Sabiha Çimen and Mary Ellen Mark: The Girls brings together two distinct yet deeply resonant photographic voices at Howard Greenberg Gallery from April 2 to May 9, 2026. Though separated by generation and geography, both artists turn their attention toward the intimate, often overlooked terrain of girlhood. The exhibition unfolds as a quiet dialogue across time, where images echo one another in their sensitivity to moments of play, introspection, and transformation.
Mary Ellen Mark’s work, spanning decades and continents, carries a profound commitment to those living on the margins. Her black-and-white photographs reveal a sharp attentiveness to gesture and expression, whether capturing the defiant energy of teenagers in
Streetwise, the fragile realities of institutional life in
Ward 81, or the performative rituals of adolescence in her series on American proms. Across these varied settings, her portraits resist spectacle, instead offering a nuanced view into the emotional lives of her subjects.
In contrast,
Sabiha Çimen’s images unfold in soft, luminous color, drawing viewers into the interior world of girls attending Qur’an schools in Turkey. Her series
Hafiz blends documentary observation with a dreamlike sensibility, where everyday routines become infused with imagination and quiet humor. The girls she photographs appear at ease, moving between discipline and play, their friendships and private moments rendered with a sense of closeness that feels both tender and unguarded.
A subtle thread connects the two photographers through an unexpected story: a girl named Emine, photographed by Mark in 1965 and later found decades on by Çimen. This encounter bridges past and present, underscoring how a single image can extend beyond its moment, shaping memory and meaning over time. Within the exhibition, such connections deepen the sense that girlhood, while shaped by context, carries shared emotional textures.
Together, these works trace a space where vulnerability meets resilience, and where identity takes form in fleeting, formative moments. The exhibition lingers in that delicate threshold, inviting viewers to consider how girls see themselves, and how they are seen in return.
Image:
Students having fun at an artificial lake during a weekend event, Istanbul, 2018
Archival pigment print mounted on Alu Dibond © Sabiha Çimen, Courtesy of Howard Greenberg Gallery, New York