Syracuse with his camera, capturing the quiet poetry of ordinary moments from dawn to dusk. The images that emerged from this period reveal an artist refining his vision, finding meaning in the gestures and faces of everyday people. Commuters waiting for buses, workers hurrying through morning light, students crossing busy intersections—all appear bathed in a luminosity that feels both spontaneous and deliberate. Bey described this time as a return to the streets, a renewed search for those fleeting instants when the world aligns and becomes a powerful visual statement. His Syracuse photographs mark a shift toward a deeper engagement with the human presence in urban space, emphasizing empathy, observation, and rhythm. The exhibition features the original twenty-six prints produced during Bey’s residency, along with a selection of additional early works from Syracuse. Together, they offer insight into a defining chapter of his artistic development—an exploration of light, form, and community that would continue to shape his practice for decades. Accompanying the exhibition is a fully illustrated catalog, Dawoud Bey: Syracuse 1985, which celebrates the lasting impact of this formative project and the enduring spirit of an artist who continues to find profound beauty in the everyday. Image: A Woman Alone at the Bus Stop, Syracuse, NY, 1985 © Dawoud Bey

Robert Koch Gallery is pleased to announce Edward Burtynsky: Transformation, featuring monumental color photographs that examine landscapes altered by resource extraction, manufacturing, rapid development, and the ecological changes that follow. These works continue Burtynsky’s ongoing exploration of how human intervention has reshaped natural environments worldwide, revealing both their vulnerability and magnificence. Edward Burtynsky: Transformation opens concurrent to The Great Acceleration, Burtynsky’s exhibition at the International Center of Photography in New York, presently on view through September 28, 2025. Timed to coincide with Climate Week NYC in September 2025, this landmark presentation, curated by David Campany, marks Burtynsky’s first major institutional exhibition in New York City in over twenty years. It is accompanied by a monograph by the ICP / Steidl. The exhibition embodies Burtynsky’s decades-long pursuit of capturing the profound and often permanent changes human industry brings to the earth’s surface. Each project remains intrinsically linked, showing how local environmental changes reflect broader global patterns, documenting the visible effects on the land brought on by demographic expansion, water consumption, carbon emissions, and mineral extraction. “At such a critical moment in time, I hope this work sparks meaningful dialogue about our relationship with the planet and brings more people to this awareness,” reflects Burtynsky on his mission to document our changing world. Images included in the exhibition range from retreating glaciers in British Columbia’s Coast Mountains, which reflect the impact of climate change on ice caps, to cobalt mining operations in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, illustrating the lasting marks of human resource extraction on the land. Burtynsky’s image of Lake Mead, Nevada depicts receding waterways brought on by prolonged drought and increasing water demand, highlighting the strain on vital resources in the American West. Burtynsky’s recent 2024 photographs of Olympic National Park, Washington capture the effects of increased rainfall in the region’s remote wilderness areas. His work depicting Thjorsá River, Iceland captures the intricate patterns formed by glacial meltwater as it meanders through Iceland’s volcanic landscape, caused by climate change. Collectively, these images form a powerful visual narrative of our planet’s rapid transformation. Burtynsky’s work was the subject of the award-winning documentary trilogy Manufactured Landscapes (dir. Jennifer Baichwal, 2006), Watermark (dir. Baichwal and Burtynsky, 2013), and ANTHROPOCENE: The Human Epoch (dir. Baichwal, Nicholas de Pencier, and Burtynsky, 2018). Burtynsky has dedicated over 40 years to documenting human impact on the planet. His works are held in the collections of over eighty museums worldwide, including the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Museum of Modern Art and Guggenheim, New York; Tate, London; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid; and the National Gallery of Canada, among other notable international institutions. Major institutional exhibitions include BURTYNSKY: Extraction/Abstraction (2024), premiered at Saatchi Gallery, London, before touring to M9, Mestre, Italy; Anthropocene (2018), Art Gallery of Ontario and National Gallery of Canada (international tour); Water (2013), New Orleans Museum of Art and Contemporary Art Center, Louisiana (international tour); Oil (2009), Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. (five-year international tour); China (2005–2008, international tour); Manufactured Landscapes (2003–2005), National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa (toured to Art Gallery of Ontario and Brooklyn Museum); and Breaking Ground (1988–1992), produced by the Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography (international tour). His accolades include the inaugural TED Prize (2005); the ICP Infinity Award (2008); the Kraszna Krausz Book Award (2010); the Lucie Award for Achievement in Documentary Photography (2011); the Outreach Award at Rencontres d’Arles (2011); the Photo London Master of Photography Award (2018); the Outstanding Contribution to Photography Award from the World Photography Organisation (2022); and his induction into the International Photography Hall of Fame (2022), among others. Burtynsky was awarded the title of Officer of the Order of Canada in 2006 and currently holds nine honorary doctorate degrees. Image: Rainforest #2, Olympic National Park, Washington, USA, 2024 © Edward Burtynsky

SF Camerawork proudly presents The Tellings We Keep, the first solo exhibition of Choctaw artist Tricia Rainwater, spanning over four years of work and including four newly commissioned pieces. Rainwater’s multimedia practice—encompassing installation, sound, sculpture, and self-portraiture—examines displacement, grief, and the intersections of body, memory, and land. Her work acts as both a meditation and a form of remembrance, inviting visitors to witness histories that are often overlooked or erased. Upon entering the exhibition, viewers are enveloped by a field recording captured near Nanih Waiya, a sacred Choctaw mound central to creation stories and spiritual practice. The ambient sounds of footsteps and nature thread the installations together, underscoring Rainwater’s focus on embodied recollection. In works such as Holisso Holitpa (Bible) (2021) and A Series of Weapons (2021–2025), she transforms Bibles into sculptural vessels, embedding them with hair, razor blades, barbed wire, and glass shards. These altered texts confront the trauma of forced assimilation at U.S. and church-run boarding schools, where Native children were punished for their language and culture, turning instruments of faith into symbols of harm and resilience. In Ardmore Has a Secret (2022) and Emily Says the Gators Are Friendly (2024), Rainwater revisits sites of ancestral and personal significance. She positions herself within landscapes marked by historical violence and estrangement, creating images that explore visibility, dislocation, and the ongoing impact of generational trauma. Chuka Achafa (One House) (2025) incorporates altered childhood wallpaper and family photographs, merging memory, environment, and ritual into a deeply personal tableau. Collaborations, such as Tikba Ihiya (to keep going) (2025) with photographer Rich Lomibao, focus on hands holding threads, documents, and earth, symbolizing kinship and interdependence. The monumental Our Own Snake Dance (2025) suspends hundreds of digitally printed fabrics brushed with bay water and earth, evoking Mississippian and Caddo pottery motifs and reimagining emergence from trauma. Through these interwoven works, Rainwater constructs a narrative of memory, survival, and home as both place and concept. Her art transforms grief into enduring presence, offering spaces for reflection, remembrance, and the reclamation of Choctaw histories. Image: Tricia Rainwater, Ardmore Has a Secret © Tricia Rainwater

A century after André Breton’s *Surrealist Manifesto* ignited a revolution of the imagination, Throckmorton Fine Art celebrates the enduring power of Surrealism through an exhibition tracing its profound influence on photography. Bringing together works created across Europe, the United States, and Mexico, the show reveals how the Surrealist impulse reshaped both the form and spirit of photographic practice over the past hundred years. Emerging from the psychological and cultural wreckage of World War I, Surrealism offered artists a means of liberation from rationality and the mechanized violence of modern life. Guided by Freudian theory and the anarchic spirit of Dada, its adherents sought to channel the unconscious, the dreamlike, and the forbidden. Photography became a key instrument in this pursuit—an alchemical medium capable of transforming reality into illusion. Through techniques such as photomontage, solarization, and multiple exposure, photographers rendered the invisible visible, collapsing distinctions between body and object, waking life and dream. The exhibition features masterworks by figures such as Leonora Carrington, Kati Horna, and Dora Maar, alongside experimental visions by Edward Weston, André Kertész, and Tina Modotti. Their images reveal a fascination with the uncanny and the erotic—reflections of a world where ordinary objects take on otherworldly charge. Portraits of Jean Cocteau by Berenice Abbott, Lucien Clergue, and Germaine Krull convey the Surrealist attraction to transformation, disguise, and the theatrical self. The movement’s migration beyond Europe is also vividly represented. Mexico, a country steeped in myth and ritual, became a fertile ground for Surrealist experimentation. Works by Manuel Álvarez Bravo, Lola Álvarez Bravo, and María García bridge Breton’s dreamlike aesthetics with the poetic realism of Latin America. A century later, Surrealism’s legacy continues to blur the line between fantasy and truth—reminding us that imagination remains one of humanity’s most radical acts of resistance. Image: Lucien Clergue, Jean Cocteau, Le Testament d'orphee, 1959 © Lucien Clergue

In A River Once Dreamed, photographer Andrew Kung reimagines the landscapes of the Hudson River Valley through scenes of Asian American men situated within the territory that once defined the nation’s artistic identity. Drawing inspiration from the Hudson River School’s idealized portrayals of nature, Kung reconstructs these romantic visions to question who is seen, who belongs, and who has been left out of the story of the American landscape. Each composition becomes a meditation on visibility, masculinity, and historical omission. By restaging the pastoral spaces once painted as symbols of Manifest Destiny, Kung exposes the exclusions embedded within that tradition. His subjects, often portrayed in gestures of quiet reflection or companionship, inhabit the landscape not as distant figures but as integral participants, reclaiming a presence long denied. The river, rather than serving as a topographical reference, becomes a poetic stage on which belonging and erasure unfold side by side. Throughout the series, Kung revisits the paradox of American identity—a history shaped by immigrant labor and loyalty, yet one that has consistently marginalized those very communities. Asian migrants helped build the nation’s physical and cultural infrastructure, from the Transcontinental Railroad to its agricultural expansion, yet their narratives were rarely recorded within its visual canon. In this work, Kung offers a counterimage: a new vision of American pastoralism grounded in intimacy, kinship, and reclamation. Born in 1991 and based in New York, Andrew Kung explores themes of place, identity, and belonging through his photographic practice. His images challenge inherited notions of visibility and the male gaze, transforming absence into presence. Recognized by Light Work, NYSCA/NYFA, LensCulture, and the British Journal of Photography, Kung continues to redefine how the American landscape—and those who inhabit it—are seen. Image: © Andrew Kung

Catherine Couturier Gallery presents Portals, a solo exhibition by Croatian photographer Stanko Abadžić. This evocative body of work invites viewers to contemplate the delicate boundaries between presence and absence, intimacy and distance. Through the motif of the female nude, Abadžić explores how moments of transition—captured at windows, mirrors, and thresholds—can become gateways into the human soul. The artist’s long collaboration with a single model forms the emotional core of this series. Their partnership, built over many years, has evolved into a dialogue of trust and vulnerability. Each image arises from an exchange of emotion rather than direction, revealing a rare authenticity. The model is not an object before the lens but an equal participant in a poetic conversation about light, form, and emotion. In Portals, the nude becomes more than a subject—it becomes a vessel of reflection. The interplay of shadow and illumination, glass and space, evokes themes of longing and transformation. The images are both sensual and meditative, guided by Abadžić’s timeless devotion to classical composition and his sensitivity to atmosphere. The works transcend mere representation, embodying a quiet reverence for human fragility and beauty. Stanko Abadžić has exhibited widely across Europe, Argentina, Japan, Russia, and the United States. His photographs are held in numerous public and private collections in Croatia, the Czech Republic, and beyond, earning him international recognition and multiple awards. A member of the Croatian Association of Artists, Abadžić continues to live and work in Zagreb, pursuing his enduring exploration of elegance, truth, and the emotional resonance of the photographic image. Image: Stanko Abadžić, Nude No. 32, Zagreb, Croatia, 2024 © Stanko Abadžić

Soho Photo Gallery proudly presents its annual Alternative Processes Competition, a celebration of photography’s most inventive and time-honored techniques. This exhibition honors the art of making images by hand, showcasing processes that trace their origins to the earliest days of the medium while embracing contemporary innovation. From albumen and cyanotype to tintype and photogravure, the show brings together artists who explore photography as both science and poetry. Each work in the exhibition embodies a dialogue between history and experimentation. Traditional processes such as platinum/palladium printing, gum bichromate, or salt printing reveal the tactile beauty of craftsmanship, while newer techniques like liquid emulsion, image transfers, and chemigrams open the door to unexpected textures and tones. The inclusion of handmade prints created from digital negatives demonstrates how ancient methods can meet modern tools, producing images that transcend time. This year’s winners—First Place: Barbara Hazen, Second Place: Lynne Buchanan, and Third Place: Peter Moxhay—reflect the diversity and creativity of contemporary alternative photography. Honorable Mentions were awarded to Sally Chapman, Shari Diamond, Michael Korol, and Mark Zimmerman, alongside an inspiring selection of photographers from around the world. Each artist approaches the process with a unique sensibility, transforming chemistry, light, and material into visual poetry. At its core, Alternative Processes is not about nostalgia but about rediscovery. It celebrates the imperfections, unpredictability, and intimacy of making images by hand—qualities often lost in today’s digital world. Whether through the delicate blues of cyanotype or the warm depth of Van Dyke brown, these photographs invite viewers to slow down and appreciate the alchemy of light and matter. Through this exhibition, Soho Photo continues its mission to champion the enduring craft of photography, reminding us that innovation often begins by revisiting the roots of the medium. Image: Barbara Hazen, Unspoken Words; Photogravure; First Place © Barbara Hazen

The Griffin Museum of Photography presents Perennial Impressions, an exhibition featuring the works of Meg Griffiths and Frances Jakubek. Both practicing artists and co-founders of A Yellow Rose Project, Griffiths and Jakubek bring together their distinct yet deeply connected practices to reflect on growth, preservation, and legacy through the language of photography. After uplifting the voices of more than one hundred women through A Yellow Rose Project, the two artists turn the lens toward themselves—toward the very act of making space, nurturing creativity, and sustaining artistic lineage. Their collaboration becomes a dialogue about time, transformation, and the emotional resonance that images carry when grounded in empathy and care. Frances Jakubek’s series Archive of the Ego offers a meditation on identity and self-observation. Through intimate self-portraits, she examines how the body and its representation evolve—from one defined by outside gaze to one reclaimed through self-possession and reflection. Her work reimagines the self-portrait not as an act of exposure, but as an ongoing process of becoming. Meg Griffiths, inspired by early women pioneers in photography such as Anna Atkins, uses the cyanotype process to imprint botanical forms onto paper. Her series Bluest Flos captures the beauty of nature’s impermanence while preserving it through light and chemistry. The resulting images resemble scientific specimens and poetic relics, bridging the line between documentation and devotion. Together, their works trace a conversation between body and nature, art and endurance. Perennial Impressions reminds viewers that both human and floral lives leave their marks in fleeting but profound ways—impressions that, though ephemeral, root deeply in memory and time. Image: © Frances Jakubek

Visual Kinship explores how photography defines, challenges, and reimagines the concept of family. Across diverse historical and contemporary works, the exhibition examines how images reflect and disrupt family structures shaped by colonialism, migration, transnational adoption, and queer intimacies. Photography plays a pivotal role in bridging the personal and political, offering a lens through which kinship can be recognized, claimed, and contested. The exhibition also considers how visual culture fosters alternative networks of belonging and care, expanding the notion of family beyond biological or traditional frameworks. This exhibition is organized by the Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth, and generously supported by the Charles Gilman Family Endowment. Image: Rania Matar, Alae (with the mirror), Beirut, Lebanon