Exhibition: ‘Peter Mitchell: Nothing Lasts Forever’ at The Photographers’ Gallery, London

Exhibition dates: 7th March – 15th June, 2025

Peter Mitchell (British, b. 1943) 'Opticians, London, 1975' 1975 from the exhibition 'Peter Mitchell: Nothing Lasts Forever' at the Photographers' Gallery, London, March - June, 2025

Peter Mitchell (British, b. 1943)
Opticians, London, 1975
1975
C-print
© Peter Mitchell

I absolutely adore these Peter Mitchell 1970s colour photographs made from Hasselblad two and a quarter square negatives.

There is something so …. well, British about them.

The wit, the humour (pigeons sitting outside the racing pigeon shop), the stiff upper lip, the carry on regardless, the working class pantomime of life and death – the public commission flats where people formed caring communities that were destroyed through redevelopment – the integrity of an existence that has largely come and gone pictured with warmth and empathy.

The people, growing up during the Second World War the privations of which lasted well into the 1950s, now during a period of change in the 1970s standing behind the fish ‘n chip counter wondering where their lives had gone and how they had got there, but still with that British sense of spirit and grit.

Peter Mitchell, “a chaser of a disappearing world” pictures these “goners” – buildings, people (and a way of life) near the end of existence soon to be demolished – in an almost painterly manner.

His use of colour, perspective and form is very fine. Witness, the flow of the photograph ‘Edna, George & Pat, H.E. Greenwood Butcher, Waterloo Road, Leeds, 1977’ (below) as, in the shot, the camera allows the eye to pan from one vanishing point at left to the other at right, with the patchwork of colours and panels of the building creating an almost Mondrian-like texture – blue to black to beige to white sign to pale blue to yellow to green to pale green, surmounted by the dark blue of the threatening sky highlighting the jagged form of the building. Superb.

My favourite photograph in the posting is The Chair, Priestly House Interior, Quarry Hill Flats, Leeds, 1978 (below). This photograph is from what I believe to be Mitchell’s strongest body of work on the demolition of the Quarry Hill Flats in Leeds. ‘One of those doomed deserts was Quarry Hill flats, irresistible both as a symbol of the fate of all architecture and of the great clock in the heavens signalling everybody’s life span’ (Peter Mitchell quoted on The Guardian website)

A drab, beige, wallpapered room with double aspect window, an art deco chair with mirror reflecting nothing, an electrical socket, a ceiling light sprouting malignant plant and trapped in the window panes, little birds fluttering against their capture, trapped forever inside an abandoned flat, this abandoned life.

Yes, there’s a sense of nostalgia and melancholy in these photographs but their restrained, formal, representation of life does much to ennoble the people and buildings contained within them which, through osmosis, ennobles the mind of the viewer.

As I myself sense the great clock in the heavens signalling my life span, the pleasure and comfort I get from feeling the spirit of Peter Mitchell’s photographs is immeasurable.

Dr Marcus Bunyan

Many thankx to the Photographers’ Gallery for allowing me to publish the photographs in the posting. Please click on the photographs for a larger version of the image.

Peter Mitchell (British, b. 1943) 'Mrs Clayton and Mrs Collins, summer 1974' 1974 from the exhibition 'Peter Mitchell: Nothing Lasts Forever' at the Photographers' Gallery, London, March - June, 2025

Peter Mitchell (British, b. 1943)
Mrs Clayton and Mrs Collins, summer 1974
1974
C-print
© Peter Mitchell

Peter Mitchell (British, b. 1943) 'Mr and Mrs Hudson, Newsagents, Seacroft, Leeds, 1974' 1974 from the exhibition 'Peter Mitchell: Nothing Lasts Forever' at the Photographers' Gallery, London, March - June, 2025

Peter Mitchell (British, b. 1943)
Mr and Mrs Hudson, Newsagents, Seacroft, Leeds, 1974
1974
C-print
© Peter Mitchell

‘Mr and Mrs Hudson in Seacroft Green, Leeds. I took this photograph on the 14 August 1974 at about 11am. I like the way the ladder is propping up the shop. They had just moved into a new shop on the same spot, with the church getting a facelift to match’

Peter Mitchell quoted on The Guardian website

Peter Mitchell (British, b. 1943)
Mrs. McArthy & her daughter, Sangley Road, Catford, London, 1975
1975
C-print
© Peter Mitchell

Peter Mitchell (British, b. 1943)
Kingston Racing Motors, Olinda Terrace, Leeds 1975
1975
C-print
© Peter Mitchell

Is the man with the wrench a mechanic? Why is the woman with the clapped-out Porsche looking so naughty? Will James C Gallagher, whose business it is, always have his back to the camera? And after painting the wall, why did Barry have to leave Leeds? The council demolished the lot shortly after this snap.

Text from The Guardian website

Peter Mitchell (British, b. 1943)
Two anonymous ladies, Tivoli Cinema, Acre Road from Sisson’s Lane, Leeds, 1976
1976
C-print
© Peter Mitchell

Peter Mitchell (British, b. 1943)
Sir Yank’s Records (& Heavy Disco), Gathorne Street, Leeds 1976
1976
C-print
© Peter Mitchell

Peter Mitchell (British, b. 1943)
Concorde Wallpaper, Devon Road, 1970s
1970s
C-print
© Peter Mitchell

Peter Mitchell (British, b. 1943)
Alea Stony Rock, Westlock Grove, 1970s
1970s
C-print
© Peter Mitchell

Peter Mitchell (British, b. 1943)
Beetham’s, Church Street, Leeds, 1970s
1970s
C-print
© Peter Mitchell

A retrospective of work by one of the leading early colour photographers of the 20th century opens this March at The Photographers’ Gallery.

Peter Mitchell (b. 1943, UK) is widely regarded as one of the most important early colour photographers of the 1970s and 1980s. A powerful storyteller and social historian, Mitchell’s photography unfolds a longstanding and poetic connection with Leeds. He has chronicled the people and fortunes of the city with warmth and familiarity for over 40 years.

Described as ‘a narrator of who we were, a chaser of a disappearing world’ (Val Williams), his work reveals his love, and at times quirky, off-beat vision, of the people and changing face of Leeds.

The retrospective explores the breadth of Mitchell’s photographic practice. It brings together his famous series ‘A New Refutation of the Viking 4 Space Mission’, which imagines England as seen through the eyes of an alien from Mars, demolished flats, shopkeepers and their shops, and boarded-up and disused buildings, as well as his portraits of scarecrows. The exhibition marks a return to The Photographers’ Gallery for Mitchell – he first exhibited at the Gallery in 1984.

A chronicler of a changing city, he said of his work photographing the demise of the iconic Quarry Hills Estate in Leeds, ‘I know there was no point in keeping Quarry Hill flats. But what it stood for might have been worth keeping.’

Calling himself ‘a man of the pavement’, Mitchell continues to regularly walk the streets of Leeds to photograph his beloved hometown today.

Peter Mitchell: Nothing Lasts Forever will include rarely seen works from Mitchell’s own collection, personal ephemera and found objects.

Peter Mitchell: Nothing Lasts Forever is in collaboration with Leeds Art Gallery. Nothing Lasts Forever, published by RRB Photobooks, is available now.

Peter Mitchell

Peter Mitchell was born in Manchester in 1943. He studied at Hornsey College of Art in London, then moved north to look for work and never left. Living and working in Leeds for much of his life, Mitchell treats his surrounding with a unique sense of care. An essential part of the colour documentary scene in the 1970s and 80s, Mitchell’s landmark show A New Refutation of the Space Viking 4 Mission at Impressions Gallery in York in 1979 was the first colour photography show in the UK.

Press release from The Photographers’ Gallery

Peter Mitchell (British, b. 1943)
Ready mixed Concrete Ltd., Elland Road, Leeds, 1977
1977
C-print
© Peter Mitchell

Peter Mitchell (British, b. 1943)
Edna, George & Pat, H.E. Greenwood Butcher, Waterloo Road, Leeds, 1977
1977
C-print
© Peter Mitchell

Peter Mitchell (British, b. 1943)
‘How many Aunties?’, Back Hares Mount, Leeds, 1978
1978
C-print
© Peter Mitchell

Peter Mitchell (British, b. 1943)
The Sir Yank’s Heavy Disco, Harehills Avenue, Leeds, 1978
1978
C-print
© Peter Mitchell

Peter Mitchell (British, b. 1943)
Priestly House, Quarry Hill Flats, 1978
1978
C-print
© Peter Mitchell

Peter Mitchell (British, b. 1943)
The Kitson House telephone, Quarry Hill Flats, 1978
1978
C-print
© Peter Mitchell

‘It was obvious to me that they were something special. York House was one side of the football pitch, Thoresby House opposite’

Peter Mitchell quoted on The Guardian website

Peter Mitchell (British, b. 1943)
The Garden of Rest, Quarry Hill Flats, Leeds, 1978
1978
C-print
© Peter Mitchell

Peter Mitchell (British, b. 1943)
Thoresby House, Quarry Hill Flats, Leeds, 1978
1978
C-print
© Peter Mitchell

‘I photograph dying buildings and Quarry Hill was terminal by the time I got to it. Times change and I know there was no point in keeping Quarry Hill flats. But what it stood for might have been worth keeping’

Peter Mitchell quoted on The Guardian website

Peter Mitchell (British, b. 1943)
Nielson House interior, Quarry Hill Flats, Leeds, 1978
1978
C-print
© Peter Mitchell

Peter Mitchell (British, b. 1943)
The Chair, Priestly House Interior, Quarry Hill Flats, Leeds, 1978
1978
C-print
© Peter Mitchell

‘One of those doomed deserts was Quarry Hill flats, irresistible both as a symbol of the fate of all architecture and of the great clock in the heavens signalling everybody’s life span’

Peter Mitchell quoted on The Guardian website

Peter Mitchell (British, b. 1943)
Abandoned car, Wright House, Quarry Hill Flats, Leeds, 1978
1978
C-print
© Peter Mitchell

Peter Mitchell (British, b. 1943)
Frances Gaven. Leeds, 1979
1979
From A New Refutation of the Viking 4 Space Mission
C-print
© Peter Mitchell

Francis Craven on Woodhouse Moor, Leeds in April 1979. He’d built this apparition himself but was having trouble with its arms – the pulleys had given out

Text from the Guardian website

Peter Mitchell’s A New Refutation of the Viking 4 Space Mission features photos and portraits, taken in Leeds in the 1970s. The pictures show the traditional urban landscape presented on a background of space charts, the concept being that an alien has landed from Mars and is wandering around Leeds with a degree of surprise and puzzlement.

In the Earthly vernacular these photographs are of Nowheresville. Yet, for some people, they are the centre of the universe. Usually they call it Home.

Text from the Martin Parr Foundation website [Online] Cited 25/05/2025

Mitchell’s series documents backstreets, corner shops, factories, churches and cemeteries in Leeds and Sheffield, as well as other locations in Cumbria and London, building a compelling picture of these cities during the late 1970s. Many of the portraits show the city inhabitants standing outside their homes or places of work. Equal attention is paid to the entirety of the setting, the figures often appearing dwarfed in the composition by their surroundings. The majority of the subjects gaze directly at the camera adopting stiff, frontal poses giving the images a formal impression and sense of stillness. Describing the distinctive style and subject matter of the photographs, historian David Mellor has commented, ‘it is as if Alan Bennett had met Diane Arbus in an urban picaresque’ (Mellor 2005, accessed 12 June 2017).

Ruins, crumbling facades, abandoned shops and cemeteries punctuate the series, pointing to themes of life, death, memory and loss. For example, Mitchell’s pictures includes shots of Mrs Lee’s dress shop – which burnt down the day after closure – a decayed synagogue and a defunct station in Sheffield, where the trains pass through but never stop. The 1970s were a time of great change in Britain as it struggled with widespread social unrest as well as the collapse of heavy industries. Commenting on this aspect of the series, Mellor noted, ‘NASA’s 1976 Viking Landers were a triumph of robotics, of remote sensing and imaging – that very culture of digitised information which was to supplant the manual world of industrial era Leeds.’ (Ibid.)

Text is a crucial element in Mitchell’s work, and each image in this series is accompanied by a caption to be displayed alongside. These idiosyncratic snippets of text are excerpted from Mitchell’s diary, and range from deadpan descriptions of place, to short anecdotes and humorous musings. Historian Val Williams has likened the artist’s distinctive combination of photography and text across his different bodies of work to the Situationist writing of the French theorist Guy Debord. …

Mitchell’s work occupies an important position within the history of colour photography specifically. He was photographing in colour at a time when black and white was the predominate medium for documentary photography in Britain, and before colour photography was fully embraced by museum collections. His work thus evidences an alternate history of colour photography distinct from the predominant narrative of the emergence of colour photography in the United States in the work of photographers such as William Eggleston (born 1939) and Stephen Shore (born 1947).

Sarah Allen
June 2016

Collection text on the Tate website [Online] Cited 24/05/2025

Peter Mitchell (British, b. 1943)
Max Babbin, Vulcan Street, Leeds, 1979
1979
C-print
© Peter Mitchell

Peter Mitchell (British, b. 1943)
ABC (Aerated Bread Company offices), Camden Road, London, 1979
1979
C-print
© Peter Mitchell

Peter Mitchell (British, b. 1943)
Old Kent Road, London, 1979
1979
C-print
© Peter Mitchell

His early photographs were made in the 1970s and 80s, when he was working as a truck driver. His vantage point removed him from the immediacy of the street, and he developed his distinctive graphic framing of the buildings and landscapes, which reveal the layers of urban and social history

Text from The Guardian website

Peter Mitchell (British, b. 1943)
Mr Costas, Stroud Green Road, London, 1979
1979
C-print
© Peter Mitchell

Mr Costas on Stroud Green Road, London in May 1979. He was thinking to himself: ‘If only this was Athens instead of Finsbury Park’

Text from The Guardian website

Peter Mitchell (British, b. 1943)
Nosey ‘Twat, Sackville Street, Leeds, 1980s
1980s
C-print
© Peter Mitchell

Peter Mitchell (British, b. 1943)
Kirkstall Road, Leeds, 1980s
1980s
C-print
© Peter Mitchell

Peter Mitchell (British, b. 1943)
Francis Gavan, Ghost Train Ride, Woodhouse Moor, Leeds, Spring 1986
1986
C-print
© Peter Mitchell

Peter Mitchell (British, b. 1943)
Racing Pigeon Shop (ii), Blake Grove, Leeds, Summer 2009
2009
C-print
© Peter Mitchell

John Murray owned the Racing Pigeon Shop and remembers “great times” on Blake Grove.

The Photographers’ Gallery
16-18 Ramillies Street
London
W1F 7LW

Opening hours:
Mon – Wed: 10.00 – 18.00
Thursday – Friday: 10.00 – 20.00
Saturday: 10.00 – 18.00
Sunday: 11.00 – 18.00

The Photographers’ Gallery website

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Exhibition: ‘American Photography’ at Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Exhibition dates: 7th February – 9th June, 2025

Curators: Mattie Boom and Hans Rooseboom

Amanda López (American, b. 1982) 'Homegirls, San Francisco' 2008 from the exhibition 'American Photography' at Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, Feb - June, 2025

Amanda López (American, b. 1982)
Homegirls, San Francisco
2008
Inkjet print
320 x 435 mm
National Museum for American History, Washington (DC)
© Amanda López

Let’s get down to brass tacks.

While I haven’t physically seen this exhibition – according to Rijksmuseum “the Netherlands’ first major survey exhibition of American photography… the first comprehensive survey of American photography in Europe … reflect[ing] the rich and multifaceted history of photography in the United States. The exhibition presents the country as seen through the eyes of American photographers, and shows how the medium has permeated every aspect of our lives: in art, news, advertising and everyday life” – you can glean a lot about an exhibition from the installation photographs.

The feeling I get from the installation photographs is of a particularly meagre offering – gallery halls with minimal photographs, huge empty spaces (just look at the installation photograph Curio box made of cigarette packets with portraits of roommates, late 1960s below) – and to then consider this is supposed to be “the first comprehensive survey of American photography in Europe” and reflect the large photographic holdings of the Rijksmuseum. Really? You wouldn’t really know it from looking at “the show”.

Perhaps the problem stems from the rationale of the exhibition:

“There is no hierarchy to the selection. A sequence of rooms present numerous fields – portraiture, landscape, advertising work, art photography – like chapters in a novel. “We tried to find surprising images and things we’ve never seen before,” says Boom. The result is a broad mix, shaped with co-curator Hans Rooseboom, of anonymous photography, commercial work, news coverage, medical prints and propaganda, presented in tandem with masterpieces such as Robert Frank’s enigmatic picture of a woman watching a New Jersey parade in 1955, her face partially obscured by an unfurled Stars and Stripes.”1 (see below)

The phrase “a broad mix” says it all: a mishmash of anonymous photography, commercial work, fine art photography, the political power of photography, photographs on racism, war, etc., … taking on too much in one exhibition (the American landscape is largely absent from the walls), proclaiming to be a comprehensive survey of American photography. An impossible task.

“The exhibition has deliberately departed from a “top 100” approach, Rooseboom [one of the curators] adds, stating “that would have been too easy”.”2

Easy to say (and move away from) but not easy to do…

What I feel is lacking in this subjective selection (all exhibitions are subjective) is the focused “energy” present in American photography radiating from the wall – the energy that documents and imagines the growth of a nation and the passion of the artists that capture that energy.

Where is, for example, the passion of Sally Mann’s photographs of the American South, the New York buildings of Berenice Abbott, George Dureau’s portraits of friends and amputees in New Orleans, the narrative stories of Duane Michals or the darkness / otherness that has always been present from the very start in American photography. In the selection in the posting, the photographs of Robert Frank (a foreigner, whose photographs of America were reviled when they were first published) and Nan Goldin (photographs of counter culture America) come closest to this alternate perspective, both outsiders from the main stream point of view.

Thus, while there are some interesting photographs in the exhibition it’s all too ho hum for me, perhaps a “vapour” of something almost brought into consciousness.

Dr Marcus Bunyan

1/ Christian House. “American Photography: unforgettable images of the beauty and brutality of a nation,” on The Guardian website Thu 13 Feb 2025 [Online] Cited 06/06/2025

2/ Deborah Nicholls-Lee. “Eight images that tell the story of America,” on the BBC website 12 February 2025 [Online] Cited 06/06/2025

Many thankx to the Rijksmuseum for allowing me to publish the photographs in the posting. Please click on the photographs for a larger version of the image.

Installation view of the exhibition ‘American Photography’ at Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam showing at right photography by Robert Frank

Installation view of the exhibition American Photography at Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam showing at right photographs by Robert Frank (below)
Photo: Rijksmuseum/Olivier Middendorp

Robert Frank (Swiss, 1924-2019)
City fathers – Hoboken, New Jersey
1955
Gelatin silver print

Robert Frank (Swiss, 1924-2019)
Parade – Hoboken, New Jersey
1955
Gelatin silver print

Robert Frank (Swiss, 1924-2019)
U.S. 91, Leaving Blackfoot, Idaho
1956
Gelatin silver print

Robert Frank (Swiss, 1924-2019)
New York City
1955
Gelatin silver print

Rijksmuseum moves you to The American Dream. To the real American. To unexpected recognition. The Rijksmuseum is staging the Netherlands’ first major survey exhibition of American photography.

The more than 200 works on display in American Photography reflect the rich and multifaceted history of photography in the United States. The exhibition presents the country as seen through the eyes of American photographers, and shows how the medium has permeated every aspect of our lives: in art, news, advertising and everyday life.

Over the past decades the Rijksmuseum has been assembling a collection of American photographic work. This is the first time we are exhibiting photographs from the collection, alongside loaned works from American, Dutch and other European collections. This show includes iconic photographs by the likes of Sally Mann, Robert Frank, Lisette Model, Nan Goldin, Richard Avedon, Andy Warhol, Paul Strand, Diane Arbus and James Van Der Zee, as well as surprising images by unknown and anonymous photographers.

Text from the Rijksmuseum website

Installation view of the exhibition ‘American Photography’ at Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Installation view of the exhibition American Photography at Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam showing in the bottom image at left, Sally Mann’s Jessie #34
(2004, below); at second left, Chuck Close’s Phil [Photo Maquette of Philip Glass] (1969, below); and at third right, László Moholy-Nagy’s Parking lot in Chicago, 1938 (1938, below)
Photo: Rijksmuseum/Olivier Middendorp

Sally Mann (American, b. 1951)
Jessie #34
2004
Gelatin Silver enlargement print from 8 x 10 in. collodion wet-plate negative, with Soluvar matte varnish mixed with diatomaceous earth

Chuck Close (American, 1940-2021)
Phil [Photo Maquette of Philip Glass]
1969
16 x 12 inches (40.64 x 30.48cm)
Gelatin silver print mounted on mat board
© Chuck Close

László Moholy-Nagy (Hungarian, 1895-1946)
Parking lot in Chicago, 1938
1938
Gelatin silver photograph
23.8 × 33.8cm

Installation view of the exhibition American Photography at Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam showing the work of Nan Goldin from The Ballad of Sexual Dependency (below)
Photo: Rijksmuseum/Olivier Middendorp

Nan Goldin (American, b. 1953)
Cookie with Me After Being Hit at the SPE Conference, Baltimore, MD, 1986
1986

Nan Goldin (American, b. 1953)
Cookie and Vittorio’s Wedding: The Ring, NYC, 1986
1986

Nan Goldin (American, b. 1953)
Cookie in the Bathroom at Hawaii 5.0, NYC, 1986
1986

The Rijksmuseum presents the first comprehensive survey of American photography in Europe. With more than 200 works spanning three centuries, American Photography will be an exploration of the rich and multifaceted history of photography in the United States, showing how the medium has permeated every aspect of our lives: in art, news, advertising and everyday life.

Over the past decade, the Rijksmuseum has built an extensive collection of American Photography. This exhibition is the first ever presentation of Rijksmuseum’s collection, which will be shown together with loans from over 30 collections in the United States, the Netherlands and other European countries. Works by icons including Sally Mann, Robert Frank, Lisette Model, Nan Goldin, Richard Avedon, Andy Warhol, Paul Strand, Diane Arbus and James Van Der Zee will be on view alongside eye-opening photographs by unknown and anonymous photographers.

The exhibition is possible by Rijksmuseum’s major partnership with Baker McKenzie. American Photography runs from 7 February to 9 June 2025. Concurrently with American Photography, Carrie Mae Weems’s 2021 series Painting the Town will be on show in the Rijksmuseum’s photography gallery.

American Photography will give picture of the country through the eyes of American photographers, showing the country in all its complexity. The exhibition takes themes such as the American dream, landscapes and portraiture to trace how photographers increasingly reflected on changes and events in their country. A major topic of the show is photography’s evolution as an art form, from 19th-century daguerreotypes of frost flowers on a window to the work of Paul Strand, Charles Sheeler, Sally Mann, Irving Penn, Dawoud Bey and Sarah Sense. Another important theme is how photography has grown to be a part of everyday life, which is demonstrated by family portraits, advertisements, postcards, gramophone record covers and more.

Press release from Rijksmuseum

Installation view of the exhibition ‘American Photography’ at Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam showing at right, Jocelyn Lee's 'Julia in Greenery' (2005)

Installation view of the exhibition American Photography at Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam showing in the bottom photograph at right, Jocelyn Lee’s Julia in Greenery (2005, below)
Photo: Rijksmuseum/Olivier Middendorp

Jocelyn Lee (American, b. 1962)
Julia in Greenery
2005
Archival Pigment Print
20 × 24 in | 50.8 × 61cm

Installation view of the exhibition American Photography at Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam showing in the display case, Curio box made of cigarette packets with portraits of roommates, late 1960s (below)
Photo: Rijksmuseum/Olivier Middendorp

Curio box made of cigarette packets with portraits of roommates, late 1960s from the exhibition 'American Photography' at Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, Feb - June, 2025

Curio box made of cigarette packets with portraits of roommates, late 1960s
Wood, handwoven cigarette packets, gelatin silver prints
140 x 110 x 195 mm
Collection of Daile Kaplan, Pop Photographica, New York
Photo: Andy Romer Photography, New York

Installation view of the exhibition American Photography at Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam showing at left, Diane Arbus’ A young man in curlers at home on West 20th St., N.Y.C. 1966 (1966, below); and at second left, Ming Smith’s America Seen Through Stars and Stripes, New York City (1976, below)
Photo: Rijksmuseum/Olivier Middendorp

Diane Arbus (American, 1923-1971)
A young man in curlers at home on West 20th St., N.Y.C. 1966
1966
Gelatin silver print

Ming Smith (American, b. 1951) 'America Seen Through Stars and Stripes, New York City' 1976 from the exhibition 'American Photography' at Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, Feb - June, 2025

Ming Smith (American, b. 1951)
America Seen Through Stars and Stripes, New York City
1976
Gelatin silver print
318 x 470 mm
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond (VA)
Adolph D. and Wiliams C. Williams Fund

In the post-war years, mass immigration to the US brought new ways of thinking. the US took over from Europe as a cultural trendsetter, and photography was eventually accepted as an art form. Playful approaches to photography emerged, moving beyond documenting people and places to provoking emotion and inviting deep questions. Ming Smith’s America Seen Through Stars and Stripes (1976), created on the bicentenary of the Declaration of Independence, turns again to the flag inviting America to reflect on its history. By placing a figure in mirrored sunglasses in front of a shop window, she creates a disorientating mesh of reflective surfaces. The grid structure suggests incarceration but – in combination with the round glasses and the stars on the flag – also creates an abstract composition reminiscent of modern art. “She’s a careful observer, playing with all these layers in the image,” says Boom.

Smith explores the artistic potential of photography, experimenting with double-exposure, shutter speed and collage. In one version of this image, she paints on bold red stripes, altering this snapshot of the US with marks that resemble blood or flames. Smith’s work builds on the civil rights movement that preceded it and features activists such as James Baldwin and Alvin Ailey. She was the first woman to join the African-American photography collective the Kamoinge Workshop and the first black woman to have her work acquired by the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). Yet her demographic was largely overlooked by the art world. “I worked to capture black culture, the richness, the love. That was my incentive,” she told the Financial Times in 2019. “It wasn’t like I was going to make money from it, or fame – not even love, because there were no shows.”

Deborah Nicholls-Lee. “Eight images that tell the story of America,” on the BBC website 12 February 2025 [Online] Cited 06/06/2025

Henry Fitz Jnr (American, 1808-1863)
Self-portrait
1840
Daguerreotype
Smithsonian National Museum of American History, Washington (DC)

In 1840, using a self-made copper plate, Henry Fitz Jnr produced one of the world’s first selfies, his eyes gently closed to prevent any blinking from spoiling the result. In creating this striking blue image, he was doing more than record his appearance; he was also documenting America’s first essays into an art form that would tell its story in radical new ways.

Deborah Nicholls-Lee. “Eight images that tell the story of America,” on the BBC website 12 February 2025 [Online] Cited 06/06/2025

Thomas Martin Easterly (American, 1809-1882)
Chief Keokuk (Watchful Fox)
1847
Daguerreotype
Missouri History Museum

Anonymous photographer
View of a wooden house or barn with a man and a woman in front
c. 1870-1875
Tintype
164 x 215 mm
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

A 19th-Century tintype (an image made on a sheet of metal) featuring a man and woman in front of a rustic barn is a case in point. The image was probably sold on the spot by a travelling tin typist “for a modest price”, explains Rooseboom. “Many people had just arrived and were living in the countryside, no big city nearby, so this was the only possibility of having your portrait taken.” The man stands proud, looking at the camera, but the woman’s head is bowed and she is looking away. “Sometimes you can sense that people were simply not used to being photographed,” says Rooseboom. “Nowadays, we’ve seen in magazines and movies how to pose elegantly.” This may be the only time in their whole life that they would be photographed, and the result, adds Boom, “would hang on the wall of the house where they lived forever”.

Deborah Nicholls-Lee. “Eight images that tell the story of America,” on the BBC website 12 February 2025 [Online] Cited 06/06/2025

Detroit Photographic Company
Home of Rip Van
Nd
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Bertha E. Jaques (American, 1863-1941)
Tree – in Governor Gleghorn’s Place Honolulu
1908
Cyanotype
248 x 152 mm
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, purchased with the support of Baker McKenzie

Walker Evans (American, 1903-1975) (photographer) (mentioned on object)
A free country? This is America … Keep it Free!
Nd
Sheldon-Claire Company

United News Company (publisher)
12,000 Employees of the Ford Motor Company, Detroit, Mich.
1913
Postcard, relief halftone and colour lithography
88 × 137 mm
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

… a 1913 postcard featuring 12,000 employees of the Ford Motor Company in Detroit may have been the “most expensive picture that was ever taken”, quipped a newspaper at the time, as the factory had to shut down for two hours to assemble the staff. The image, the company boasted, was “the largest specially posed group picture ever made” and illustrates a turning point where industry saw the value in investing large sums in promotional photography. Taken in the year when Ford introduced America’s first moving assembly line and the US had become the world’s largest economy, the photograph also depicts the mass production that would shape the country.

The image’s reappearance in Ford marketing also made it an early example of photoshopping. While the same tinted faces swarmed in the foreground, the number of employees cited in the caption increased exponentially, and a building to the left was cropped out in one version and acquired extra floors in another. “Apparently, many photographers and their publishers had no qualms about abandoning their medium’s potential for realism,” write Boom and Rooseboom in the exhibition catalogue.

Deborah Nicholls-Lee. “Eight images that tell the story of America,” on the BBC website 12 February 2025 [Online] Cited 06/06/2025

Schadde Brothers Studio
Display, sample or trade catalogue photograph for sweet manufacturer Brandle & Smith Co.,
c. 1915
Gelatin silver print with applied colour
288 x 240 mm
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Charles Sheeler (American, 1883-1965)
Nude #3
1918-1919
Gelatin silver print
127 × 171 mm
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

James Van Der Zee (American, 1886-1983)
Portrait of an Unknown Man, Harlem, New York City
1938
Gelatin silver print
244 x 203 mm
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
Purchased with the support of Baker McKenzie
© The James Van Der Zee Archive/The Metropolitan Museum of Art

… the New York portrait photographer James Van Der Zee was also embellishing his work, drawing jewellery on to his subjects and retouching their faces to erase dark lines and wrinkles. “I put my heart and soul into them and tried to see that every picture was better looking than the person,” he said. As a black photographer working from his Harlem studio at the height of the Harlem Renaissance, his work records a period when black migrants fleeing the segregationist South were forging a new life for themselves in the urban North. For the first time, African Americans and other minority groups could be photographed by someone inside their community, and represented in a way that uplifted them. Van Der Zee’s Portrait of an Unknown Man (1938), for example, is carefully posed to suggest confidence. The outfit is elegant and the buttonhole daisy adds a dandyish flourish. It’s an image that reflects the aspirations and upward mobility of African-American people and the pride Van Der Zee had in his culture.

Deborah Nicholls-Lee. “Eight images that tell the story of America,” on the BBC website 12 February 2025 [Online] Cited 06/06/2025

Hy Hirsh (American, 1911-1961)
Untitled (abstraction)
c. 1950
Chromogenic print, 251 x 200 mm
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
Purchased with the support of Baker McKenzie

Anonymous photographer
Family Standing beside their Car
c. 1957-1960
Chromogenic print (Kodak Instamatic)
76 x 76 mm
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Irene Poon (American, b. 1941)
Virginia
1965
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
Gift of Charles Wong
© Irene Poon Photography Archive, Department of Special Collections, Stanford University Libraries

It is the Chinese-American community that is the focus of the work of Irene Poon, who grew up in San Francisco’s Chinatown, where her parents, first-generation immigrants from Guanghzou, ran a herbalist store. A 1965 image features Poon’s sister Virginia in a local sweet shop, crowded out by Hershey’s and Nestlé bars. The letters “Nest” peep out from the densely packed shelves, reinforcing a sense that she is enclosed by this mass of graphic lettering. Beside her head a “Look” bar competes for attention, hinting at that other ever-expanding role for American photography: advertising − a sector in which the US was a forerunner. “Many of the 20th-Century artists started in advertising. It’s part of art history,” Boom says. “This whole field already existed, and the arts, and photography as an art form, draws from it.”

Deborah Nicholls-Lee. “Eight images that tell the story of America,” on the BBC website 12 February 2025 [Online] Cited 06/06/2025

Bruce Wrighton (American, 1950-1988)
Portrait of a woman, Binghampton, NY (‘Woolworth Shopper’)
1987
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
Purchased with the support of Baker McKenzie
© Estate of Bruce Wrighton, Courtesy Laurence Miller Gallery

Hulleah Tsinhnahjinnie (American, b. 1954)
This is not a commercial, this is my homeland
1998
Platinum lambda print
476 x 609 mm
Courtesy of the artist

The political power of photography is also seen in the work of Native American (Seminole-Muscogee-Navajo) photographer Hulleah Tsinhnahjinnie who uses the camera to correct misconceptions about Indigenous populations and to offer an alternative viewpoint on US history. “No longer is the camera held by an outsider looking in, the camera is held with brown hands opening familiar worlds,” she writes in a 1993 essay. “We document ourselves with a humanising eye, we create new visions with ease, and we can turn the camera and show how we see you.”

Tsinhnahjinnie’s captioning of a touristic image of Monument Valley, Arizona with This is not a commercial, this is my homeland highlights the commodification of American land, and uses what she calls “photographic sovereignty” to take us back to the very beginning and reclaim and retell the story of America. In combination with works such as Bryan Schutmaat’s Tonopah, Nevada (2012), which documents mining’s effect on the landscape of the American West, images like Tsinhnahjinnie’s tell a story of a beautiful land that means different things to different people: financial gain, security or a sacred space.

Deborah Nicholls-Lee. “Eight images that tell the story of America,” on the BBC website 12 February 2025 [Online] Cited 06/06/2025

Bryan Schutmaat (American, b. 1983)
Tonopah, Nevada
2012
Inkjet print
1017 x 1277 mm (printed 2021)
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
Purchased with the support of Baker McKenzie

Rijksmuseum
Museumstraat 1
1071 XX Amsterdam

Opening hours:
Open daily 9 – 17h

Rijksmuseum website

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Exhibition: ‘Lucia Moholy – Exposures’ at Fotostiftung Schweiz, Winterthur, Zurich

Exhibition dates: 8th February – 9th June, 2025

Curator: Jan Tichy

Lucia Moholy (British born Czech, 1894-1989) 'Roof of the Atelier-House, Bauhaus Dessau' 1926 from the exhibition 'Lucia Moholy – Exposures' at Fotostiftung Schweiz, Winterthur, Feb - June, 2025

Lucia Moholy (British born Czech, 1894-1989)
Roof of the Atelier-House, Bauhaus Dessau
1926
© 2025, ProLitteris, Zürich

I love Bauhaus design and photographs of the Bauhaus School and these are excellent photographs of both by Lucia Moholy: powerful, graphic, minimalist, modernist, echoing the ethos of the school itself. The strong portraits are pretty damn good as well…

It’s interesting to note then that Moholy was not particularly enamoured of this new modernist vision: “From her diaries, we know that Moholy didn’t like living in Dessau and her photos of the school, which are very alluring, also hint at her despair and dislike of being there.”

Then to learn that Walter Gropius, founder of the Bauhaus School, “had taken the negatives with him when he emigrated to the USA via London leading to years of negotiation with lawyers to get the negatives back.”

Why would you take the negatives of another artist, use them without credit and then refuse to give them back for many years without lawyers being involved? It’s incredible what human beings especially males will do (power and control), all because Gropius found the images useful for him to use! (see below)

While it is wonderful to be able to publish the first posting on Art Blart on the artist, I wish galleries and museums would stop making claims such as, Moholy “was one of the 20th century’s most internationally recognised and important female photographers.”

Let’s be frank: she wasn’t, not anywhere close.

Even in Europe in the 1930s we think of Florence Henri, Germaine Krull, Claude Cahun and Marcel Moore, Ilse Bing, Edith Tudor-Hart, Dora Maar etc etc… without even considering American female photographers of the era, or indeed the rest of the century. Today, many have more significance in the history of photography than Lucia Moholy ever will have.

This is in no way denigrating her work at all which I like tremendously, but just to assert that statements not thought through by marketing and media departments may come back to bite you on the arse.

Best just to say that Lucia Moholy was an accomplished artist who made focused, thoughtful, beautiful photographs of an era now nearly a century past. What more do you need to say.

Dr Marcus Bunyan

Many thankx to the Fotostiftung Schweiz for allowing me to publish the photographs in the posting. Please click on the photographs for a larger version of the image.

“In 1938, while Moholy lived in London, Walter Gropius used about fifty of Moholy’s images from the Bauhaus years – from her negatives that he still had in his possession – in the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) exhibition and the accompanying catalogue, without giving her any credit. …

Gropius had been using her photographs without crediting her. She repeatedly reached out to Gropius to reclaim her images and he would continuously protest. Moholy resorted to hiring a lawyer to retrieve her work^.

Some relevant letters between Walter Gropius and Lucia Moholy are displayed on the website 99% Invisible. Moholy stated, “These negatives are irreplaceable documents which could be extremely useful, now more than ever” to which Gropius replied, “[…] long years ago in Berlin, you gave all these negatives to me. You will imagine that these photographs are extremely useful to me and that I have continuously made use of them; so I hope you will not deprive me of them.” Lucia Moholy responded, “Surely you did not expect me to delay my departure in order to draw up a formal contract stipulating date and conditions of return? No formal agreement could have carried more weight than our friendship. It is a friendship I have always relied on, and which, also, I am now invoking.^“

Moholy did not get physical possession of her original material until 1957, but even then she only could recover a portion of them, 230 out of the 560 Bauhaus-era negatives she took, while 330 negatives, according to Moholy’s own card catalogue, are still missing.”

Anonymous. “Lucia Moholy,” on the Wikipedia website [Onloine] Cited 30/05/2025

Lucia Moholy (British born Czech, 1894-1989) 'Workshop wing, design by Walter Gropius, Bauhaus Dessau' around 1926 from the exhibition 'Lucia Moholy – Exposures' at Fotostiftung Schweiz, Winterthur, Feb - June, 2025

Lucia Moholy (British born Czech, 1894-1989)
Workshop wing, design by Walter Gropius, Bauhaus Dessau
around 1926
© 2025, ProLitteris, Zürich

Lucia Moholy (1894-1989) was one of the 20th century’s most internationally recognised and important female photographers. Her architectural photographs and portraits from her years at the Bauhaus in Dessau, which have become icons of photographic history, still shape how that institution is perceived today. However, Moholy was not just a photographer, but also an art historian, critic, writer and archivist; she described herself as a ‘documentalist’ and made a name for herself in the field of information science.

The exhibition Lucia Moholy – Exposures is the first to show the broad scope of her work from the 1910s to the 1970s. Her photographic oeuvre is presented together with numerous documents, some of them newly discovered, which shed light on Moholy’s role in the avant-garde during the interwar period, as well as her youth in Prague, her editorial work in Germany, her activity as a portraitist in London, and her involvement with early microfilm technology in England and Turkey.

Finally, the exhibition also invites visitors to encounter Lucia Moholy in the context of Zurich, where she spent the last thirty years of her life. During that time, she also maintained a relationship with the then fledgling Fotostiftung Schweiz, which today is home to a large collection of her photographs.

Text from the Fotostiftung Schweiz website

Lucia Moholy (British born Czech, 1894-1989)
Gropius House in Dessau
1925
© 2025, ProLitteris, Zürich

“This street view of Gropius’s house in Dessau is glimpsed through a line of birch trees that conjures a feeling of entrapment, almost like prison bars. It reinforces this sense of being fenced in or fenced off – a feature of many of Moholy’s images of the Masters’ Houses, which provided accommodation for Bauhaus teachers.

“The photograph really captures the modernist style of Gropius’s buildings, with the rectilinear geometric shapes and the dark windows inserted into the white facades. While living in Dessau, Moholy’s relationship with Gropius and his wife Isa was amiable and continued to be so when the Gropiuses emigrated to the United States.

“It was only in the 1950s, when she learned how the negatives she left behind in Berlin in 1933 had been used to build the legacy of the school without her knowledge, that the relationship turned sour and she engaged a lawyer to help her recover the images.”

Meghan Forbes, co-curator of the exhibition when it was at Kunsthalle Praha quoted in Alyn Griffiths. “Lucia Moholy’s photographs provide a different perspective on the Bauhaus,” on the Dezeen website, 9th August, 2024 [Online] Cited 10/05/2025

Lucia Moholy (British born Czech, 1894-1989)
Workshop wing from south-west, Bauhaus Dessau
1926
© 2025, ProLitteris, Zürich

Lucia Moholy (British born Czech, 1894-1989)
Bauhaus Dessau: Workshop building from the southwest
c. 1926
© 2025, ProLitteris, Zürich

Lucia Moholy (British born Czech, 1894-1989)
Workshop wing of the Bauhaus Building in Dessau
c. 1926
© 2025, ProLitteris, Zürich

“To me, this photograph of Walter Gropius’s Bauhaus building with a muddy, unpaved road in the foreground shows the messier, dirtier aspects of constructing a new modernist vision. From her diaries, we know that Moholy didn’t like living in Dessau and her photos of the school, which are very alluring, also hint at her despair and dislike of being there.

“Moholy’s photographs documenting the Bauhaus buildings and design objects already appeared – with and without credits – in books at the time, as well as in the popular press. In the 1950s, she discovered that at least 40 of her images were used in the catalogue of the seminal 1938 Bauhaus exhibition held at MoMA in New York.

“It kickstarted a life-long campaign of letter-writing to try to obtain both the possession of her glass negatives from the Bauhaus years and appropriate author credit and compensation for the publication of her images.”

Lucia Moholy (British born Czech, 1894-1989)
Dining room Moholy-Nagy, Meistersiedlung Bauhaus Dessau
1926
© 2025, ProLitteris, Zürich

In the exhibition Lucia Moholy – Exposures, Fotostiftung Schweiz is honouring the oeuvre of a versatile 20th-century pioneer. The famous Bauhaus photographs taken by Lucia Moholy (1894-1989) still shape how that institution is seen today. She also left a significant legacy via her work as an art historian, critic, writer and microfilm expert. The exhibition shines a spotlight on this long-underestimated figure, who spent the last 30 years of her life in Zollikon, near Zurich.

Lucia Moholy – Exposures presents, for the first time, the full breadth of her work from the 1910s to the 1970s. Photographs, letters, diaries, publications and microfilms are shown, spread across three exhibition rooms. The focus is on key periods of her life: her youth in Prague, her time at the Bauhaus, her exile in London and her pioneering work on microfilm technology. One point of emphasis is her connection with Zurich and with Fotostiftung Schweiz, which holds many of her images. Works by the contemporary Czech artist and curatorJan Tichy will also be on display. The exhibition is realised in cooperation with Kunsthalle Praha.

Photographer of the Bauhaus

Lucia Moholy left Prague in 1915 to work for various German publishers. In Berlin, she met Hungarian artist László Moholy-Nagy, whom she married in 1921. Together, they explored new reproduction technologies and the possibilities of the photogram. When Moholy-Nagy was appointed as a master at the Bauhaus, Moholy accompanied him and began to take photographs: Between 1923 and 1928, she documented Bauhaus design objects and Walter Gropius’s famous Dessau buildings. Her clearly composed shots still characterise the visual legacy of that institution to this day. Moholy’s portraits of Bauhaus figures like Anni Albers, Walter Gropius and Florence Henri are particularly impressive, and have been made central to the exhibition.

Exile and a new beginning

In 1928, Lucia Moholy and László Moholy-Nagy left the Bauhaus and moved to Berlin, where they soon separated. Moholy took charge of the photography class at Johannes Itten’s art school, while simultaneously trying her hand at photojournalism. Her flight from the Nazis in 1933 took her to London. There, she opened a photo studio and wrote the bestseller A Hundred Years of Photography, 1839-1939. After her studio was destroyed by bombing in 1940, she turned to microfilm technology. She founded her own documentation service and set up a microfilm centre in Ankara as a UNESCO expert.

The search for the glass negatives

After the end of the Second World War, Moholy noticed many of her Bauhaus photographs appearing in newly released publications. After extensive research, she eventually learnt that Walter Gropius had taken the negatives with him when he emigrated to the USA via London. It was not until 1957, after years of legal negotiations, that Lucia Moholy was able to get a large number of her negatives back, which are now in the Bauhaus Archive in Berlin.

Late recognition of the photographer

Moholy moved to Zurich in 1959. Here, she wrote about Zurich exhibitions for English magazines and was a prominent figure on the art scene. During the 1970s and 1980s, interest in Moholy’s photographic works finally grew. They were shown in exhibitions and published in magazines. In 1981, a solo exhibition was held in her honour at Gallery Ziegler in Zurich. Four years later, her first monograph was published, with in-depth analysis of her work by art historian Rolf Sachsse. Moreover, two founding members of Fotostiftung Schweiz, Rosellina Burri-Bischof and Walter Binder, maintained contact with Lucia Moholy. Thanks to a purchase and a donation from Moholy’s estate, Fotostiftung Schweiz now holds 146 of her prints, which can be accessed via the Online Image Archive and constitute the largest collection outside the Bauhaus Archive.

Jan Tichy – Weight of Glass

The exhibition at Fotostiftung Schweiz is supplemented with contemporary works by the artist and curator Jan Tichy, who has been engaging with Moholy’s legacy for almost 20 years. His microfilm installation can be seen in the passage leading to the photo library. In addition, contemporary video works, installations and photographs are being shown at oxyd-Kunsträume from the 7th of February to the 2nd of March 2025, including the impressive Installation no. 30 (Lucia), for which Tichy arranges and illuminates 330 glass plates in the size of the original negatives. Set up in a dark room, the installation creates a fleeting and fragile memorial to an important protagonist of the 20th century.

Lucia Moholy – Exposures is a Kunsthalle Praha exhibition project, organised in cooperation with Fotostiftung Schweiz, Winterthur, and the Bauhaus Archive, Berlin.

Press release from Fotostiftung Schweiz, Winterthur

Lucia Moholy (British born Czech, 1894-1989) 'Metal workshop, design by Marianne Brandt, Bauhaus Dessau' 1924 from the exhibition 'Lucia Moholy – Exposures' at Fotostiftung Schweiz, Winterthur, Feb - June, 2025

Lucia Moholy (British born Czech, 1894-1989)
Metal workshop, design by Marianne Brandt, Bauhaus Dessau
1924
© 2025, ProLitteris, Zürich

“Marianne Brandt is a really important Bauhaus designer who ended up living in East Germany in relative obscurity, although her work is now also receiving due attention. The somewhat static composition of the two objects side by side is dynamised by the diagonals produced by the larger vessel’s slender spout and the decision to slant in the ashtray’s top, emphasizing the use value.

“It also shows how Moholy played with reflective surfaces when photographing metal objects, evoking the work of Florence Henri who was at the Bauhaus at the same time. Henri was known for capturing her own portrait as she played with glass and metal in her photographs.

“We can also occasionally catch a glimpse of Moholy in some of her metal studies. But in other instances, she focuses on highlighting the lustrous quality of the objects in isolation. These images of metal objects are perhaps the best-known of her Bauhaus product photographs. But she also took pictures of pieces made from ceramics or wood that indicate the evolution of design thinking at the school.”

Lucia Moholy (British born Czech, 1894-1989)
Edith Tschichold, Bauhaus Dessau
1926
© ProLitteris, Zürich

Edith Tschichold was the wife of Bauhaus typographer and graphic designer Jan Tschichold (German, 1905-1986)

Lucia Moholy (British born Czech, 1894-1989)
László Moholy-Nagy, Bauhaus Dessau
1926
© 2025, ProLitteris, Zürich

~ European art research tour exhibition: ‘László Moholy-Nagy and New Typography: A Reconstruction of a Berlin Exhibition from 1929’ at the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, August – September 2019, posted November 2020
~ Exhibition: ‘Moholy-Nagy: Future Present’ at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, February – June 2017
~ Exhibition: ‘Moholy-Nagy: Future Present’ at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, May – September 2016
~ Exhibition: ‘László Moholy-Nagy. The Art of Light’ at the Ludwig Museum, Budapest, June – September 2011
~ Exhibition: ‘László Moholy-Nagy – Art of Light’ at Martin Gropius-Bau, Berlin, November 2010 – January 2011
~ Exhibition: ‘László Moholy-Nagy  Retrospective’ at Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt, October 2009 – February 2010

Lucia Moholy (British born Czech, 1894-1989)
Walter Gropius, Bauhaus Dessau
1926
© 2025, ProLitteris, Zürich

Lucia Moholy (British born Czech, 1894-1989)
Ingeborg Lebert
1927
Gelatin silver print
22 x 29.8cm
© 2025, ProLitteris, Zürich

Lucia Moholy (British born Czech, 1894-1989)
Lou Scheper
1927
© 2025, ProLitteris, Zürich

Lou Scheper-Berkenkamp née Hermine Luise Berkenkamp (German, 1901-1976) was a painter, colour designer, the avant-garde author of children’s books, fairy-tale illustrator and costume designer.

More information on the Wikipedia website

Lucia Moholy (British born Czech, 1894-1989)
Florence Henri, Bauhaus Dessau
1927
© 2025, ProLitteris, Zürich

“Henri’s sophisticated, avante-garde, sculptural compositions have an almost ‘being there’ presence: a structured awareness of a way of looking at the world, a world in which the artist questions reality. She confronts the borders of an empirical reality (captured by a machine, the camera) through collage and mirrors, in order to take a leap of faith towards some form of transcendence of the real. Here she confronts the limitless freedom of creativity, of composition, to go beyond objectivity and science, to experience Existenz (Jaspers) – the realm of authentic being.*

These photographs are her experience of being in the world, of Henri observing the breath of being – the breath of herself, the breath of the objects and a meditation on those objects. There is a stillness here, an eloquence of construction and observation that goes beyond the mortal life of the thing itself. That is how these photographs seem to me to live in the world. I may be completely wrong, I probably am completely wrong – but that is how these images feel to me: a view, a perspective, the artist as prospector searching for a new way of authentically living in the world.”

Marcus Bunyan commenting on the exhibition Florence Henri. Compositions at the Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich, March – September 2014

Lucia Moholy (British born Czech, 1894-1989)
Gypsy, Jugoslavia
1930-1931
© 2025, ProLitteris, Zürich

Lucia Moholy (British born Czech, 1894-1989)
Ruth Fry
1936
© 2025, ProLitteris, Zürich

Anna Ruth Fry (British , 1878-1962), usually known as Ruth Fry, was a Quaker writer, pacifist and peace activist.

More information on the Wikipedia website

Lucia Moholy (British born Czech, 1894-1989)
Emma, Countess of Oxford and Asquith, London
1937
© 2025, ProLitteris, Zürich

Hans Peter Klauser (Swiss, 1910-1989)
Lucia Moholy in her studio in Zollikon
1972
© Hans Peter Klauser/Fotostiftung Schweiz

Fotostiftung Schweiz
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CH-8400 Winterthur (Zürich)
Phone: +41 52 234 10 30

Opening hours:
Tuesday – Sunday 11am – 6pm
Wednesday 11am – 8pm
Closed on Mondays

Fotostiftung Schweiz website

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Exhibition: ‘Dawoud Bey: Street Portraits’ at the Denver Art Museum

Exhibition dates: 17th November, 2024 – 11th May, 2025

Curator: Eric Paddock, Curator of Photography at Denver Art Museum

Dawoud Bey (American, b. 1953)
Two Girls from a Marching Band, Harlem, NY
1990
Pigment print
Courtesy the artist and Stephen Daiter Gallery, Chicago
© Dawoud Bey

Street cred

I have posted twice before on Art Blart on Dawoud Bey’s An American Project exhibition – once when it was at the High Museum of Art (November 2020 – March 2021) and then the Whitney Museum of American Art (April – October, 2021)

I waxed lyrical about his photographs which I greatly admire.

“From formal to informal portraiture, through conceptual “bodies”, Bey’s work visualises Black American history in the present moment, not by using the trope of reusing colonial photographs or memorabilia, but by presenting afresh the history of injustice enacted on a people and a culture, picturing their ongoing pain and disenfranchisement – in the here and now – through powerful and deeply political photographs…

From his early street photographs through the later large format Polaroid work and on to the conceptual series, Bey’s photographs have an engaging directness and candour to them. There are no photographic or subjective histrionics here, just immensely rich social documentary photographs that speak truth to subject. The subjects stare directly at the camera and reveal themselves with a poignant honesty.”

If you look at the installation photographs of both postings you will notice the small-scale prints of his notable black and white large-format (4 × 5-inch) camera and Polaroid Type 55 film photographs. But in this exhibition, Dawoud Bey: Street Portraits at the Denver Art Museum, Bey has used the large format negatives “to make large-scale, highly detailed prints that could be enlarged to create monumental portraits.”

To my eye and mind, these monumental portraits simply don’t work … on many levels.

Firstly, the size seems totally inappropriate as a form of theatre (for that is what Bey is making them at this size) and as a photographic document to the honest representation of these people – to me, completely at odds with the spirit of the subject being captured.

Secondly – and remembering that I have not seen the exhibition or walked through it but I am using the numerous installation photographs as my guide – there seems to be little flow to the images, installed as they are cheek by jowl, on the line, with no groupings or spacing, facing off against each other, face after face – with seemingly no understanding by curator or artist of Minor White’s idea of ice/fire, or the space between, the frisson that is generated between two or more images, in conversation, in sequence. Even the lines of sight between exhibition spaces leave little to be discovered afresh.

I have never understood this need for “monumentalism” in contemporary photography especially when the work does not need it and the energy of the work does not support it.

The advent of digital printing and large scale printers have enabled the production of gigantic contemporary photographs. “Large-scale photography challenges traditional notions of what constitutes a photograph and can be seen as a way to engage with the history of painting and cinema… Large-scale photography allows artists to explore the relationship between the overall composition and the individual details within the image. This can create a sense of both macro and micro, where the viewer can zoom in and out to appreciate different aspects of the image… Large-scale photography is used by many artists to explore themes related to identity, technology, consumerism, and environmental issues. The size of the prints can be a way to amplify these themes and create a more impactful visual statement. Large-scale photographs are well-suited for exhibition spaces where they can be displayed in a way that maximizes their impact. The large size of the prints can also create a sense of awe and wonder for the viewer.” (Generative AI on Google)

“In the 1990s, the group most commonly associated with large-scale photography, and in many ways responsible for the worldwide popularity of the technique, were the students of Bernd and Hilla Becher at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, including Thomas Struth, Andreas Gursky, Candida Höfer, and Thomas Ruff.” (Artsy website) With the work of artist’s such as Jeff Wall or Gregory Crewdson we become immersed in their cinematically constructed, staged fantasy worlds through the sheer scale of the photographs. With the gigantic portraits of Thomas Ruff it is not so much about the individual persona in the photograph as their every pore, a scientific examination of the surface micro death contained within every image.

Of course, I understand the desire for large photographs in creating a sense of immersion and exploring themes related to scale, power, identity and the human experience … but I don’t necessarily agree with the conditions of their becoming, nor do I think scale necessarily works for every photographic image. A photograph can be printed so that it has many sizes where it “speaks” to you and the viewer, but not every size works. I vividly remember seeing the exhibition Richard Avedon People at The Ian Potter Museum of Art, Melbourne in 2015 and observing that Avedon’s reaction to the ever expanding size of postmodern “gigantic” photography were floor to ceiling photographs, vertiginous overblown edifices which fell as flat as a tack.

I get the same feeling here.

Impact not intimacy, (visually) overwhelming not (visually) engaging.

Fundamentally, these “monumental” photographs by Dawoud Bey are no longer “street portraits” for they lack the intimacy and intensity of that style, becoming something rather less … beguiling, in the process.

Dr Marcus Bunyan

Many thankx to the Denver Art Museum for allowing me to publish the photographs in the posting. Please click on the photographs for a larger version of the image.

Installation view of the exhibition 'Dawoud Bey: Street Portraits' at the Denver Art Museum

Installation views of the exhibition Dawoud Bey: Street Portraits at the Denver Art Museum

From 1988 to 1991, Dawoud Bey (American, born 1953) photographed African Americans in the streets of various American cities. He asked a cross section of these communities to pose for him, creating a space of self-presentation and performance in their urban environments. Bey used a large format tripod-mounted camera and a unique positive/negative Polaroid film that created both an instant print and a reusable negative. As part of every encounter, Bey gave each person the small black-and-white print as a way of reciprocating and returning something to the people who allowed him to make their portraits. The resulting photographs reveal the Black subjects in their psychological complexity, presenting themselves openly and intimately to the camera, the viewer, and the world.

Installation views of the exhibition Dawoud Bey: Street Portraits at the Denver Art Museum

Dawoud Bey: Street Portraits is the first standalone museum show to explore a transformational phase of the celebrated photographer and 2017 MacArthur Fellow Dawoud Bey’s work. The show features 37 portraits he made between 1988 and 1991, when he collaborated with Black Americans of all ages whom he met on the streets of various American cities. He asked a cross section of people in these communities to pose for him, creating a space of self-presentation and performance in their urban environments.

Bey used a large format tripod-mounted camera and a unique positive/negative Polaroid film that created both an instant print and a reusable negative. Bey considers photography an ethical practice that requires collaboration with his subjects. As part of every encounter, he gave each person a small black-and-white Polaroid print as a way of reciprocating and returning something to the people who allowed him to make their portrait.

Street Portraits is organised by the community the photographs were made in: Brooklyn; Washington, D.C.; Rochester; Amityville; and Harlem. Bey defies racial stereotypes by encouraging Black people to present themselves openly and intimately to the camera, the viewer, and the world.

Text from the Denver Art Museum website

Dawoud Bey (American, b. 1953)
A Young Man Resting on an Exercise Bike, Amityville, NY
1988
Pigment print
Courtesy the artist and Stephen Daiter Gallery, Chicago
© Dawoud Bey

Dawoud Bey (American, b. 1953)
Sunshine Bracey and Friend, Brooklyn, NY
1990
Pigment print
Courtesy the artist and Stephen Daiter Gallery, Chicago
© Dawoud Bey

Dawoud Bey (American, b. 1953)
A Girl with School Medals, Brooklyn, NY
1988
Pigment print
Courtesy the artist and Stephen Daiter Gallery, Chicago
© Dawoud Bey

Dawoud Bey (American, b. 1953)
A Couple at a Main Street Bus Stop, Rochester, NY
1989
Pigment print
Courtesy the artist and Stephen Daiter Gallery, Chicago
© Dawoud Bey

Dawoud Bey (American, b. 1953)
A Young Woman and a Girl, Amityville, NY
1988
Pigment print
Courtesy the artist and Stephen Daiter Gallery, Chicago
© Dawoud Bey

Dawoud Bey (American, b. 1953)
Peg’s Grandson, Brooklyn, NY
1988
Pigment print
Courtesy the artist and Stephen Daiter Gallery, Chicago
© Dawoud Bey

Dawoud Bey (American, b. 1953)
Peg, Brooklyn, NY
1988
Pigment print
Courtesy the artist and Stephen Daiter Gallery, Chicago
© Dawoud Bey

The Denver Art Museum (DAM) is proud to present Dawoud Bey: Street Portraits, featuring 37 portraits by celebrated photographer and 2017 MacArthur Fellow Dawoud Bey (American, born 1953).

From 1988 to 1991, Bey collaborated with Black Americans of all ages whom he met on the streets of various American cities. He asked a cross section of people in these communities to pose for him, creating a space of self-presentation and performance in their urban environments.

“We’re pleased to present the first standalone museum show of this important work,” said Eric Paddock, Curator of Photography for DAM. “Dawoud Bey’s Street Portraits mark a turning point where the deliberate, closely observed portraits he had been making with a handheld camera began to contain what he has called ‘the kind of lush physical description’ he wanted his pictures to convey – and that is a consistent part of all the work he has made since. The slower process of working with a camera on a tripod invited collaboration between the artist and his subjects, making each picture both an experiment and a discovery.”

Bey used a large format tripod-mounted camera and a unique positive/negative Polaroid film that created both an instant print and a reusable negative. Bey considers photography an ethical practice that requires collaboration between the artist and his subjects. As part of every encounter, he gave each person a small black-and-white Polaroid print as a way of reciprocating and returning something to the people who allowed him to make their portrait.

The exhibition is organised by the community the photographs were taken in: Brooklyn; Washington, D.C.; Rochester; Amityville; and Harlem. Defying racial stereotypes, the resulting photographs reveal the Black subjects in all of their psychologically rich complexity, presenting themselves openly and intimately to the camera, the viewer, and the world.

Press release from the Denver Art Museum

Dawoud Bey (American, b. 1953)
Mrs. Bracey, Brooklyn, NY
1988
Pigment print
Courtesy the artist and Stephen Daiter Gallery, Chicago
© Dawoud Bey

Dawoud Bey (American, b. 1953)
A Young Man Leaning on a Striped Wall
1989
Pigment print
Courtesy the artist and Stephen Daiter Gallery, Chicago
© Dawoud Bey

Dawoud Bey (American, b. 1953)
A Young Man in a Bandana and Swimming Trunks, Rochester, NY
1989
Pigment print
Courtesy the artist and Stephen Daiter Gallery, Chicago
© Dawoud Bey

Dawoud Bey (American, b. 1953)
A Young Man with His Hotdog Cart, Rochester, NY
1989
Pigment print
Courtesy the artist and Stephen Daiter Gallery, Chicago
© Dawoud Bey

Dawoud Bey (American, b. 1953)
Two Boys on Carrollsburg Place, Washington, DC
1989
Pigment print
Courtesy the artist and Stephen Daiter Gallery, Chicago
© Dawoud Bey

Dawoud Bey (American, b. 1953) 'Young Man at a Tent Revival, Brooklyn, NY' 1989, printed 2019

Dawoud Bey (American, b. 1953)
A Young Man at a Tent Revival Meeting, Brooklyn, NY
1989
Pigment print
Courtesy the artist and Stephen Daiter Gallery, Chicago
© Dawoud Bey

Dawoud Bey (American, b. 1953) 'A Boy Eating a Foxy Pop, Brooklyn, NY' 1988, printed 2019

Dawoud Bey (American, b. 1953)
A Boy Eating a Foxy Pop, Brooklyn, NY
1988
Pigment print
Courtesy the artist and Stephen Daiter Gallery, Chicago
© Dawoud Bey

Dawoud Bey (American, b. 1953)
A Cute Couple in Prospect Park, Brooklyn, NY
1990
Pigment print
Courtesy the artist and Stephen Daiter Gallery, Chicago
© Dawoud Bey

Dawoud Bey (American, b. 1953)
A Young Man with His Hair Brush, Rochester, NY
1989
Pigment print
Courtesy the artist and Stephen Daiter Gallery, Chicago
© Dawoud Bey

Dawoud Bey (American, b. 1953)
A Woman Wearing Denim, Rochester, NY
1989
Pigment print
Courtesy the artist and Stephen Daiter Gallery, Chicago
© Dawoud Bey

Dawoud Bey (American, b. 1953)
A Woman at Fulton Street and Washington Avenue, Brooklyn, NY, 1988
1988
Pigment print
Courtesy the artist and Stephen Daiter Gallery, Chicago
© Dawoud Bey

Denver Art Museum
100 W 14th Ave Pkwy,
Denver, CO 80204, United States
Phone: (720) 865-5000

Opening hours:
Open daily from 10am – 5pm, 10am – 8pm on Tuesdays

Denver Art Museum website

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Exhibition: ‘FOTOGAGA: Max Ernst and Photography. A Visit from the Würth Collection’ at Museum für Fotografie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

Exhibition dates: 18th October, 2024 – 27th May, 2025

Curators: Katja Böhlau and Ludger Derenthal, Kunstbibliothek – Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

Max Ernst (German, 1891-1976) 'Frontispiece' 1921 From 'Paul Éluard: Répétitions' from the exhibition 'FOTOGAGA: Max Ernst and Photography. A Visit from the Würth Collection' at Museum für Fotografie, Oct 2024 - May 2025

Max Ernst (German, 1891-1976)
Frontispiece
1921
From Paul Éluard: Répétitions
Print from collage
5.5 x 10.3cm
Sammlung Würth
© VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2024

“Although these artists were explicitly not dealing with mundane reality but instead with what lies beneath, behind and in-between, the still relatively new medium of photography was of great importance for many. Last but not least, they also used it to make visible what remains hidden to the naked eye without technical means: the distant, the tiny, the moving.” (Press release)

Expressing the unconscious mind through illogical, dreamlike imagery and ideas, exploring the irrational, challenging notions of reality through a technical instrument – the camera – to create “a rich and multifarious cosmos of idiosyncratic realities that radically transcended traditional aesthetics.”

In the dream of the mind and the camera’s eye. Over and above the real.

Dr Marcus Bunyan

Many thankx to the Museum für Fotografie for allowing me to publish the photographs in the posting. Please click on the photographs for a larger version of the image.

“The invention of modern photomontage in the early twentieth century by Max Ernst with his Dada colleagues Hannah Höch, John Heartfield, George Grosz and Raoul Hausmann established new history in a variety of ways. Expanding modern art with multimedia as well as placing found photographs into art cut from printed magazines, rather than chemical made prints from the darkroom. Redefining final works of art without the paint brush or canvas. Ernst freed imagery into the unconscious by self-made combinations of drawing with torn and pasted photographic fragments, evoking memories and other responses by viewers that continue today.”

Steve Yates, Fulbright scholar, photographic artist, author and curator

Max Ernst (German, 1891-1976)
Die chinesische Nachtigall / Le rossignol chinois / The Chinese Nightingale 1920 from the exhibition 'FOTOGAGA: Max Ernst and Photography. A Visit from the Würth Collection' at Museum für Fotografie, Oct 2024 - May 2025

Max Ernst (German, 1891-1976)
Die chinesische Nachtigall / Le rossignol chinois / The Chinese Nightingale
1920
Collage and ink on paper
15.5 x 9cm
Musée de Grenoble
© VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2024

Max Ernst (German, 1891-1976) Lichtrad / la roue de la lumière / The wheel of light 1926 from the exhibition 'FOTOGAGA: Max Ernst and Photography. A Visit from the Würth Collection' at Museum für Fotografie, Oct 2024 - May 2025

Max Ernst (German, 1891-1976)
Lichtrad / la roue de la lumière / The wheel of light
1926
From Histoire Naturelle, sheet 29
Photogravure after frottage
32.5 x 50cm
Sammlung Würth
© VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2024

Max Ernst (German, 1891-1976)
Max Ernst, Marie-Berthe Aurenche und Jean Aurenche / Max Ernst, Marie-Berthe Aurenche and Jean Aurenche, Photomaton
c. 1929
Silver gelatin paper
20.9 x 3.7cm
Sammlung Würth
© VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2024

Max Ernst (German, 1891-1976)
“…unter meinem weißen Gewand, in meinem Taubenhaus, werdet ihr nicht mehr arm sein, ihr tonsurierten Tauben. Ich werde euch zwölf Tonnen Zucker bringen. Aber berührt nicht mein Haar“ / “…sous mon blanc vêtement, dans mon colombodrôme, vous ne serez plus pauvres, pigeons tonsurés. Je vous apporterai douze tonnes de sucre. Mais ne touchez pas à mes cheveux!” / “…you won’t be poor anymore, head-shaven pigeons, under my white dress, in my columbarium. I’ll bring you a dozen tons of sugar. But don’t you touch my hair!”
1930
From Das Karmelienmädchen. Ein Traum / Rêve d’une petite fille qui voulut entrer au Carmel / Dream of a little girl who wanted to enter Carmel
Print from collage
7.7 x 11.3cm
Sammlung Würth
© VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2024

Max Ernst (German, 1891-1976)
Das Innere der Sicht 3 / A l’intérieur de la vue 3 / Inside View 3
1931/1947
From Paul Éluard : A l’intérieur de la vue. 8 Poèmes visibles
Collage
22.3 x 15.5cm
Sammlung Würth
© VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2024

Max Ernst (German, 1891–1976)
…des vollständig auf sie beschränkten, des vom Rest der Welt isolierten / … d’absolument limité à eux, d’isolant du reste du monde / of the one who is completely confined to them, isolated from the rest of the world
1936
From André Breton: Le château étoilé
Photogram after frottage
25 x 20cm
Sammlung Würt
© VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2024

Max Ernst (German, 1891-1976)
Eine weitere Laune der Venus / Un autre caprice de Venus / Another whim of Venus
1961
Oil on canvas
27 x 22cm
Sammlung Würth
© VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2024

Max Ernst holds a prominent position within Dada and Surrealist Art. His name stands for genre-bending works that combine dream and reality. The exhibition FOTOGAGA: Max Ernst and Photography. A Visit from the Würth Collection is the first to search for points of intersection between his work and photography. Commemorating Surrealism’s centenary, the Museum für Fotografie (Museum of Photography) is showing a representative overview of Max Ernst’s artworks from the Würth Collection. These are complemented by works from the Kunstbibliothek, Kupferstichkabinett, Sammlung Scharf-Gerstenberg and the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin, and other exceptional loans from museums and private collections in France and Germany.

Max Ernst and Photography – A Special Connection

The art of Max Ernst (1891-1976) was created at a time characterised by a new, creative approach to photography. Snapshots, scientific photographs and images of war machinery inspired him and served as working materials, especially for his collages. Technical and artistic developments in the medium of photography significantly influenced his work. He used photographic reproduction techniques to increase the visual impact of his works: enlargements allowed his small-format collages to hold their own alongside paintings in exhibitions; the production of photo postcards of the collages ensured that the works could be distributed quickly and easily; and the inversion of the tonal values in a photogram enhanced the effect of his frottages.

Max Ernst himself never used a camera for his art, but he liked to pose for the camera, whether for images taken by well-known photographers or made in photo booths. At times serious, at times a little “gaga”, the portraits illustrate not just the artist’s love for playfulness but also an occasionally strategic use of photography to promote his artistic agenda. The title of the exhibition – “FOTOGAGA” – is derived from a group of works by Hans Arp and Max Ernst, which they called “FATAGAGA”: the “FAbrication de TAbleaux GAsométriques Garantis (Fabrication of Guaranteed Gasometric Images)”. One of these photocollages, in which the two artists address their relationship as friends, can be seen in the exhibition.

A Century of Surrealism

Some 270 works will be exhibited, primarily works on paper but also paintings by Max Ernst and photographs, photograms, collages, and illustrated books by his Surrealist contemporaries. Although these artists were explicitly not dealing with mundane reality but instead with what lies beneath, behind and in-between, the still relatively new medium of photography was of great importance for many. Last but not least, they also used it to make visible what remains hidden to the naked eye without technical means: the distant, the tiny, the moving.

Max Ernst’s works are framed within the context of both contemporary and historical references. There are numerous and surprising parallels to photographs by other artists. An avid delight in experimentation and a creative game played with chance characterise the works selected for the exhibition. Their originators reflected on forgotten photographic processes from the 19th century and developed new techniques using light-sensitive materials. Semi-automatic methods, working with found objects, unusual combinations, and the blurring of traces have equally shaped the work of Max Ernst and the photographic oeuvres of many of his contemporaries and other artists that followed. Even a century after André Breton published the first Surrealist Manifesto on 15 October 1924, they have not lost any of their fascination.

A cooperation with tradition

The Staatliche Museen zu Berlin look back on a longstanding cooperation with the Würth Collection. FOTOGAGA: Max Ernst and Photography is the fourth exhibition in a series that began in 2019‒2020 with Anthony Caro: The Last Judgement Sculpture from the Würth Collection at the Gemä-ldegalerie. It was followed in 2021‒2022 by Illustrious Guests: Treasures from the Kunstkammer Würth in the Kunstgewerbemuseum and David Hockney – Landscapes in Dialogue. “The Four Seasons” from the Würth Collection in 2022, also shown at the Gemäldegalerie. The exhibition at the Museum für Fotografie draws on the Würth Collection’s extensive holdings, especially of Max Ernst’s graphic works, which are now being shown in Berlin for the first time.

Press release from the Museum für Fotografie

Max Ernst (German, 1891-1976)
Above the Clouds Midnight Passes
1920
Photographic enlargement of a collage and ink, facsimile, 2024
73 x 55cm
Kunsthaus Zürich
Public domain

László Moholy-Nagy (Hungarian, 1895-1946)
The broken marriage
1925
Photomontage
16.5 x 12.2cm
Sammlung Siegert, München
Public domain

Max Ernst (German, 1891-1976)
The Stall of the Sphinx
1925
Pencil on paper
16.4 x 15.2cm
Sammlung Ulla und Heiner Pietzsch, Berlin

Max Ernst (German, 1891-1976)
Little Tables around the Earth (Petites tables autour de la terre)
1926
From Natural History (Histoire naturelle)
Collotype of a frottage
50 x 32.5 cm (sheet)
Paris: Éditions Jeanne Bucher
Portfolio with 34 collotypes of frottages
51.7 x 35 x 1cm

Jean Painlevé (French, 1902-1989)
Hummerschere / Pince d’homard, Port-Blanc, Bretagne / Lobster claw, Port-Blanc, Brittany
1929
Silver gelatin paper
23 x 16.7cm
Sammlung Dietmar Siegert
© Archives Jean Painlevé/Les Documents cinématographiques, Paris
Repro: Christian Schmieder

Aenne Biermann (German, 1898-1933)
Cactus
1929
Silver gelatin paper
12.4 x 17.3cm

“The object, which, in its surroundings, is never seen other than in its most mundane aspect, is given new life when isolated in the lens of the viewfinder. […] It seemed to me that the clarity of a constructed form, when removed from its overly distracting surroundings, could be depicted convincingly through the use of photography.”

~ Aenne Biermann

Max Ernst (German, 1891–1976) 'Quiétude' from 'The Hundred-Headless Woman' 1929

Max Ernst (1891–1976)
Quiétude from The Hundred-Headless Woman
1929
Collage novel with 147 reproductions of collages
Paris: Éditions du Carrefour
25 x 19cm

The Hundred Headless Woman is Ernst’s first collage novel. It features a loosely narrative sequence of uncanny Surrealist collages, made by cutting up and reassembling nineteenth-century illustrations, accompanied by Ernst’s equally strange captions. Ernst’s French title, La Femme 100 têtes, is a double entendre; when read aloud it can be understood as either “the hundred-headed woman” or “the headless woman.” Along with this enigmatic title character, the book marks the introduction of Ernst’s favourite alter ego, Loplop, “the Bird Superior.” Ernst was deeply engaged with illustrated books during the 1930s; in addition to collage novels, he created many etchings and lithographs to complement the poems and stories of Surrealist writers with whom he was closely associated.

Gallery label from Max Ernst: Beyond Painting, September 23, 2017-January 1, 2018 on the MoMA website Nd [online] Cited 31/03/2025

Max Ernst (German, 1891-1976)
Loplop presents the members of the Surrealist group
1931
Reproduction of a collage in Le Surréalisme au service de la revolution, No. 4
27.4 x 19.9cm

Claude Cahun (French, 1894-1954) / Marcel Moore (French, 1892-1972)
Aveux non avenus / Disavowals (frontispiece)
1930
Paris: Éditions du Carrefour
Book with 11 heliogravures of collages
22 x 17 x 2.8cm
Sammlung Siegert, München

Man Ray (American, 1890-1976)
Untitled
1931
From Électricité. Dix rayogrammes de Man Ray et un texte de Pierre
Bost, Paris: La Compagnie Parisienne de Distribution d’Électricité
Heliogravure after photogram
Collotype
38.8 x 29.3cm
Kunstbibliothek – Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
© Man Ray Trust / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2024
Repro: Dietmar Katz

Hans Bellmer (German, 1902-1975)
The Doll
1935
Silver gelatin paper
17.5 x 16 cm
Sammlung Siegert, München

Brassaï (British born Germany, 1899-1984)
Night Moth
1935
Reproduction in Minotaure No. 7
31.6 x 24.8cm
Kunstbibliothek

Joseph Breitenbach (German, 1896-1984)
Max Ernst, Paris
1936
Silver gelatin paper
35.3 x 27.8cm
Sammlung Würth
© The Josef and Yaye Breitenbach Charitable Foundation

Raoul Ubac (Belgian, 1910-1985)
The Battle of the Penthesilea II
1937
Photomontage, silver gelatin paper
18 x 24.2cm
Sammlung Siegert, München

Max Ernst (1891-1976) is one of the most important representatives of Dadaism and Surrealism, two artistic movements that turned traditional norms on their head from the 1920s onwards. His boundary-crossing works combine dream and reality. His art also was created at a time characterized by a new, creative approach to photography. Snapshots, scientific photographs and images of war machinery inspired him and served as working materials, especially for his collages. Although he never used a camera for his art himself, technical and artistic developments in the medium of photography significantly influenced his work. Last but not least, Max Ernst liked to pose for the camera, whether for images taken by well-known photographers or made in photo booths.

Max Ernst’s works are framed within the context of both contemporary and historical references. There are numerous and surprising parallels to photographs by other artists. Semi-automatic methods, working with found objects, unusual combinations, and the blurring of traces have equally shaped the work of Max Ernst and the photographic oeuvres of many of his contemporaries and other artists that followed. Even a century after André Breton published the first Surrealist Manifesto on 15 October 1924, they have not lost any of their fascination.

Gazes and Visions

The Motif of the Eye as a Surrealist Symbol

For the Surrealists, free, wild seeing opened up perspectives on an untamed world beyond reality – provided that the eyes were used in the right way or equipped with appropriate devices. Thus the motif of the eye symbolizes the translation of visions into perceptible images. Max Ernst’s frottages show radically enlarged, wide-open eyes hovering over a flat horizon. Visionary seeing can also be assisted by various instruments. In a coloured collage for Les malheurs des immortels, a young man gazes through two pipes, cheeks flushed with excitement: what might he be looking at?

The focus on inner vision becomes the theme of a 1929 collage, in which the portrait photos of the Surrealists, all shown with eyes closed, are arranged around the reproduction of a nude painting by René Magritte. In so doing, a very masculinely connoted group activity is simulated in which sexual desire makes possible the liberation of thought. A violent variation – a blinding, likewise understood as liberation – appears in the famous eyeball-slicing scene in the prologue of the 1928 film Un chien andalou by Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí.

Flora, fauna, firmament

Frottage, Nature Printing, and Plant Photography

Plantlike animals, seashell flowers, fishbone forests, crocheted stars – the visual world of Max Ernst is full of fantastic forms. For him, nature served as both inspiration and material. In his frottages, he used wood, leaves and much more for rubbings on paper. This is how the portfolio Histoire naturelle (Natural History) was created in 1926. The frottages were reproduced as collotype prints, photomechanically produced prints using an exposed glass plate as a printing block.

With Histoire Naturelle, Max Ernst drew on natural history encyclopaedias, but reworked the originals to create his own natural history. In so doing he dissected nature, showed the tiny and the distant, and created planar structures rather than views. This interest in the formal language of nature also resonates in the photography of the New Objectivity from around the same time, which reveal the aesthetic power of natural forms. That also made them interesting to the Surrealist movement.

In his artist’s book Maximiliana or the Illegal Practice of Astronomy from 1964, Max Ernst devoted himself entirely to celestial phenomena. As in photograms, Ernst used objects here like spirals or gears as stencils to evoke comets and nebulas.

Between Positive and Negative

Photogram, Cliché Verre, and Other Darkroom Experiments

The play of positive and negative effects is a recurring theme in Max Ernst’s oeuvre. Early works created using fine lines incised on a black ground show motifs that appear fragile and vague. He also used photographic techniques for some of his works and transformed his frottages into negative forms in Man Ray’s studio. In 1931, for example, he created dark photograms as illustrations for René Crevel’s text Mr. Knife, Miss Fork.

Max Ernst’s use of manually produced prototypes relates to a technique borrowed from the early days of photography: cliché verre, or glass printing. In this hybrid process, an etching is created on a glass plate coated with paint or ink, which then serves as a negative for the print. The twentieth century witnessed a rediscovery of cliché verre and the further amalgamation of photographic and drawing processes. The growing interest in camera-less photography led to a wide range of experiments using light and unconventional materials in various avant-garde circles.

Invisible Cuts

(Photo-) Collages, Collage Novels, and Surrealist Photography

For Max Ernst, collage is the fundamental mode of artistic production. It encompasses a colorful variety of methods for combining materials of all kinds, initiating an open-ended artistic process. Max Ernst had already experimented with collages of printed photographs during his Dada years. The combination of the most diverse illustrations and their fusion into a new image by painting and drawing over them all took place within the working process.

For his wood engraving collages, Max Ernst made use of old-fashioned illustrations from popular scientific magazines of the nineteenth century. Many of these images were also based on photographs; at that time, however, photos could not yet be reproduced and thus had to be rendered as wood engravings. His three collage novels featured visions and hallucinations alongside blasphemy, the critique of bourgeois morals, and the glorification of free love and revolution.

Photographers of the Surrealist movement from Claude Cahun to Karel Teige, from Georges Hugnet to Emila Medková created with the help of camera and darkroom as well as scissors and glue, a rich and multifarious cosmos of idiosyncratic realities that radically transcended traditional aesthetics.

Max Ernst in Front of the Camera

From Studio Portrait to Photo Booth

Max Ernst is one of the most frequently photographed artists of the twentieth century. He posed for the cameras of important photographers such as Berenice Abbott, Arnold Newman, Lee Miller, Irving Penn, and Man Ray. Their portraits demonstrate just how individual the view of a person can be. A whole series of photographs shows the artist at work, with his art, or in the studio. Whether in focused concentration wearing his painter’s smock, in the midst of creative chaos, or in intimate relation to his sculptures – such photographs reinforce or even create the iconic conception of the artist.

Another group of images shows Max Ernst with female companions such as the artists Leonora Carrington or Dorothea Tanning, which convey the intensity of their relations. As a member of the Surrealists Max Ernst frequently appears in group portraits. These images bear witness to the various stations of the movement – its beginnings in Paris or exile in America – as well as to constellations of fashion and gender. Whether individually or in a group, pensive, playful, joyful or serious, the photographs tell of Max Ernst’s delight in self-representation and in theatrical play.

Text from the Museum für Fotografie

George Platt Lynes (American, 1907-1955)
Max Ernst, New York
1941
Silver gelatin paper, new print
25.1 x 20.1cm

Josef Breitenbach (German, 1896-1984)
Max Ernst and the seahorse, New York
1942
Silver gelatin paper
24 x 19cm

Arnold Newman (American, 1918-2006)
Max Ernst, New York
1942
Silver gelatin paper
24.2 x 18.6cm

Frederick Sommer (American, 1905-1999)
Max Ernst
1946
Gelatin silver print

A reproduction of this image on postcard for the Max Ernst retrospective: 30 Years of his Work – A Survey, Copley Galleries, Beverly Hills 1949 is included in the exhibition.

John Kasnetzis
Dorothea Tanning and Max Ernst with the sculpture Capricorne, Arizona
1948
Silver gelatin print, later print
23.6 x 18.8cm

In the summer of 1947, Max Ernst, exuberant and inspired by the arrival of water piped to our house (up to then we had hauled it daily from a well 5 miles away), began playing with cement and scrap iron with assists from box tops, eggshells, car springs, milk cartons and other detritus, The result: Capricorn, a monumental sculpture of regal but benign deities that consecrated our “garden” and watched over its inhabitants. Years later, when we had gone, a sculptor friend made molds and sent them to their creator in Huismes, France where he reassembled his Capricorn for casting in bronze. The above photo is a one-shot, spur-of-the-moment caper made after taking a people-less documentary photo.

Dorothea Tanning from Birthday, Santa Monica: The Lapis Press, 1986

Emila Medková (Czech, 1928-1985)
Schwarz / Black
1949
Silver gelatin paper
17.7 x 23cm
Sammlung Dietmar Siegert
© Eva Kosakova Medkova
Repro: Christian Schmieder

Denise Colomb (French, 1902-2004)
Max Ernst on the roof terrace on the Quai Saint-Michel in Paris
1953
Silver gelatin paper, later print
28 x 22cm

Fritz Kempe (German, 1909-1988)
Max Ernst, Hamburg
1964
Silver gelatin print
12.8 x 17.7cm

Max Ernst (German, 1891-1976)
Seen at the Neuilly fair
1971
Colour reproduction of a collage, sheet 3 from the portfolio: Commonplaces. Eleven Poems and Twelve Collages
49 x 34.5cm

Museum für Fotografie
Jebensstraße 2, 10623 Berlin

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Thursday 11am – 8pm
Friday – Sunday 11am – 7pm

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Review: ‘Grant Mudford: Attention to Detail’ at Joseph Bellows Gallery, La Jolla, California

March 2025

Online exhibition

Grant Mudford (Australian, b. 1944)
El Paso, Texas
1976
Vintage gelatin silver print
16 x 20 inches
Joseph Bellows Gallery

Let There Be Light

For so long I have wanted to do a posting on the Australian photographer Grant Mudford (b. 1944) and finally the time is here. Mudford has lived in the United States of America since his final move to the Los Angeles area in mid-1977 but I still think of him as Australian.

Between 1974 – 1977 he undertook an intensive program of travel and work in the United States before his final move. In 1977 he had major exhibitions at the Australian Centre for Photography, Sydney; The Photographers’ Gallery, London; and Light Gallery, New York and is represented in major collections such as The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles; International Museum of Photography, George Eastman House; and the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra which holds sixty six of his photographs in their collection.

Mudford’s mature style – capturing in beautiful, minimalist black and white photographs the essence and reality of the built landscape envisioned without people, usually working with common, generally uncelebrated subject-matter – emerged at a time that was parallel to that of the groundbreaking exhibition of contemporary landscape photography New Topographics: Photographs of a Man-Altered Landscape held at the George Eastman House’s International Museum of Photography, October 1975 – February 1976.

This important exhibition proposed a new way of looking at the American landscape, a concept that was historically grounded in the Neue Sachlichkeit (New Objectivity) – new order – movement of Germany in the 1920s, developed further and most importantly by the German artists Bernd and Hiller Becher in the late 1960s – early 1970s.

The New Topographics photographers (including the Bechers) “documented built and natural landscapes in America, often capturing the tension between natural scenery and the mundane structures of post-war America: parking lots, suburban homes, crumbling coal mines. The photographs, stark and documentary, are often devoid of human presence. William Jenkins [curator of the New Topographics exhibition] described the images as “neutral” in style, “reduced to an essentially topographic state, conveying substantial amounts of visual information but eschewing entirely the aspects of beauty, emotion, and opinion”.1

As I have argued elsewhere I believe that the photographs of the Bechers and alike are just as much about the beauty of the subject as they are their topographic state.

“Despite protestations to the contrary (appeals to the objectivity of the image, eschewing entirely the aspects of beauty, emotion and opinion; the rigorous frontality of the individual images giving them the simplicity of diagrams, while their density of detail offers encyclopaedic richness) these are subjective images for all their objective desire. The paradox is the more a photographer strives for objectivity, the more ego drops away, the more the work becomes their own: subjective, beautiful, emotive.”2

At least Mudford is honest enough to own up to desiring beauty. “I am deeply interested in the relationship between man-made structures and the landscape,” says Mudford. “Photography allows me to capture that intersection, where design meets nature, light, and texture. I strive to create images that reflect both beauty and complexity.” (Text from the Joseph Bellows website)

Evidence of the development of his later mature style can be seen in photographs taken in Australia such as Jenolan (1972, below) and Woolloomooloo (Stop sign) (1973, below) which already contain a minimalist, paired back, topographic yet beautiful aesthetic. But it was his move to Los Angeles, and above all the LIGHT and TEXTURE of the new world, that seem to have brought forth the best within this artist.

While, as Foucault observes, texts “are caught up in a system of references to … other texts, other sentences: it is a node within a network … Its unity is variable and relative”3 – in other words there is a close relationship between the work of Mudford and the New Topographics movement – his work is very much his own.

There is a crispiness, frontality and seeming simplicity to Mudford’s photographs and yet also almost a painterly aspect, that belies the complexity of these well resolved and beautiful images. He captures “the emotional resonance of a moment, whether it be the play of light on a building’s surface or the dynamic contrasts found in nature.” (Text from the Joseph Bellows website) And unlike the huge photographs of Dawoud Bey in an upcoming posting – which seem to me completely at odds with the spirit of the subject being captured – Mudford’s 16 x 20 inches photographs allow the viewer to focus on the images inherent qualities of beauty, nature, light and texture.

Finally, it is beyond me why Grant Mudford has not received greater recognition in the country of his birth. Forget that he has lived for years in the United States of America, Mudford is a magnificent photographer par excellence and his worldwide achievement should be celebrated at a national level. Perhaps it is time that a gallery such as the National Gallery of Australia or the Museum of Australian Photography should put on a major retrospective of this artist’s work… before it is too late!

We are loosing too many great photographers from this era already.

Dr Marcus Bunyan

1/ New Topographics: Photographs of a Man-Altered Landscape was a groundbreaking exhibition of contemporary landscape photography held at the George Eastman House’s International Museum of Photography (Rochester, New York) from October 1975 to February 1976. The show, curated by William Jenkins, had a lasting impact on aesthetic and conceptual approaches to American landscape photography. The New Topographics photographers, including Robert Adams, Lewis Baltz, Bernd and Hilla Becher, Frank Gohlke, Nicholas Nixon, and Stephen Shore, documented built and natural landscapes in America, often capturing the tension between natural scenery and the mundane structures of post-war America: parking lots, suburban homes, crumbling coal mines. The photographs, stark and documentary, are often devoid of human presence. Jenkins described the images as “neutral” in style, “reduced to an essentially topographic state, conveying substantial amounts of visual information but eschewing entirely the aspects of beauty, emotion, and opinion”.

Text from the Wikipedia website

2/ Marcus Bunyan commenting on the exhibition Bernd and Hilla Becher: Mines and Mills – Industrial Landscapes at Fotomuseum Winterthur, Zurich, November 2011 – February 2012

3/ Foucault, Michel. The Order of Things: An Archeology of the Human Sciences.New York: Vintage, 1973 quoted in Thumlert, Kurt. Intervisuality, Visual Culture, and Education. [Online] Cited 10/08/2006. www.forkbeds.com/visual-pedagogy.htm (link no longer active)

Many thankx to Joseph Bellows Gallery for allowing me to publish the photographs in the posting. Please click on the photographs for a larger version of the image.

“Photographs reveal unexpected mysteries within the familiarities of our existence. We over familiarise ourselves with our surroundings and after become unaware and insensitive to the forces of the essence or reality before us. It is that essence or reality which I strive to photograph.”

Grant Mudford quoted in Graham Howe (ed.,). New Photography Australia. Paddington, N.S.W.: Australian Centre for Photography, 1974, p. 8

“I think it is incredibly difficult to define a building with photographs. Space and spatial relationships within and around a building are not fully experienced from photographs. The photograph imposes its own sense of these relationships, which to me are abstract representations having little to do with architecture or reality. So what I am interested in are the photographic manifestations of what buildings and structures can present when specifically scrutinised as a photograph. To extend this transformation, I prefer to work with common, generally uncelebrated subject-matter”

Grant Mudford in Archetype Magazine Spring 1981 quoted in Reimund Zunde. Photography: An Approach For Secondary Schools. Education Department of Victoria, Curriculum Services Unite, in association with the Secondary Art/Craft Standing Committee, 1982

Grant Mudford (Australian, b. 1944)
Jenolan
1972
Gelatin silver print
34.5 h x 38.8 w cm
National Gallery of Australia
Gift of the artist, 1985

Grant Mudford (Australian, b. 1944)
Woolloomooloo (Stop sign)
1973
Gelatin silver print
34.5 h x 38.4 w cm
National Gallery of Australia
Gift of the artist, 1985

Grant Mudford (Australian, b. 1944)
Houston, Texas
1975
Gelatin silver print
33.8 h x 49.8 w cm
National Gallery of Australia
Gift of the Phillip Morris Arts Grant 1982

Graham Howe (ed.,). New Photography Australia. Paddington, N.S.W.: Australian Centre for Photography, 1974, p. 8.

Grant Mudford in 'Archetype Magazine' Spring 1981 quoted in Reimund Zunde. 'Photography: An Approach For Secondary Schools'. Education Department of Victoria, Curriculum Services Unite, in association with the Secondary Art/Craft Standing Committee, 1982

Reimund Zunde. Photography: An Approach For Secondary Schools. Education Department of Victoria, Curriculum Services Unite, in association with the Secondary Art/Craft Standing Committee, 1982

Renowned photographer Grant Mudford had made his mark in the art world with a distinctive vision, capturing anonymous structures with a profound sense of space, light, texture and form. With a career spanning several decades, Mudford’s work remains a testament to his unique ability to meld the art of photography with the subtle intricacies of design, nature, and human influence.

Mudford’s photographic style is known for its dramatic compositions and meticulous attention to detail. Whether focusing on the clean lines of modern architecture or the rugged textures of natural landscapes, his work consistently transcends traditional photographic boundaries. His images invite viewers to engage with the built environment and the natural world in new and thought-provoking ways.

His work has been described by Keith Davis in An American Century of Photography as “an appreciation for both the alienations and incongruities of the urban landscape.”

“I am deeply interested in the relationship between man-made structures and the landscape,” says Mudford. “Photography allows me to capture that intersection, where design meets nature, light, and texture. I strive to create images that reflect both beauty and complexity.”

Mudford’s approach to photography is marked by his commitment to capturing the emotional resonance of a moment, whether it be the play of light on a building’s surface or the dynamic contrasts found in nature. His work not only documents his subjects but also engages viewers in a deeper conversation about the spaces they inhabit.

Mudford’s photographs have been exhibited internationally in solo and group exhibitions since the mid 1970’s; beginning this history with a solo show at the notable Light Gallery. His photographs are in numerous private and public collections, including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the J. Paul Getty Museum, the Museum of Modern Art, the George Eastman House, the Nelson-Atkins Museum, and the National Museum of American Art. In 2014, Mudford received the Julius Shulman Institute Excellence in Photography Award. His photographs have been featured in publications such as Architectural Digest, The New York Times, and Artforum, solidifying his place as one of the most respected photographers of his generation.

Grant Mudford’s photography is more than just an aesthetic experience; it is an invitation to reconsider how we perceive the world around us. His lens captures what is often overlooked – the powerful simplicity of everyday structures and the quiet majesty of the natural world. Through his work, Mudford encourages viewers to find beauty in both the grand and the subtle, offering a fresh perspective on the environments we encounter.

Text from the Joseph Bellows Gallery website

Grant Mudford (Australian, b. 1944)
Los Angeles, CA
1977
Vintage gelatin silver print
16 x 20 inches

Grant Mudford (Australian, b. 1944)
Los Angeles, CA
1976
Vintage gelatin silver print
16 x 20 inches

Grant Mudford (Australian, b. 1944)
Irvine, CA
1976
Vintage gelatin silver print
16 x 20 inches

Grant Mudford (Australian, b. 1944)
Los Angeles, CA
1976
Vintage gelatin silver print
16 x 20 inches

Grant Mudford (Australian, b. 1944)
Los Angeles, CA
1977
Vintage gelatin silver print
16 x 20 inches

Grant Mudford

b. 1944

Grant Mudford (b. 1944) is a Sydney-born, Los Angeles-based photographer renowned for his large-format, abstract depictions of the urban landscape and built environment. Mudford developed an interest in photography as a child, and turned the laundry into a darkroom at the age of ten. For several years in his teens he photographed children on Santa Claus’ lap at Christmas. After studying architecture at the University of NSW for two years from 1964-1964, he chose to focus on photography, opening his own studio. In the 1960s and early 1970s he photographed for a range of advertising, fashion and theatre clients, as well as working as a cinematographer on short films. Mudford held his first solo show at Bonython Gallery in Sydney in 1972 and shortly after received funding from the Australia Council for the Arts, enabling him to travel throughout the USA and Mexico between 1975 and 1977. He then settled in Los Angeles, where he worked for various American and international publications including Harper’s Bazaar, Esquire, Architectural Digest, Vanity Fair, the LA Times and the New York Times. The Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles commissioned him as photographer for the exhibition and book, Louis I. Kahn: In the Realm of Architecture (1991). Mudford’s work is in many American and international collections including the Museum of Modern Art, the J. Paul Getty Museum and Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Art Gallery of NSW and National Gallery of Australia.

Text from the National Portrait Gallery of Australia website

Grant Mudford (Australian, b. 1944)
Los Angeles, CA
1977
Vintage gelatin silver print
16 x 20 inches

Grant Mudford (Australian, b. 1944)
El Paso, Texas
1976
Vintage gelatin silver print
16 x 20 inches

Grant Mudford (Australian, b. 1944)
Mexico
1976
Vintage gelatin silver print
16 x 20 inches

Grant Mudford (Australian, b. 1944)
New York
1978
Vintage gelatin silver print
16 x 20 inches

Grant Mudford (Australian, b. 1944)
Los Angeles, CA
1975
Vintage gelatin silver print
16 x 20 inches

Grant Mudford (Australian, b. 1944)
Oklahoma
1975
vintage gelatin silver print
16 x 20 inches

Grant Mudford (Australian, b. 1944)
Saltillo, Texas
1976
Vintage gelatin silver print
20 x 16 inches

Grant Mudford (Australian, b. 1944)
New York
1976
Vintage gelatin silver print
20 x 16 inches

Grant Mudford (Australian, b. 1944)
Los Angeles, CA
1978
Vintage gelatin silver print
20 x 16 inches

Grant Mudford (Australian, b. 1944)
From Oean Blvd., Long Beach, CA
1979
Vintage gelatin silver print
24 x 20 inches

Joseph Bellows Gallery
7661 Girrard Avenue
La Jolla, California
Phone: 858 456 5620

Opening hours:
Tuesday – Saturday 11am – 5pm and by appointment

Joseph Bellows Gallery website

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Vale George Tice (1938-2025)

April 2025

George Tice (American, b. 1938) 'Hudson's Fish Market, Atlantic City, New Jersey' 1973

George Tice (American, 1938-2025)
Hudson’s Fish Market, Atlantic City, New Jersey
1973
Gelatin silver print
Joseph Bellows Gallery

Seeing beyond the moment

In the last posting on the work of Peter Hujar I was speaking of photographers that I have a particular affinity for. Another such artist is the now departed American photographer George Tice (1938-2025) with his large format black and white photographs of the urban landscape, mainly taken around the city of New Jersey where he lived for most of his life.

I have written twice before on the work of this magnificent photographer when he was alive: “An American iconography” on the exhibition George Tice: Urban Landscapes at the Joseph Bellows Gallery, September – October 2016; and text on the exhibition George Tice Lifework: A Tribute, Photographs 1953-2013 at Joseph Bellows Gallery, June – July 2022.

Précising these texts, I would say that Tice’s ongoing epic visual poem is at its strongest in his early period, from 1973-1974.

Tice, like Atget, had an innate ability to place the camera in such as position a to reveal subject matter in a new light. More intuitive, more sensitive to other ways of seeing, these great photographers look at the world from a different point of view. Tice’s recognition of subject matter that mere mortals pass by is translated into beautiful, serene, tonal and dare I say, sensual images, that belie the complexity of their previsualisation. As Sanford Schwartz in The New York Times, on December 3, 1972 noted: “Tice’s pictures… show a remarkable blend of intimacy, affection and clear-sightedness.”

Tice’s consumate control of the construction of the image plane never gets in the way of the elemental, eternal, and magical aspects of the photograph. As he observed, “The great difficulty of what I attempt is seeing beyond the moment; the everydayness of life gets in the way of the eternal.”

It is to his great credit that Tice saw beyond the moment. He felt that magical something when you have a connection to your subject and take a special photograph, revealed in the negative and then the print. He embedded that feeling in photographs that radiate his own signature.

For his are not only photographs of the phenomenal but also the noumenal, that feeling of something ineffable that we cannot put our finger on, something in this world that is close to the ineffable mysteries of the soul – a feeling, an emotional energy of connection to earth, body, spirit and soul – for the photograph has the ability to go beyond the symbolic, to approach the impossible, the real.

Through his photographs Tice reached beyond the everyday. What more does one need to say?

Travel well on your great journey my friend.

Dr Marcus Bunyan

Many thankx to the Joseph Bellows Gallery for allowing me to publish the photographs in the posting. Please click on the photographs for a larger version of the image

George Tice (American, b. 1938) 'Rooftops, 21st and King Street, Paterson, New Jersey' 1969

George Tice (American, 1938-2025)
Rooftops, 21st and King Street, Paterson, New Jersey
1969
Gelatin silver print
Joseph Bellows Gallery

George Tice (American, 1938-2025)
Route #440 Overpass, Perth Amboy, 1973
1973
Gelatin silver print
Joseph Bellows Gallery

George Tice (American, b. 1938) 'Tenement Rooftops, Hoboken, New Jersey' 1974

George Tice (American, 1938-2025)
Tenement Rooftops, Hoboken, New Jersey
1974
Gelatin silver print
Joseph Bellows Gallery

George Tice (American, b. 1938) 'Railroad Bridge, High Bridge, New Jersey' 1974

George Tice (American, 1938-2025)
Railroad Bridge, High Bridge, New Jersey, 1974
1974
Gelatin silver print
Joseph Bellows Gallery

George Tice (American, b. 1938) 'Pulaski Skyway, Jersey City, New Jersey' 1974

George Tice (American, 1938-2025)
Pulaski Skyway, Jersey City, New Jersey, 1974
1974
Gelatin silver print
Joseph Bellows Gallery

George Tice (American, b. 1938) 'Petit's Mobil Station, Cherry Hill, New Jersey' 1974

George Tice (American, 1938-2025)
Petit’s Mobil Station, Cherry Hill, New Jersey
1974
Gelatin silver print
Joseph Bellows Gallery

George Tice (American, b. 1938) 'Industrial Landscape, Kearny, New Jersey' 1973

George Tice (American, 1938-2025)
Industrial Landscape, Kearny, New Jersey
1973
Gelatin silver print
Joseph Bellows Gallery

Alfred Stieglitz (American, 1864-1946)
The Hand of Man
1902
Photogravure

George Tice (American, b. 1938) 'Drawbridge, Morgan, New Jersey' 1973

George Tice (American, 1938-2025)
Drawbridge, Morgan, New Jersey, 1973
1973
Gelatin silver print
Joseph Bellows Gallery

George Tice (American, b. 1938) 'Houses and Water Towers, Moorestown, New Jersey' 1973

George Tice (American, 1938-2025)
Houses and Water Towers, Moorestown, New Jersey, 1973
1973
Gelatin silver print
Joseph Bellows Gallery

George Tice (American, b. 1938) 'Goldy Pharmacy, Mount Holly, New Jersey' 1974

George Tice (American, 1938-2025)
Goldy Pharmacy, Mount Holly, New Jersey, 1974
1974
Gelatin silver print
Joseph Bellows Gallery

George Tice (American, 1938-2025)
Steve’s Diner, Route 130, North Brunswick, 1974
1974
Gelatin silver print
Joseph Bellows Gallery

George Tice (American, b. 1938) 'Lexington Avenue, Passaic, New Jersey' 1973

George Tice (American, 1938-2025)
Lexington Avenue, Passaic, New Jersey, 1973
1973
Gelatin silver print
Joseph Bellows Gallery

George Tice (American, b. 1938) 'Dari O' Lite, Wood Avenue, Linden, New Jersey' 1973

George Tice (American, 1938-2025)
Dari O’ Lite, Wood Avenue, Linden, New Jersey, 1973
1973
Gelatin silver print
Joseph Bellows Gallery

George Tice (American, b. 1938) 'Palace Funhouse, Ashbury Park, New Jersey' 1995

George Tice (American, 1938-2025)
Palace Funhouse, Ashbury Park, New Jersey, 1995
1995
Gelatin silver print
Joseph Bellows Gallery

George Tice (American, 1938-2025)
Car For Sale, Paterson, New Jersey, 1969
1969
Gelatin silver print
Joseph Bellows Gallery

George Tice (American, 1938-2025)
Jahos Brothers Clothing Store, Trenton, NJ, 1973
1973
Gelatin silver print
Joseph Bellows Gallery

George Tice (American, 1938-2025)
Esso Station and Tenement House, Hoboken, NJ, 1972
1972
Gelatin silver print
Joseph Bellows Gallery

George Tice. 'Minnie's Go-Go, Route 130, Merchantville, 1975' 1975

George Tice (American, 1938-2025)
Minnie’s Go-Go, Route 130, Merchantville, 1975
1975
Gelatin silver print
Joseph Bellows Gallery

George Tice (American, 1938-2025)
Telephone Booth, 3 am, Railway, NJ, 1974
1974
Gelatin silver print
Joseph Bellows Gallery

Joseph Bellows Gallery
7661 Girrard Avenue
La Jolla, California
Phone: 858 456 5620

Opening hours:
Tuesday – Saturday 11am – 5pm and by appointment

Joseph Bellows Gallery website

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Exhibition: ‘Peter Hujar – Eyes Open in the Dark’ at Raven Row, London

Exhibition dates: 30th January – 6th April 2025

Curators: Hujar’s biographer John Douglas Millar, Hujar’s close friend the artist and master printer Gary Schneider, with Raven Row’s director Alex Sainsbury

Peter Hujar (American, 1934-1987) 'Ethyl Eichelberger' 1979 from the exhibition 'Peter Hujar – Eyes Open in the Dark' at Raven Row, London, Jan - April 2025

Peter Hujar (American, 1934-1987)
Ethyl Eichelberger
1979
Gelatin silver print
© 2025 the Peter Hujar Archive / Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY, DACS London, Pace Gallery, NY, Fraenkel Gallery, SF, Maureen Paley, London, and Mai 36 Galerie, Zurich

Ethyl Eichelberger (American, 1945-1990) was an Obie award-winning drag performer, playwright, and actor.

As with humans, there are certain photographers that I am attracted to more than others due to the abundant energy of their images:

Robert Adams (American, b. 1937)

Eugène Atget (French, 1857-1927)

Diane Arbus (American, 1923-1971)

Wynn Bullock (American, 1902-1975)

Manuel Álvarez Bravo (Mexican, 1902-2002)

Claude Cahun (French, 1894-1954)

Julia Margaret Cameron (British born India, 1815-1879)

Chris Killip (British, 1946-2020)

Mario Giacomelli (Italian, 1925-2000)

Josef Koudelka (Czech-French, b. 1938)

Josef Sudek (Czech, 1896-1976)

Minor White (American, 1908-1976)

Francesca Woodman (American, 1958-1981)

And then there is Peter Hujar (American, 1934-1987).

Using contextless backgrounds and simple settings, Hujar’s non-judgmental portraits of friends and lovers rely on the slight twist of the head, the drop of a shadow, the photographer’s look and subjects pose, performance, that curves and bends reality into a presence that is magnetic, magical, eternal.

Hujar’s direct, intimate photographs, suggestive of both love and loss, proffer a mirror to strength and determination / to friendship / to love. His pictures gather, together, a feeling for the freedom of people and places, that essence of being true to yourself (getting to the bone as Harrison Adams puts it). A direct connection between the photographer and subject captured by the camera revealed to the world.

You might have guessed I am in love with his photographs.

Thus, it is a great delight to post on this exhibition at Raven Row in London which looks to be an absolute delight, Hujar’s photographs simply and beautifully presented in the space.

His images reveal themselves over time, expounding his love of life and his intimate and free engagement with the world around him.

That is Hujar’s music, his signature.

Dr Marcus Bunyan

1/ Harrison Adams. Photography in the First Person: Robert Mapplethorpe, Peter Hujar, Nan Goldin and Sally Mann (Dissertation). Yale University, 2018 quoted on the “Peter Hujar” Wikipedia page Nd [Online] Cited 14/03/2025

Further postings on this incredible artist on Art Blart can be found at

Exhibition: Peter Hujar: Performance and Portraiture at the Art Institute of Chicago, May – October 2023
Exhibition: Peter Hujar: Speed of Life at Jeu de Paume, Paris, October 2019 – January 2020
Exhibition: Peter Hujar: Speed of Life at Fundación MAPFRE, Barcelona, January – April 2017

Many thankx to Raven Row for allowing me to publish the photographs in the posting. Please click on the photographs for a larger version of the image.

One aspect of this intimate quality was Hujar’s ability to connect with his sitters. One of his models was quoted after an unsuccessful session as saying:

“We couldn’t ‘reveal’. As an actor you have to reveal. And Hujar’s big thing was that you had to reveal. I know that now, but I didn’t know it at the time. In other words, blistering, blazing honesty directed towards the lens. No pissing about. No posing. No putting anything on. No camping around. Just flat, real who-you-are…You must strip down all the nonsense until you get to the bone. That’s what Peter wanted and that was his great, great talent and skill.”

Harrison Adams. “Peter Hujar: Shamelessness Without Shame,” in Criticism 63 (4), Wayne State University Press, 2021, p. 319

Installation view of the exhibition Peter Hujar – Eyes Open in the Dark at Raven Row, London showing from left to right – Penny, 1981; T.C., 1975 Collection of Gary Schneider and John Erdman; David Wojnarowicz, 1981; Cookie Mueller, 1981; Larry Ree (I), 1975 Collection of Gary Schneider and John Erdman; Georg Osterman (Backstage, Eunuchs of the Forbidden City, Ridiculous Theatrical Company), Westbeth, New York, 1973
© 2025 the Peter Hujar Archive / Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY, DACS London, Pace Gallery, NY, Fraenkel Gallery, SF, Maureen Paley, London, and Mai 36 Galerie, Zurich
Photo: Marcus J Leith

This is the first exhibition to take on the full breadth of Peter Hujar’s later photography. Hujar was a central figure in the downtown scene of 1970s and early 80s New York, but at his death in 1987 from AIDS-related pneumonia his work was largely unknown to a broader art world. Now it is widely admired for its austere elegance and emotional charge. Hujar’s principal concern was with forms of portraiture – of his friends and denizens of the downtown scene, whom he encountered on the street, shot in his apartment studio or sought out backstage. He also turned his attention to animals, whom he photographed with particular empathy, as well as to architectural, landscape and street photography.

Eyes Open in the Dark concentrates on his later work, when his emergence from a debilitating depression in 1976 brought about a new expansiveness. The exhibition also reveals the darkening tone of his photography in the early 1980s, as the AIDS crisis devastated his community, and his work entered into dialogue with the younger artist David Wojnarowicz. Peter Hujar – Eyes Open in the Dark is curated by Hujar’s biographer John Douglas Millar, and Hujar’s close friend, the artist and master printer Gary Schneider, with Raven Row’s director Alex Sainsbury. As well as lifetime prints it will include prints of little-known works specially prepared by Gary Schneider, working closely with the artist’s Estate.

Text from Raven Row

Installation view of the exhibition Peter Hujar – Eyes Open in the Dark at Raven Row, London showing from left to right – White Turkey, Pennsylvania, 1985 (below); Leroy Street, West Village, New York, 1976; Nicolas Abdallah Moufarrege, Paris, 1980; John Flowers (Backstage, Palm Casino Revue, New York), 1974 (below) Collection of Gary Schneider and John Erdman; Cow (Barbed Wire), Hyrkin Farm, Westtown, New York, 1978
© 2025 the Peter Hujar Archive / Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY, DACS London, Pace Gallery, NY, Fraenkel Gallery, SF, Maureen Paley, London, and Mai 36 Galerie, Zurich
Photo: Marcus J Leith

Peter Hujar (American, 1934-1987) 'White Turkey, Pennsylvania' 1985 from the exhibition 'Peter Hujar – Eyes Open in the Dark' at Raven Row, London, Jan - April 2025

Peter Hujar (American, 1934-1987)
White Turkey, Pennsylvania
1985
Gelatin silver print
© 2025 the Peter Hujar Archive / Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY, DACS London, Pace Gallery, NY, Fraenkel Gallery, SF, Maureen Paley, London, and Mai 36 Galerie, Zurich

Peter Hujar (American, 1934-1987) 'John Flowers Backstage at the Palm Casino Revue' 1974 from the exhibition 'Peter Hujar – Eyes Open in the Dark' at Raven Row, London, Jan - April 2025

Peter Hujar (American, 1934-1987)
John Flowers (Backstage, Palm Casino Revue)
1974
Gelatin silver print
© 2025 the Peter Hujar Archive / Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY, DACS London, Pace Gallery, NY, Fraenkel Gallery, SF, Maureen Paley, London, and Mai 36 Galerie, Zurich

Installation view of the exhibition Peter Hujar – Eyes Open in the Dark at Raven Row, London
© 2025 the Peter Hujar Archive / Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY, DACS London, Pace Gallery, NY, Fraenkel Gallery, SF, Maureen Paley, London, and Mai 36 Galerie, Zurich
Photo: Marcus J Leith

Peter Hujar (American, 1934-1987) 'Stephen Varble, Soho, Franklin Street (III)' 1976 from the exhibition 'Peter Hujar – Eyes Open in the Dark' at Raven Row, London, Jan - April 2025

Peter Hujar (American, 1934-1987)
Stephen Varble (III), Soho, New York
1976
Gelatin silver print
© 2025 the Peter Hujar Archive / Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY, DACS London, Pace Gallery, NY, Fraenkel Gallery, SF, Maureen Paley, London, and Mai 36 Galerie, Zurich

Stephen Lloyd Varble (American, 1946-1984) was a notorious American performance artist, playwright, and fashion designer in lower Manhattan during the 1970s. His work challenged mainstream conceptions of gender and exposed the materialism of the established, institutionalised world.

Installation view of the exhibition 'Peter Hujar – Eyes Open in the Dark' at Raven Row, London 'Jose Arango (Backstage, Palm Casino Revue, New York)', 1974 Collection of Gary Schneider and John Erdman; 'John Erdman and Gary Schneider, Monhonk Mountain House, New Paltz, New York', 1984 Collection of Gary Schneider and John Erdman; 'Horse, West Virginia', 1969 Collection of Gary Schneider and John Erdman; 'David Brintzenhofe', 1983 Collection of Gary Schneider and John Erdman

Installation view of the exhibition Peter Hujar – Eyes Open in the Dark at Raven Row, London showing from left to right – Jose Arango (Backstage, Palm Casino Revue, New York), 1974 Collection of Gary Schneider and John Erdman; John Erdman and Gary Schneider, Monhonk Mountain House, New Paltz, New York, 1984 Collection of Gary Schneider and John Erdman; Horse, West Virginia, 1969 Collection of Gary Schneider and John Erdman; David Brintzenhofe, 1983 Collection of Gary Schneider and John Erdman
© 2025 the Peter Hujar Archive / Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY, DACS London, Pace Gallery, NY, Fraenkel Gallery, SF, Maureen Paley, London, and Mai 36 Galerie, Zurich
Photo: Marcus J Leith

Installation view of the exhibition Peter Hujar – Eyes Open in the Dark at Raven Row, London showing from left to right – Paul Hudson, 1979; Butch and Buster, Hyrkin Farm, Westtown, New York, 1978 Collection of Gary Schneider and John Erdman; Boy Crying, 1979; Ethyl Eichelberger (II), 1981 Collection of Gary Schneider and John Erdman; Sarah Jenkins, NY (II), 1984; Paul Thek (II), 1975
© 2025 the Peter Hujar Archive / Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY, DACS London, Pace Gallery, NY, Fraenkel Gallery, SF, Maureen Paley, London, and Mai 36 Galerie, Zurich
Photo: Marcus J Leith

Installation view of the exhibition Peter Hujar – Eyes Open in the Dark at Raven Row, London showing from left to right – Ethyl Eichelberger (II), 1981 Collection of Gary Schneider and John Erdman; Sarah Jenkins, NY (II), 1984; Paul Thek (II), 1975; Self-Portrait (II), 1975 Collection of Gary Schneider and John Erdman; Ann Wilson (III), 1975; Lavinia Co-op, 1980
© 2025 the Peter Hujar Archive / Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY, DACS London, Pace Gallery, NY, Fraenkel Gallery, SF, Maureen Paley, London, and Mai 36 Galerie, Zurich
Photo: Marcus J Leith

Installation view of the exhibition Peter Hujar – Eyes Open in the Dark at Raven Row, London showing from left to right – Lola Pashalinski, 1974 Collection of Gary Schneider and John Erdman; Bill Elliot, 1974; Gary Schneider (I), 1979 Collection of Gary Schneider and John Erdman; Girl Sleeping in Doorway, 1976
© 2025 the Peter Hujar Archive / Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY, DACS London, Pace Gallery, NY, Fraenkel Gallery, SF, Maureen Paley, London, and Mai 36 Galerie, Zurich
Photo: Marcus J Leith

Installation view of the exhibition Peter Hujar – Eyes Open in the Dark at Raven Row, London showing from left to right – Torso (Pascal Imbert), 1980; Manny, Manny and Vince, 1981 Collection Vince Aletti; Keith Cameron, 1981 Collection of Gary Schneider and John Erdman; Donkey, Italy, 1978; Nude, 1978; Lynn Davis, 1985
© 2025 the Peter Hujar Archive / Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY, DACS London, Pace Gallery, NY, Fraenkel Gallery, SF, Maureen Paley, London, and Mai 36 Galerie, Zurich
Photo: Marcus J Leith

Hujar’s principal concern was with forms of portraiture – of his friends and denizens of the downtown scene, whom he encountered on the street, shot in his apartment studio or sought out backstage. He also turned his attention to animals, whom he photographed with particular empathy, as well as to architectural, landscape and street photography. Eyes Open in the Dark concentrates on his later work, when his emergence from a debilitating depression in 1976 brought about a new expansiveness. The exhibition also reveals the darkening tone of his photography in the early 1980s, as the AIDS crisis devastated his community, and his work entered into dialogue with the younger artist David Wojnarowicz.

Peter Hujar – Eyes Open in the Dark is curated by Hujar’s biographer John Douglas Millar, and Hujar’s close friend, the artist and master printer Gary Schneider, with Raven Row’s director Alex Sainsbury. As well as lifetime prints it will include prints of little-known works specially prepared by Gary Schneider, working closely with the artist’s Estate.

The exhibition is free to attend and open Wednesday to Sunday, 11am to 6pm, no booking required. Please note that some images in this exhibition feature explicit sexual content.

Text from the Raven Row website

Peter Hujar (American, 1934-1987)
Richie Gallo (Backstage, The Life & Times of Joseph Stalin,
Brooklyn Academy of Music)
1973
Gelatin silver print
© 2025 the Peter Hujar Archive / Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY, DACS London, Pace Gallery, NY, Fraenkel Gallery, SF, Maureen Paley, London, and Mai 36 Galerie, Zurich

Peter Hujar (American, 1934-1987)
Person in Veil (Backstage, The Life & Times of Joseph Stalin, Brooklyn Academy of Music)
1973
Gelatin silver print
© 2025 the Peter Hujar Archive / Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY, DACS London, Pace Gallery, NY, Fraenkel Gallery, SF, Maureen Paley, London, and Mai 36 Galerie, Zurich

Peter Hujar (American, 1934-1987)
Canal Street Pier, New York (Stairs)
1983
Gelatin silver print
© 2025 the Peter Hujar Archive / Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY, DACS London, Pace Gallery, NY, Fraenkel Gallery, SF, Maureen Paley, London, and Mai 36 Galerie, Zurich

Installation view of the exhibition Peter Hujar – Eyes Open in the Dark at Raven Row, London showing Andy Warhol’s Peter Hujar [ST156], 1964; Peter Hujar [ST157], 1964; Peter Hujar [ST158], 1964; Peter Hujar [ST159], 1964 Collection of The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh
© 2025 the Peter Hujar Archive / Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY, DACS London, Pace Gallery, NY, Fraenkel Gallery, SF, Maureen Paley, London, and Mai 36 Galerie, Zurich
Photo: Marcus J Leith

Installation view of the exhibition Peter Hujar – Eyes Open in the Dark at Raven Row, London showing from left to right – Paul Thek, Oakleyville, Fire Island, New York, 1967; Self-Portrait (II), 1980; Self-Portrait (I), 1980
© 2025 the Peter Hujar Archive / Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY, DACS London, Pace Gallery, NY, Fraenkel Gallery, SF, Maureen Paley, London, and Mai 36 Galerie, Zurich
Photo: Marcus J Leith

Installation view of the exhibition Peter Hujar – Eyes Open in the Dark at Raven Row, London showing at centre, Paul Thek, Florida, 1957
© 2025 the Peter Hujar Archive / Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY, DACS London, Pace Gallery, NY, Fraenkel Gallery, SF, Maureen Paley, London, and Mai 36 Galerie, Zurich
Photo: Marcus J Leith

Installation view of the exhibition 'Peter Hujar – Eyes Open in the Dark' at Raven Row, London showing from left to right - 'Self-Portrait (III)', 1980; 'Self-Portrait', 1958; 'Paul Thek, Oakleyville, Fire Island, New York', 1973

Installation view of the exhibition Peter Hujar – Eyes Open in the Dark at Raven Row, London showing from left to right – Self-Portrait (III), 1980 (below); Self-Portrait, 1958; Paul Thek, Oakleyville, Fire Island, New York, 1973
© 2025 the Peter Hujar Archive / Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY, DACS London, Pace Gallery, NY, Fraenkel Gallery, SF, Maureen Paley, London, and Mai 36 Galerie, Zurich
Photo: Marcus J Leith

Peter Hujar (American, 1934-1987)
Self-Portrait
1980
Gelatin silver print
© 2025 the Peter Hujar Archive / Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY, DACS London, Pace Gallery, NY, Fraenkel Gallery, SF, Maureen Paley, London, and Mai 36 Galerie, Zurich

Installation view of the exhibition Peter Hujar – Eyes Open in the Dark at Raven Row, London showing from left to right – Peter Hujar’s David Wojnarowicz, 1985; David Wojnarowicz’s photographs of Peter Hujar, Untitled, 1987 showing Hujar in his death bed. Collection of Gary Schneider and John Erdman
© 2025 the Peter Hujar Archive / Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY, DACS London, Pace Gallery, NY, Fraenkel Gallery, SF, Maureen Paley, London, and Mai 36 Galerie, Zurich
Photo: Marcus J Leith

Installation view of the exhibition Peter Hujar – Eyes Open in the Dark at Raven Row, London showing from left to right – Bruce de Sainte Croix, 1976; Bruce de Sainte Croix, 1976; Bruce de Sainte Croix, 1976
© 2025 the Peter Hujar Archive / Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY, DACS London, Pace Gallery, NY, Fraenkel Gallery, SF, Maureen Paley, London, and Mai 36 Galerie, Zurich
Photo: Marcus J Leith

Installation view of the exhibition Peter Hujar – Eyes Open in the Dark at Raven Row, London showing from left to right – Hudson River (III), 1976; East River (II), 1976; Hudson River (IV), 1976
© 2025 the Peter Hujar Archive / Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY, DACS London, Pace Gallery, NY, Fraenkel Gallery, SF, Maureen Paley, London, and Mai 36 Galerie, Zurich
Photo: Marcus J Leith

Installation view of the exhibition Peter Hujar – Eyes Open in the Dark at Raven Row, London showing from left to right – Christopher Street Pier #5, New York, 1976; Christopher Street Pier #4, New York, 1976; Christopher Street Pier #1, New York, 1976; Easter Sunday, St Patrick’s Cathedral, New York, 1976
© 2025 the Peter Hujar Archive / Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY, DACS London, Pace Gallery, NY, Fraenkel Gallery, SF, Maureen Paley, London, and Mai 36 Galerie, Zurich
Photo: Marcus J Leith

Installation view of the exhibition 'Peter Hujar – Eyes Open in the Dark' at Raven Row, London showing David Wojnarowicz's 'Untitled', from ‘Sex Series’, 1989

Installation view of the exhibition Peter Hujar – Eyes Open in the Dark at Raven Row, London showing David Wojnarowicz’s Untitled, from Sex Series (for Marion Scemama), 1989 Courtesy of The Estate of David Wojnarowicz and PPOW, New York
© 2025 the Peter Hujar Archive / Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY, DACS London, Pace Gallery, NY, Fraenkel Gallery, SF, Maureen Paley, London, and Mai 36 Galerie, Zurich
Photo: Marcus J Leith

David Wojnarowicz (American, 1954-1992)
Untitled
1989
From Sex Series (for Marion Scemama) 1988-1989
Gelatin silver print

One of Wojnarowicz’s most remarkable pieces here is the “Sex Series (for Marion Scemama),” a miracle of technical prowess and visual intensity. Wojnarowicz began it in 1988, a year after the photographer Peter Hujar, his close friend and former lover, died of AIDS. These photomontages combine stock photographs with circular insets salvaged from Hujar’s porn collection [among other insets of, for example, police, medical, money, religion and life], which he’d thrown away after his diagnosis.

Much of Wojnarowicz’s work is about sex in an age of death. During the AIDS crisis, sexual activity, particularly that of gay men, was demonized. Resisting the dogma and censorship of the Right’s conservatism and the Left’s moralism alike, the “Sex Series” vibrates with anxious and desirous energy, a mood amplified by the eerie reversal of the printing process, in which light and dark have been inverted to create a near negative.

Olivia Laing. “Brush Fires in the Social Landscape,” on the Book Forum website April/May 2015 [Online] Cited 14/03/2025

Installation view of the exhibition Peter Hujar – Eyes Open in the Dark at Raven Row, London showing Contact sheets, 18 April, Easter Sunday, 1976
© 2025 the Peter Hujar Archive / Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY, DACS London, Pace Gallery, NY, Fraenkel Gallery, SF, Maureen Paley, London, and Mai 36 Galerie, Zurich
Photo: Marcus J Leith

Raven Row
56 Artillery Lane
London e1 7ls

Opening hours:
Wednesday to Sunday 11am – 6pm

Raven Row website

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Exhibition: ‘Daido Moriyama: Encounters’ at the Print Sales Gallery at The Photographers’ Gallery, London

Exhibition dates: 7th February – 13th April, 2025

Daido Moriyama (Japanese, b. 1938)
Ebina, Kanagawa
1969
From A Hunter
Gelatin silver print
23 x 35″
Courtesy of the Daido Moriyama Photo Foundation and The Photographers’ Gallery

I have so many exhibitions lined up in the next few weeks that there will be some mid-week postings!

It is a great privilege and pleasure to be able to publish these photographs by master Japanese photographer Daido Moriyama (Japanese, b. 1938), many of which were unknown to me. Thank you to The Photographers’ Gallery for allowing me to do so…

Moriyama’s photographic style is unmistakable. “Renowned for his bold are, bure, boke aesthetic – grainy, blurry and out-of-focus images that defy photographic convention”, Moriyama’s contrasty, slightly high key, sometimes flash photographs of unusual perspectives and intimate glances capture “something that’s mysterious and unknown in everyday life.”

This buying exhibition highlights the quieter, more reflective moments of Moriyama’s work. I know only too well what sensitivity and envisioning it takes to picture these intimacies of everyday life … almost inconsequential until they are bought into the photographer’s consciousness in a resolved manner (previsualisation), then through negative and print and eye into the consciousness of the viewer.

The images are memorable and unforgettable. Buy one!

Dr Marcus Bunyan

Many thankx to The Photographers’ Gallery for allowing me to publish the photographs in the posting. Please click on the photographs for a larger version of the image.

“It may look like I’m just pointing the camera at what’s in front of me. But I’m trying to photograph what people see, but don’t notice – something that’s mysterious and unknown in everyday life.”

Daido Moriyama

Daido Moriyama (Japanese, b. 1938)
Untitled
1968
From Japan: A Photo Theater
Gelatin silver print
14 x 17″
Courtesy of the Daido Moriyama Photo Foundation and The Photographers’ Gallery

Daido Moriyama (Japanese, b. 1938)
Camera Mainichi, Hiroshima
1974
Gelatin silver print
11 x 14″
Courtesy of the Daido Moriyama Photo Foundation and The Photographers’ Gallery

Daido Moriyama (Japanese, b. 1938)
Hokkaido
1978
Gelatin silver print
10 x 12″
Courtesy of the Daido Moriyama Photo Foundation and The Photographers’ Gallery

Daido Moriyama (Japanese, b. 1938)
Hokkaido
1978
Gelatin silver print
11 x 14″
Courtesy of the Daido Moriyama Photo Foundation and The Photographers’ Gallery

Daido Moriyama (Japanese, b. 1938)
Cherry Blossom, Zushi, Kanagawa
1982
Gelatin silver print
18 x 22″
Courtesy of the Daido Moriyama Photo Foundation and The Photographers’ Gallery

Daido Moriyama (Japanese, b. 1938)
How to Make Beautiful Photos
1987
Gelatin silver print
11 x 14″
Courtesy of the Daido Moriyama Photo Foundation and The Photographers’ Gallery

Born in Osaka, Japan, in 1938, Daido Moriyama’s celebrated career has been shaped by constant reinvention and experimentation. Over six decades, he has become renowned for his bold are, bure, boke aesthetic – grainy, blurry and out-of-focus images that defy photographic convention. A pivotal figure in the radical Provoke movement of the late 1960s, Moriyama redefined photography, unbound by traditional constraints, capturing fragments of reality that “cannot be expressed in language as it is.”

Moriyama is best known for recording the freneticism and anonymity of life in the city, Encounters reveals his lesser-explored ability to show beauty and stillness in the everyday. Softly lit city streets, rendered in grainy textures, evoke a surreal and poetic visual language that embraces imperfection. Fleeting moments of calm and intimacy are paired with whimsical glimpses of animals and delicate vignettes of nature – blossoms, snowflakes and quiet, weathered corners of urban sprawl – revealing an unexpected tenderness amongst his raw and gritty aesthetic.

In recent years, Moriyama has described his work as a visual diary, shooting pictures daily to document the ever-changing landscape of urban life. His enduring question- “What is photography?”-remains an open one which continues to probe the medium’s position between the objective and the subjective, the illusory and the real.

Text from The Photographers’ Gallery website

Daido Moriyama (Japanese, b. 1938)
Japan Photo Theater
1968
Gelatin silver print
11 x 14″
Courtesy of the Daido Moriyama Photo Foundation and The Photographers’ Gallery

Daido Moriyama (Japanese, b. 1938)
Asahi Journal
1969
Gelatin silver print
11 x 14″
Courtesy of the Daido Moriyama Photo Foundation and The Photographers’ Gallery

Daido Moriyama (Japanese, b. 1938)
A Hunter
1972
Gelatin silver print
11 x 14″
Courtesy of the Daido Moriyama Photo Foundation and The Photographers’ Gallery

Daido Moriyama (Japanese, b. 1938)
Shinjuku
2002
Gelatin silver print
10 x 12″
Courtesy of the Daido Moriyama Photo Foundation and The Photographers’ Gallery

The Print Sales Gallery at The Photographers’ Gallery will be showing a gentler side of the iconic Japanese photographer Daido Moriyama’s work this Spring. Following 2023’s major retrospective at The Photographers’ Gallery, which offered an in-depth exploration into his groundbreaking career, Daido Moriyama: Encounters takes a more intimate approach. Focusing on a smaller selection of photographs, this selling exhibition highlights the quieter, more reflective moments of Moriyama’s work. “It may look like I’m just pointing the camera at what’s in front of me. But I’m trying to photograph what people see, but don’t notice – something that’s mysterious and unknown in everyday life.”

Moriyama is best known for recording the freneticism and anonymity of life in the city, Encounters reveals his lesser-explored ability to show beauty and stillness in the everyday. Softly lit city streets rendered in grainy texture evoke a surreal and poetic visual language that embraces imperfection. Fleeting moments of calm and intimacy paired with whimsical glimpses of animals and delicate vignettes of nature – blossoms, snowflakes and quiet, weathered corners of urban sprawl – reveal an unexpected tenderness amongst his usual raw and gritty aesthetic.

This selling exhibition marks the Print Sales Gallery’s new representation of Daido Moriyama. All prints on show and from Moriyama’s archive are available to buy, in a range of sizes. Prices start at £1,200 + VAT. All profits from Print Sales support The Photographers’ Gallery’s public programme.

Print Sales at The Photographers’ Gallery

Print Sales at The Photographers’ Gallery is a dedicated space for discovering and buying fine-art photographic prints, with all proceeds supporting The Photographers’ Gallery public programme. Representing a roster of international photographers – from established names to emerging talent – a curated series of selling exhibitions each year brings you the best of both sought-after classics and brand-new contemporary work.

Press release from The Photographers’ Gallery

Daido Moriyama (Japanese, b. 1938)
Untitled, from Record No. 14
2010
Gelatin silver print
18 x 22″
Courtesy of the Daido Moriyama Photo Foundation and The Photographers’ Gallery

Daido Moriyama (Japanese, b. 1938)
Untitled, from Record No. 18
2011
Gelatin silver print
14 x 17″
Courtesy of the Daido Moriyama Photo Foundation and The Photographers’ Gallery

Daido Moriyama (Japanese, b. 1938)
Untitled, from Record No. 22
2012
Gelatin silver print
Courtesy of the Daido Moriyama Photo Foundation and The Photographers’ Gallery

Daido Moriyama (Japanese, b. 1938) 'Untitled' 2017

Daido Moriyama (Japanese, b. 1938)
Untitled, from K
2017
Gelatin silver print
14 x 17″
Courtesy of the Daido Moriyama Photo Foundation and The Photographers’ Gallery

Daido Moriyama (Japanese, b. 1938)
Untitled, from K
2017
Gelatin silver print
10 x 12″
Courtesy of the Daido Moriyama Photo Foundation and The Photographers’ Gallery

Daido Moriyama (Japanese, b. 1938)
Untitled, from Record No. 35
2017
Gelatin silver print
10 x 12″
Courtesy of the Daido Moriyama Photo Foundation and The Photographers’ Gallery

Daido Moriyama (Japanese, b. 1938)
Untitled, from Ango
2017
Gelatin silver print
23 x 35″
Courtesy of the Daido Moriyama Photo Foundation and The Photographers’ Gallery

The Photographers’ Gallery
16-18 Ramillies Street
London
W1F 7LW

Opening hours:
Mon – Wed: 10.00 – 18.00
Thursday – Friday: 10.00 – 20.00
Saturday: 10.00 – 18.00
Sunday: 11.00 – 18.00

The Photographers’ Gallery website

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Exhibition: ‘Deborah Turbeville: Photocollage’ at The Photographers’ Gallery, London

Exhibition dates: 9th October, 2024 – 23rd February, 2025

Curators: Nathalie Herschdorfer, Director of Photo Elysée, and Karen McQuaid, Senior Curator at The Photographers’ Gallery.

Deborah Turbeville (American, b. 1932-2013) 'Untitled' Passage Vivienne, Paris, France, November 1980 from the exhibition Deborah Turbeville: Photocollage' at The Photographers' Gallery, London

Deborah Turbeville (American, b. 1932-2013)
Untitled
Passage Vivienne, Paris, France, November 1980
From the series Comme des Garçons
© Deborah Turbeville/MUUS Collection

There are some haunting photographs in this posting on the work of American photographer Deborah Turbeville but unfortunately I can make little comment on her work.

Despite trawling through numerous sites looking at her images – there is not much online – and more importantly having not seen the exhibition, I find that I have no real handle on the photographic series.

A couple of photographs from the Passport, Comme des Garçons, Block Island and Unseen Versailles series, plus a few photocollage which investigate the nature of photography and its fragility in this posting doesn’t allow me to understand the full sweep of her artistic work… which is a great pity.

The only way to really understand and feel Turbeville’s work is to visit The Photographers’ Gallery and immerse yourself in the artist’s world. Unfortunately I cannot do that.

Dr Marcus Bunyan

Many thankx to The Photographers’ Gallery for allowing me to publish the photographs in the posting. Please click on the photographs for a larger version of the image.

“When I’m making photographs, I think of films”

Deborah Turbeville, 1985

Deborah Turbeville: Photocollage – Exhibition Trailer – The Photographers’ Gallery

Deborah Turbeville: Photocollage highlights the work of a truly innovative, American fashion photographer, Deborah Turbeville (1932-2013) who transformed fashion imagery into avant-garde art. Her signature dreamlike and melancholic style became recognisable with her earliest works in the 1970s: enigmatic female figures, cloudy skies, wintry nature and abandoned, decaying surroundings. She deliberately distanced herself from the typical glamourous, polished aesthetic that dominated fashion at the time.

Deborah Turbeville: Photocollage – Curator’s Interview

An interview on the exhibition Deborah Turbeville: Photocollage with Nathalie Herschdorfer, Exhibition Curator, and Karen McQuaid, Senior Curator, The Photographers’ Gallery.

Deborah Turbeville (American, b. 1932-2013) 'Walking down Passage Vivienne' (Escalier dans Passage Vivienne) Paris, France, November 1980 from the exhibition Deborah Turbeville: Photocollage' at The Photographers' Gallery, London

Deborah Turbeville (American, 1932-2013)
Walking down Passage Vivienne (Escalier dans Passage Vivienne)
Paris, France, November 1980
From the series Comme des Garçons
© Deborah Turbeville/MUUS Collection

Deborah Turbeville’s signature dreamlike and melancholic style became recognisable with her earliest works in the 1970s: enigmatic female figures, cloudy skies, wintry nature and abandoned, decaying surroundings. She deliberately distanced herself from the typical glamourous, polished aesthetic that dominated fashion at the time.

Deborah Turbeville: Photocollage presents Turbeville’s trailblazing photographic explorations, from fashion photos to her very personal work. Bringing together unique pieces, the exhibition reveals Turbeville’s highly personal artistic universe, which has been credited with transforming fashion imagery into avant-garde art.

She experimented with the developing process, from the darkroom to the studio table. She ripped, cut and tore her photographs; manipulated, pinned and glued them together to create unique hybrid objects. Deborah Turbeville: Photocollage is a new appreciation of Turbeville’s ground-breaking contribution to the history of photography.

Text from The Photographers’ Gallery website

Installation view of the exhibition 'Deborah Turbeville: Photocollage' at The Photographers' Gallery, London

Unseen Versailles

Jacqueline Onassis commissioned Turbeville to photograph the Palace of Versailles during her tenure as an editor at the American publishing house Doubleday. With help from Onassis she gained access to the labyrinth of hidden chambers and antechambers which were off limits to tourists. She photographed barren rooms, Baroque furniture covered with sheets, broken statues, and curtains thick with dust. The curator of the estate initially blocked the introduction of props, but Onassis eventually gained her permission to bring in models in period costumes. Unseen Versailles won the American Book Award in 1982 and enabled Turbeville to find a readership outside fashion magazines.

Wall text from the exhibition

Installation views of the exhibition Deborah Turbeville: Photocollage at The Photographers’ Gallery, London

Deborah Turbeville: Photocollage at The Photographers’ Gallery, London (until 23 February 2025), celebrates Turbeville’s trailblazing photographic explorations, from fashion photos to her very personal work. To coincide with the exhibition, we’re looking at some of her photographic series in more detail, starting with the Passport series!

Turbeville’s Passport series of collages, which accompanied a novella she wrote with the same name, demonstrates her very cinematic, narrative approach to photography.

Fixed to wrinkled brown paper with unusually large T-pins, the series heavily features portrait photographs. The gelatin silver prints all have slightly varying hues of black and white; their torn edges overlap, each revealing a different fragment. The torn sections of women’s faces stand out against grainy backgrounds, like a ghostly white sky. Turbeville selected images, largely from her archives, showing repeated shots positioned together, repurposing her work to create new experimental compositions that felt cinematic in style. Alongside the images, fragments of her unpublished novella are cut out and pasted, so that the series can be read narratively as well as visually.

Unlike many of her contemporaries, Turbeville considered photography to be more than just a means of pictorial representation. Curious about the materials and nature of photography, she was inescapably interested in its fragility. Her photocollages suggested new possibilities for photography, which had, until then, cleaved very closely to reality. Collage became a form of manual work which allowed her to create three-dimensional objects and a chance to gather up her own images and give them new depth. She embraced the visible imperfections in a handmade, narrative style that gives her work a unique stylistic voice.

Text from The Photographers’ Gallery Instagram page

Deborah Turbeville (American, 1932-2013) 'Maquillage' 1975 from the exhibition Deborah Turbeville: Photocollage' at The Photographers' Gallery, London

Deborah Turbeville (American, 1932-2013) 'Bathhouse, New York' New York, 1975 from the exhibition Deborah Turbeville: Photocollage' at The Photographers' Gallery, London

Deborah Turbeville (American, 1932-2013)
Bathhouse, New York
New York, 1975
From the series Bathhouse
© Deborah Turbeville/MUUS Collection

Deborah Turbeville (American, 1932-2013) 'Jean Muir and Three Unknown Models' 1975 from the exhibition Deborah Turbeville: Photocollage' at The Photographers' Gallery, London

Deborah Turbeville (American, 1932-2013)
Jean Muir and Three Unknown Models
1975
© The Estate of Deborah Turbeville

For her second spread in Vogue Magazine, Deborah Turbeville photographed designers with their models and muses in a February 1975 editorial titled “European Fashion: The Movers”. Here, she captured the British doyenne of dressmaking, Jean Muir, with her friends modelling her designs.

Deborah Turbeville (American, 1932-2013) 'Untitled' Block Island, Rhode Island, 1976 from the exhibition Deborah Turbeville: Photocollage' at The Photographers' Gallery, London

Deborah Turbeville (American, 1932-2013)
Untitled
Block Island, Rhode Island, 1976
From the series Block Island
© Deborah Turbeville/MUUS Collection

Deborah Turbeville (American, 1932-2013) 'Versailles' Versailles, France 1980 from the exhibition Deborah Turbeville: Photocollage' at The Photographers' Gallery, London

Deborah Turbeville (American, 1932-2013)
Versailles
Versailles, France, 1980
From the series Unseen Versailles
© Deborah Turbeville/MUUS Collection

How Deborah Turbeville tore up the rules

Deborah Turbeville is remembered today as a pioneering figure in fashion photography, known for her melancholic, dreamlike imagery that diverged from conventional standards. Born in 1932 in Stoneham, Massachusetts, USA, she initially pursued acting before being discovered by fashion designer Claire McCardell, who employed her as an assistant and model. Through McCardell, Turbeville met Diana Vreeland, then editor of Harper’s Bazaar, which launched her editorial career. However, she soon lost interest in conventional editorial work, turning instead to photography as an outlet for artistic expression and experimentation.

In the 1960s, after buying her first camera, Turbeville began early experimentation in photography. Her creative direction was refined through a workshop with photographer Richard Avedon and art director Marvin Israel. Moving from fashion editing to photography, she worked for magazines like Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar, though she always insisted she was not a traditional fashion photographer. Rather, she used fashion within her work to tell emotionally charged stories, setting herself apart from the industry’s glamorous norms.

One of her most iconic works is the Bathhouse series for Vogue in 1975, featuring models posed in a dilapidated bathhouse. The images conveyed vulnerability, decay and isolation, starkly contrasting with the glossy fashion photography of the time. Although controversial, the series exemplified Turbeville’s atmospheric aesthetic – soft focus, grainy textures and muted tones. She often distressed her photographs to give them an aged appearance, blurring the lines between fashion photography and fine art.

Turbeville’s work rejected the conventions of fashion industry ideals, choosing instead to explore themes of memory, loss and feminine vulnerability. Her approach stood in contrast to contemporaries like Helmut Newton and Guy Bourdin, whose images typically celebrated female sensuality. In contrast, Turbeville’s subjects appeared introspective and distant, encouraging viewers to engage with them on a deeper, emotional level.

In 1981, Turbeville was commissioned by Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis to photograph the abandoned rooms of the Palace of Versailles, which resulted in the book Unseen Versailles. The images of faded grandeur reflected her fascination with decay and received critical acclaim, winning an American Book Award.

Her body of work extended beyond fashion to other notable publications, including Studio St. Petersburg, The Voyage of the Virgin Maria Candelaria, and Newport Remembered. Throughout her career, she consistently merged fashion with fine art, creating images defined more by atmosphere and emotion than style alone.

Her photocollages show her experimental approach to constructing compositions. Her photographs are just one element among several. She builds up mysterious narratives through overlapping layers of pinned, ripped, cut, creased and taped images, found objects and printed texts. These layers are built up on heavy brown paper – a complete departure from the glossy white pages of fashion magazines. Her Passport series of collages, which accompanied a novella she wrote with the same name, demonstrates her very cinematic, narrative approach to photography.

Turbeville’s influence on future generations of photographers is significant. She opened doors for more experimental, avant-garde approaches to fashion photography, transforming it from a commercial medium into a space for artistic exploration. Her rejection of industry norms allowed her to create a distinctive visual language that continues to inspire photographers and artists today.

Turbeville once remarked that she was more interested in creating “atmosphere and mood” than simply photographing clothes, a sentiment that underpinned her career. By embracing imperfection, decay and the passage of time, she redefined fashion photography as more than a vehicle for selling clothes.

Turbeville’s career represents a turning point in fashion photography. Her dreamlike, melancholic style and innovative approach broke industry conventions, transforming fashion photography into a medium for personal and artistic expression. Her legacy continues to inspire, and her influence remains enduring long after her death in 2013.

Anonymous. “How Deborah Turbeville tore up the rules,” on The Photographers’ Gallery website Nd [Online] Cited 16/01/2025

Deborah Turbeville (American, 1932-2013) 'Page from Passport' c. 1990 from the exhibition Deborah Turbeville: Photocollage' at The Photographers' Gallery, London

Deborah Turbeville (American, 1932-2013) 'Luisa, Posos, January 1991' 1991 from the exhibition Deborah Turbeville: Photocollage' at The Photographers' Gallery, London

“Fashion takes itself more seriously than I do. I’m not really a fashion photographer.”

Deborah Turbeville in The New Yorker

Deborah Turbeville: Photocollage opens at The Photographers’ Gallery this Autumn, from 9 October 2024 – 23 February 2025. Presenting the work of the truly innovative American photographer, Deborah Turbeville (1932-2013), the exhibition will feature a selection of her personal vintage photocollages and editorial work.

Deborah Turbeville revolutionised the world of fashion photography, transforming it from its commercial clean standard into an art form. Turbeville deliberately distanced herself from the typical glamorous, polished aesthetic that dominated fashion at the time. Her signature dreamlike and melancholic style became recognisable with her earliest works in the 1970s: enigmatic female figures, cloudy skies, wintry nature and abandoned, decaying surroundings.

Turbeville’s work for the fashion industry launched her career, which lasted over four decades. Between 1975 and 2013, her photographs were published in Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar and New York Times Magazine. She also worked for fashion houses including Comme des Garçons, Guy Laroche, Charles Jourdan, Calvin Klein, Emanuel Ungaro and Valentino. At a time when fashion photography was dominated by men, Turbeville chose a path that ran counter to that of her male peers, like Richard Avedon, Irving Penn, Helmut Newton and Guy Bourdin.

Soft focus and overexposure brought a surreal and dusty tone to her black, white and sepia-toned work. Her models resemble ghostly apparitions as they wander through deserted buildings and landscapes. The exhibition includes her most controversial photograph, Bath House, New York City, 1975, part of a swimsuit photoshoot for Vogue, which featured five models, slouching and stretching in an abandoned bathhouse. The picture was so unlike the traditional fashion imagery of the time it prompted a public outcry.

Turbeville was undeterred and continued to produce images with an element of decay, saying “the idea of disintegration is really the core of my work.”

Other works on show include images from Turbeville’s 1981 American Book Award-winning series Unseen Versailles, and her first photocollage magazine, Maquillage (1975).

Turbeville’s experimentation extended from the darkroom to the studio table as she unpicked the developing process. She ripped, cut and tore her photographs; manipulated, pinned and glued them. Her handmade collages are hybrid objects – as much diaries as book maquettes, sketchbooks as photographic novels – all from a pre-digital age.

Describing her work, she said “I destroy the image after I’ve made it, obliterate it a little so you never have it completely there.”

Turbeville developed a highly personal artistic universe, which has been credited with transforming fashion imagery into avant-garde art. Although she did not achieve the same recognition as her male counterparts in her lifetime. Deborah Turbeville: Photocollage is a new opportunity to consider and celebrate Turbeville’s ground-breaking contribution to the history of photography.

Deborah Turbeville: Photocollage is organised by The Photographers’ Gallery, produced by Photo Elysée in collaboration with MUUS Collection. The exhibition is curated by Nathalie Herschdorfer, Director of Photo Elysée, and Karen McQuaid, Senior Curator at The Photographers’ Gallery.

The accompanying catalogue Deborah Turbeville: Photocollage is published by Thames & Hudson and available at The Photographers’ Gallery’s bookshop at £55.

Deborah Turbeville short biography

Deborah Turbeville was born in Stoneham, Massachusetts, USA in 1932. She moved to New York with ambitions to study drama when she was 19. Instead she was discovered by the fashion designer Claire McCardell, who hired Turbeville as an assistant and house model. While working for McCardell, she met Diana Vreeland, the famed editor of Harper’s Bazaar. Their introduction led to Turbeville being offered a job as an editor at the magazine.

Disinterested in her editorial work at Harper’s Bazaar and later at Mademoiselle, she began experimenting with photography in the 1960s. She took part in a workshop led by Richard Avedon and art director Marvin Israel in 1966. From there, she began her photographic career, mainly working for magazines like Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar and Mirabella.

In 1981, Turbeville was commissioned by Jaqueline Onassis, then an editor at Doubleday, to photograph disused rooms in the Palace of Versailles. The book, Unseen Versailles, won an American Book Award, for its rare look into the Palace’s off-limits decaying grandeur.

Turbeville published many books of her photography, including Studio St. Petersburg, The Voyage of the Virgin Maria Candelaria and Newport Remembered. Posthumous publications include Comme des Garçons 1981, a series of photographs she took during the 1980s in collaboration with the fashion house and its designer, Rei Kawakubo.

Turbeville died in 2013, having left an indelible mark on the world of photography. Her work is collected by major institutions worldwide, including the National Portrait Gallery, Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the Getty Museum, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art.

Press release from The Photographers’ Gallery

Deborah Turbeville (American, 1932-2013) 'Untitled (Metamorphosis of Ella M.)' Paris, France, early 1990s from the exhibition Deborah Turbeville: Photocollage' at The Photographers' Gallery, London

Deborah Turbeville (American, 1932-2013)
Untitled (Metamorphosis of Ella M.)
Paris, France, early 1990s
From the series L’École des Beaux Arts
© Deborah Turbeville/MUUS Collection