Will Insley: Architecture of the Mind

Critical Mass: Top 50 gathers a striking diversity of photographic voices into a single exhibition, offering a vivid snapshot of contemporary creativity across the globe. Rooted in the respected global program Photolucida, which invites photographers at any stage to submit portfolios for review, this showcase represents the best 50 out of hundreds of finalists chosen by an international jury of curators, publishers, gallery directors, and critics. The work on display spans documentary, portraiture, conceptual practice, and experimental image-making — a rich testament to how photography continues to evolve as both art and cultural reflection. Visitors will find images that interpret identity, landscape, memory, and culture in myriad ways: from stark, intimate portraits to sweeping environmental studies; from conceptual abstractions to deeply personal narratives. The variety underscores photography’s capacity to convey diverse human experiences, and to challenge and expand what we expect from the medium today. For many of the artists involved, being selected among the Top 50 is more than an accolade: it is a gateway. Through Critical Mass, photographers gain visibility in front of curators, gallerists, editors, and institutions around the world — often leading to exhibitions, publications, and further opportunities. This exhibition celebrates that moment of recognition and the potential it unlocks. Displayed together at Duncan Miller Gallery, the works form a dialogue across continents and practices. What emerges is not a single style or vision, but a polyphony of perspectives—each image a story, a question, a world. Critical Mass: Top 50 invites viewers not only to appreciate technical skill or aesthetic beauty, but to confront the many ways photography can reflect, challenge, and re-imagine our understandings of identity, culture, and our shared human condition. Image: Anastasia Sierra, Inside © Anastasia Sierra

Bruce Silverstein Gallery presents Keith Smith: Synecdoche, curated by Megan N. Liberty, marking the gallery’s fifth solo exhibition dedicated to the artist. The title, meaning “a part that stands for the whole,” encapsulates Smith’s enduring exploration of how fragments—images, gestures, or stitched patterns—can reveal the complexity of an entire life or idea. As Smith himself once declared, “pictures can, no, must give up their sovereignty for the sake of the total.” The exhibition gathers over forty works from Smith’s formative years between the 1960s and 1980s, a period of fervent innovation in photography and bookmaking. Drawn from his personal archive, these collages, stitched portraits, fabric works, postcards, and artist books trace an artist who has continuously reinvented his medium to express themes of intimacy, identity, and transformation. His art refuses to remain confined by the traditional boundaries of photography, instead merging image, text, and tactile materials into deeply personal and conceptual forms. Smith’s artistic journey began at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and evolved at the Visual Studies Workshop, where mentors such as Nathan Lyons and Sonia Landy Sheridan encouraged his experimental approach. During these years, Smith began to think of books not as mere vessels for images, but as sculptural and narrative objects—spaces where photography could exist in sequence, rhythm, and dimension. Curator Megan N. Liberty notes how Smith’s practice revolves around perception and transformation. Works like Emerging Image, Portrait of the Artist (1965) and Eye Quilt (1965) fragment and reconstruct the human form, while transparent overlays in pieces such as Book Number 2, A Change in Dimension (1967) invite the viewer to reconsider how images unfold across layers. Through stitching, collage, and repetition, Smith turns the act of looking into a form of participation. A pioneering artist and writer, Keith Smith’s works reside in major collections including MoMA, the Getty Museum, and the Art Institute of Chicago. His influence extends beyond the page, having redefined the artist’s book as a living form of expression—one in which every fragment breathes as part of the whole. Image: Multiple Exposure with Remark (a la Picasso Etching), 1966 Gelatin silver print, printed c. 1966 9 1/2 x 7 1/2 in (24.1 x 19.1 cm) © Keith Smith

Holden Luntz Gallery presents The Engaging Eye of Mario Testino, a compelling showcase that traces the remarkable vision and enduring influence of one of photography’s true icons. On view from December 13, 2025 through January 10, 2026, this exhibition invites viewers into a dialogue with Testino’s art—an art defined by its elegance, its emotional depth, and its transformative power. Mario Testino, born in Lima, Peru, rose to prominence in the world of fashion and portrait photography by combining editorial sophistication with a deeply personal approach. His images—frequently featured in Vogue, Vanity Fair, and V Magazine—reveal celebrity glamour, cultural richness, and a rare intimacy that goes beyond the surface. The exhibition gathers photographs that highlight Testino’s capacity to capture both public personas and private moments. Whether shooting supermodels, actors, or style legends, his gaze remains warm, incisive, and unforgettable. Visitors can expect to see iconic works that demonstrate his mastery of light, texture, and form, with each image unfolding as a quiet portrait of identity, elegance, and human presence. Beyond his glamorous assignments, Testino's roots in Peru and his lifelong passion for cultural storytelling enrich his work with a layered humanity. ([Wikipedia][3]) His ability to bridge fashion, beauty, and personal expression has made his photographs central to the visual lexicon of modern luxury and intimacy. The Engaging Eye of Mario Testino is more than a retrospective—it’s a celebration of a photographer who has continuously shaped how we see style, fame, and connection. Through his lens, Testino reminds us that every portrait holds a story—and that true artistry lies in making us feel seen. Image: Mario Testino — Karlie Kloss, Bahia, American Vogue, 2012 printed later Digitally produced C-type print 47.2 x 71 in, at Holden Luntz Gallery © Mario Testino

Glowing Earth: Photographic Histories of Little Tokyo explores the rich visual culture of pre-WWII Little Tokyo and its enduring influence on Southern California’s artistic landscape. Japanese American artists forged collectives, clubs, and professional associations, mounting exhibitions and launching commercial ventures that documented the evolving neighborhood, chronicled immigration and assimilation, and captured California’s emotional and physical landscapes. Their work shaped the creative genealogy of the region, establishing a legacy that resonates with contemporary artists today. In October 2023, LACP relocated to a vibrant new space between Little Tokyo and the Toy District, surrounded by craft workshops, wholesale retailers, and the artistic heritage left behind by pioneers whose contributions were undervalued for decades. This location situates the gallery in the heart of the creative continuum, bridging historical achievements and contemporary practices while honoring the area’s layered narratives. Toyo Miyatake Way, adjacent to LACP, pays homage to the eponymous photographer whose studio and collective, Shak-udo-sha, profoundly shaped photography in Los Angeles. Miyatake not only documented the community but also supported figures like Edward Weston, fostering exhibitions and mentorship that extended his influence far beyond Little Tokyo. Today, his family continues the photographic tradition in San Gabriel. Contemporary artists like Mike Saijo engage with this history, preserving and reinterpreting early photographic archives, including rare glass negatives from the 1920s in collaboration with Yvette Marthell. Emilene Orozco, winner of the 2025 Aline Smithson Next Generation Award, channels her Mexican heritage to amplify marginalized voices and explore cultural memory, while Flora Kao’s cyanotypes draw upon local visual traditions, rituals, and the histories of photographic practice to reflect community identity and shared myth. Glowing Earth weaves these stories into a broader examination of immigrant communities across Downtown, South, and East Los Angeles. By connecting past and present, the exhibition reveals how artists document, reinterpret, and sustain cultural memory, fostering cross-generational and intercultural dialogue that continues to shape the creative life of the city. Image: Mike Saijo in collaboration with Yvette Marthell, Family Portrait by Chikashi Tanaka, 1920s, Little Tokyo, Glass print negative, analog print, 2025

Haines Gallery presents From the Ashes, the first solo exhibition by Los Angeles–based experimental photographer Matthew Brandt, whose distinctive practice merges material experimentation with conceptual depth. Known for transforming photography into a tangible process, Brandt uses substances directly tied to his subjects, creating works where matter and image intertwine. The exhibition brings together five series—Dust, January Skies, Florida Strangler, Eagles, and Wai‘anae—each exploring how photography’s physical and chemical roots can reflect the social and environmental realities they depict. For Brandt, the photographic medium is never neutral; it carries the history, material, and atmosphere of the place it represents. His process often incorporates soil, ash, or water gathered from the sites he photographs, transforming each print into a living trace of its origin. Created specifically for this exhibition, his new Dust works revisit historic San Francisco architecture, using pigments made from dust collected at the sites of demolished buildings. These time-worn images collapse past and present, offering a meditation on transformation, decay, and the persistence of memory. In January Skies, Brandt captures Los Angeles’ wildfire-smoked skies by transferring pigments from inkjet prints onto plaster, resulting in fractured, fresco-like surfaces that echo both destruction and renewal. Other series extend this inquiry further. Florida Strangler depicts ficus aurea trees rendered with automotive paint on industrial materials, highlighting the uneasy bond between nature and human industry. Eagles, composed of silver plates melted from American coins, reimagines the national emblem as a symbol of rivalry and power. In Wai‘anae, Brandt buries prints in Hawaiian soil, allowing time and the elements to reshape the images. Together, these works form an alchemical dialogue between creation and erosion, image and substance. In From the Ashes, Matthew Brandt redefines photography as a physical event—where art, history, and chemistry meet in the fragile balance between presence and transformation. Image: Panama Pacific International Fair_AAE-0780, 2025 Gum bichromate print on paper with dust swept from under dedication benches 44.75 x 35.75 inches, framed Unique © Matthew Brandt

Deborah Bell Photographs presents Lee Friedlander: Christmas, an exhibition celebrating the renowned photographer’s decades-long documentation of the American experience through the lens of the holiday season. Organized in collaboration with Fraenkel Gallery in San Francisco and Luhring Augustine in New York, the exhibition coincides with the publication of Friedlander’s latest book, LEE FRIEDLANDER: CHRISTMAS, released by the Eakins Press Foundation. Spanning from 1958 to 2015, the photographs in this exhibition trace nearly seven decades of American life as seen through Friedlander’s sharp and playful eye. The images—drawn from streets, shop windows, living rooms, and gatherings across the United States—transform Christmas into a rich visual metaphor for culture, community, and contradiction. His lens captures both the warmth and absurdity of the season, balancing humor with a deep understanding of human complexity. The book includes over a hundred photographs selected personally by the artist, reflecting his curiosity about the rituals that define everyday life. As noted by Peter Kayafas of the Eakins Press Foundation, Friedlander’s work questions the meaning of Christmas in America—whether sacred, commercial, ironic, or celebratory—and reveals how the holiday reflects the diversity and restlessness of the national spirit. Born in 1934 in Aberdeen, Washington, Friedlander began photographing in his teens and went on to redefine the visual language of American photography. His distinctive ability to organize chaos into elegant compositions turned the ordinary into the profound. Over his long career, he has documented urban scenes, nature, self-portraits, and artists with equal fascination, building an unparalleled portrait of modern life. A major figure of twentieth-century photography, Friedlander’s work has been exhibited internationally and resides in the collections of leading institutions including MoMA, the Whitney Museum, and the National Gallery of Art. Lee Friedlander: Christmas offers a timely and timeless reflection on what it means to observe, to remember, and to see America in all its festive contradictions. Images: Lee Friedlander (American, b. 1934) West Texas, 2003 gelatin silver print sheet 20 x 16” (50.8 x 40.6 cm) Copyright © Lee Friedlander, Courtesy Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco and Luhring Augustine, New York

A Geological Survey, the first solo exhibition by Rose Marie Cromwell at EUQINOM Gallery, unfolds as a meditative journey through memory, landscape, and lineage. Drawing on her roots in the American West, Cromwell turns her lens toward the places that shaped her early life, intertwining the geological with the personal to question how land and identity mirror one another. The series follows Cromwell, her mother, and her young daughter as they travel through Western terrains marked by history and transformation. Portraits of the three generations are woven with images of weathered rocks, mining remnants, and fragile natural formations, revealing a landscape that holds both wounds and wonder. Through this intimate perspective, Cromwell reclaims the Western myth from its traditional narratives of conquest and masculinity, reframing it as a space of nurturing, reckoning, and renewal. Cromwell’s images move between tenderness and unease, as if balancing nostalgia for childhood road trips with anxiety for her daughter’s future. The landscape becomes a living archive, where past and present coalesce. Works like The Cave and In the Dry Flowers evoke portals between generations—birth, growth, and decay repeating in quiet rhythms. The presence of her family, both fragile and enduring, mirrors the resilience of the land itself. In Fissure, a quilt-like composition of layered photographs, Cromwell extends her practice into tactile form. This piece, sewn from fragments of imagery, reflects the intertwined nature of human memory and geological time. The act of piecing together images becomes an act of care and continuity, much like tending to inherited stories. A Geological Survey ultimately reads as both personal memoir and environmental reflection—a meditation on time’s persistence, the intimacy of place, and the legacies we leave for those who follow. Image: Rose Marie Cromwell, The Cave, 2025, Archival inkjet print, 40 x 32 in, (Edition of 3 +1AP) © Rose Marie Cromwell

Voloshyn Gallery presents DISORDER, a compelling exhibition that brings together several phases of Aneta Grzeszykowska’s artistic journey. Drawing on photography, performance, and sculptural object-making, the artist continues her exploration of existence, memory, and the fragile ties between body and identity. Her use of unconventional materials, including animal skins and hyperrealistic replicas, creates a space where reality and artifice continuously overlap. In this new presentation, Grzeszykowska turns to those closest to her—family members, pets, and her own physical presence—to question the familiar order of domestic life. Through carefully staged scenes, she shifts roles and blurs categories: humans adopt animal gestures, animals become uncanny mirrors of their owners, and the artist steps into versions of herself that belong to different times. These disruptions unsettle distinctions between human and animal, youth and age, what is alive and what merely resembles life. At the heart of the exhibition is THE DAUGHTER (2025), a new body of work built around a hyperrealistic mask modeled on the artist’s own teenage face. Reconstructed from old photographs, the mask is used in performances with her relatives, allowing Grzeszykowska to reenter her family history from an altered standpoint. The contrast between a youthful visage and an adult body heightens themes of memory, expectation, and the shifting nature of identity. The exhibition also includes DOMESTIC ANIMALS (2022), in which pigskin masks of the artist’s face are placed onto her dogs. The resulting photographs address recognition and estrangement, prompting viewers to reflect on how much of the self is tied to the features through which others perceive us. Another significant work, MAMA (2018), features a silicone double crafted with remarkable precision. When photographed alongside her daughter, this surrogate figure destabilizes ideas of representation and the boundary between person and image. Through DISORDER, Grzeszykowska deepens her long-standing investigation into identity, mortality, and the subtle transformations that define human relationships with animals and objects. Image: Aneta Grzeszykowska, Daughter # 04, 2025 at Voloshyn Gallery © Aneta Grzeszykowska

Surface / Signal: Owen Kydd and Kyle Tata brings together two daring voices from Los Angeles who push the limits of what photography can be — dissolving boundaries between stillness and motion, between image and object, between documentation and abstraction. Their work invites viewers to reconsider how we perceive reality, memory, and material presence. For Owen Kydd, photographs are not endings — they are beginnings. His recent series treats rooms, streets, windows, and fleeting atmospheres as raw material. Once captured, the digital image becomes pliable: layered, adjusted, stretched. The result lives somewhere between photography and film: a suspended moment dissolves into duration, and what seems like a snapshot begins to breathe. In Kydd’s world, seeing is an act of patience — a call to linger until what is hidden makes itself known. Kyle Tata counters the instantaneousness of the photographic moment with a physical, visceral intervention. By abrading, bleaching, and inking negatives, he disrupts clarity, allowing presence and absence to collide on paper. His photographs are not documentation — they are encounters. The marks become traces of time, memory, and erosion. What remains isn’t just a scene, but an impression, a ghost of something that once was and is now transformed. Side by side, Kydd and Tata create a subtle yet powerful dialogue. Kydd’s extended observation and digital reworking, Tata’s gestural manipulations and corporeal layering, both subvert expectation and draw attention to the medium itself. Their images challenge the idea that a photograph is a window to the world — instead, each becomes a surface, a signal, a space for contemplation. Surface / Signal reminds us that photography is not fixed. It evolves. It fractures. It glides between memory and illusion, between the quiet hum of a city street and the scar on a negative. This exhibition asks not only to look, but to feel, to question, to dwell — and to wonder what lies between what is seen and what remains. Image: Kyle Tata Convex Hull with Prisms Version 4, 2025 Inkjet Print mounted on Sintra © Kyle Tata

The exhibition Deck the Walls 2025 at Catherine Couturier Gallery invites viewers into a vibrant celebration of photographic variety — from vintage black-and-white prints to contemporary color images — reflecting the multiplicity of vision, technique, and aesthetic across decades. Running from December 6, 2025 to January 10, 2026, this 28th annual group show offers a rich, eclectic mix that speaks to both collectors and casual admirers alike, echoing the gallery’s long-standing commitment to accessibility, diversity, and discovery. Among this year’s highlights is a series by Diana Cheren Nygren, titled Please Come In, which transforms playful Korean business mascots into uncanny shadowbox tableaux under acrylic — whimsical, nostalgic, and full of personality. Nygren’s work brings humor and cultural resonance into the mix, reminding us how everyday symbols can carry layers of meaning when reimagined through art. The exhibition also welcomes the surreal, analog collages of Sander Vos. Vos’s dreamlike compositions — crafted with precision and an unmistakable sense of otherworldly elegance — invoke questions of memory, fantasy, and perception, offering a striking contrast to the documentary clarity of more traditional photography. His inclusion highlights how contemporary practitioners continue to stretch the boundaries of what a photograph can be. Local and regional voices are well represented too. Houston-based artist Charles Ford revisits his works from the 1980s and 1990s, offering viewers a chance to reflect on how time shapes both image and memory. Contemporary gelatin silver prints by Gary Watson and fresh work by Emily Neville Fisher add further depth and texture to the show, creating a layered experience that spans generations of artistic practice. With its variety of styles — documentary, collage, conceptual, abstract, vintage, modern — and a broad price range, Deck the Walls 2025 lives up to its reputation as an inclusive, spirited gathering of photographic voices. It’s a chance to witness how photography continues to evolve, transform, and surprise, while honoring its enduring roots in craft, vision, and human expression. The gallery welcomes all comers: whether you’re a seasoned collector, budding enthusiast, or simply curious, there’s something here for every eye and every story. Image: Charles Ford Miami Beach, 1988 archival digital print on baryta paper 21 x 14 inches open edition © Charles Ford

Double Portraits unfolds as a thoughtful and layered exploration of the American South — not as a single story, but as a tapestry woven from memory, presence, and human connection. Running from October 25, 2025 through January 11, 2026 at Holmes Gallery, the exhibition presents 47 photographs by 34 artists, each offering a distinct interpretation of the “double portrait” concept. At first, the show opens with intimate, classical portraiture: images where two individuals stand clearly in frame, their identities visible and distinct. These photographs adopt traditional formal structure, giving weight to presence, dignity, and connection through composition and clarity. In these images, the gaze meets the viewer’s directly, establishing a bond that is both personal and universal. As the exhibition progresses, the style shifts toward more vernacular aesthetics. Artists adopt a snapshot sensibility — spontaneous, casual moments captured in real time. Here, double portraits become informal records of life: friends leaning together, family members sharing a glance, or couples caught mid-conversation. These frames rely less on formal posing than on the emotional resonance conveyed by gesture, posture, and timing. In their everydayness lies intimacy, immediacy, and honest humanity. The third section deepens this intimacy by focusing on connection and care: two bodies in a scene suggest shared history, subtle interaction, and unspoken bonds. A hand resting on a knee, a sideways glance, the soft play of light — these details invite viewers into the emotional spaces between people, evoking empathy and reflection even without knowing their stories. Finally, the exhibition challenges the traditional double portrait altogether. In its most experimental section, artists explore mirrors, reflections, photographs within photographs, and fragmented compositions. Subjects may be partially obscured, duplicated, or implied rather than shown. In doing so, these works emphasize presence through absence — suggesting identity, memory, and relationship through form, shadow, and suggestion rather than full depiction. Together, the photographs of Double Portraits map a nuanced, resonant portrait of the South — its people, its stories, and its shifting social landscapes. Through varied styles and approaches, the exhibition reveals the many ways photography can capture human connection: visible and hidden, declared and implied, static and transient. Image: Preston Gannaway, Twins, 2013. Archival pigment print,12 ½ x 17 ¾ inches. The Do Good Fund, Inc., 2017-105. © Preston Gannaway

Between a Memory and Me features the work of Rahim Fortune (b. 1994). Born in Austin, Texas and raised in the Chickasaw Nation of Oklahoma, Fortune uses photography to interrogate American identity, exploring the connections between the families and communities he photographs and the land they inhabit, the histories embedded in the landscape of the American South, and the traditions they carry forward. Fortune’s black-and-white photographs from his Hardtack project weave together tender and reverent portraits, vast landscapes, and close-detail studies. Through a focus on Black American life, these words both draw from the history of photography and reframe the history of photographic representation of the South. The work is also deeply personal: it emerged from the artist seeking connection, kinship, and home following the loss of both of his parents. Fortune’s new color photographs, created in response to the Texas African American Photography archive, are exhibited here for the first time. His short film takes us through the fields and roads of rural Texas, lingering lovingly on quiet, exquisite details. This presentation includes new photographs originally commissioned by Aperture and Documentary Arts.