“The world is full of magic things, patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper.” – W.B. Yeats
By Elin Spring and Suzanne Révy
December ushers in the holidays and with them, our seasonal longing for light, warmth and magic. A wonderful portal to all of these is a visit to the places where your senses can grow sharper. Here we present sparkling photography exhibits and events in the Boston metro area and New England, listed by region for your planning convenience. We update regularly, so please feel free to check back throughout the month, whether you are venturing solo or celebrating with others.
BOSTON PROPER

Vintage NASA photograph of the Apollo 11 moon landing, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), 1969. Chromogenic print. Abbott Lawrence Fund. Courtesy of the MFA, Boston.
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston – LIFE Magazine and the Power of Photography journeys through a tumultuous period in American history and culture, featuring imagery from the celebrated magazine’s archives. Published weekly from 1936 to 1972, the magazine’s photo essays capture some of the defining moments—celebratory and traumatic alike—of the last century, from the Birmingham civil rights demonstrations to the historic Apollo 11 moon landing (above). The exhibit reveals the collaborative efforts behind many now-iconic images and stories by photographers such as Margaret Bourke-White, Larry Burrows, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Frank Dandridge, Gordon Parks, W. Eugene Smith and Alfred Eisenstaedt. Three immersive contemporary “moments” feature works by artists active today who offer their critical reflections on photojournalism. On view through January 16th, 2023.
For more information, go to: https://www.mfa.org/exhibition/life-magazine-and-the-power-of-photography

Olivia Parker, Artichoke, 2010. Digital inkjet print. The Lane Collection. © Olivia Parker 2010. Courtesy of MFA, Boston.
Also at Museum of Fine Arts, Boston – The Stillness of Things: Photographs from the Lane Collection presents nearly 60 innovative photographs grouped thematically across two galleries. The special treat is that they are all departures from the traditional still life and span the entire history of photography. Featuring photographs from the 1840s by William Henry Fox Talbot to the work of contemporary artists such as Olivia Parker (above), David Hilliard, Adam Fuss, Kenro Izu, and Abelardo Morell, the exhibit will be on view through February 27th, 2023.
For our review, go to: https://www.whatwillyouremember.com/stillness-of-things-photography-exhibit-at-the-museum-of-fine-arts-boston/
For more information, go to: https://www.mfa.org/exhibition/the-stillness-of-things

Jess T. Dugan “Ingrid and Okolo” (detail), 2006-8. Photograph, dye diffusion print (Polaroid). Gift of the artist. ©Jess T. Dugan. Courtesy of MFA, Boston.
Don’t miss the MFA, Boston’s Frances Vrachos Gallery / Mary Stamas Gallery (Gallery 148) where you’ll find arresting, nearly life-size photographs from the series, Coupled, Jess T. Dugan’s portraits of LGBTQ couples created using a rare and massive Polaroid camera in the years after the 2004 legalization of same-sex marriage in Massachusetts. Ongoing.
For more information, go to: https://www.mfa.org/gallery/jess-t-dugan-coupled

Feature Image: “Azaleas Pressing” 2018, by Cig Harvey, courtesy of the artist and Robert Klein Gallery, Boston.
Robert Klein Gallery – Cig Harvey’s intoxicating photographs of flora are siren songs that lure the viewer into a multi-sensory shower. Her solo show Eat Flowers showcases images from Harvey’s latest book,”Blue Violet,” a mesmerizing visual procession through the seasons that, along with her lyrical musings, radiate a vibrant sense of awe. On view by appointment through December 17th, 2022.
For gallery hours and more information, go to: https://www.robertkleingallery.com/exhibitions/71-cig-harvey-eat-flowers-robert-klein-gallery-38-newbury-street/overview/

Photo by Jeff Garlin, courtesy of Leica Gallery Boston.
Leica Gallery Boston – A Big Bowl of Wonderful by photographer and comedian Jeff Garlin showcases portraits of celebrities behind the scenes from Garlin’s insider perspective. On view through January 29th, 2023.

From the series A Beautiful Ghetto, ©Devin Allen, courtesy of the artist and Leica Gallery Boston.
In a special event at Leica Gallery Boston, catch photographer and activist Devin Allen and local photographer Juan Murray in conversation on Saturday, December 3rd, 2022 from 4:00 – 5:30pm. Allen will be signing his newly published book “No Justice, No Peace,” available for purchase.
For details and registration, go to: https://www.instagram.com/p/ClFBU70veQ9/
SOWA – Boston’s South End Arts District

“Del Berdick, Thompson Speedway, Thompson, Connecticut, 1972” by Henry Horenstein, courtesy of the artist and Abakus Projects, Boston.
Abakus Projects – In his solo show Speedway 72, master documentarian Henry Horenstein kicks up a bit of nostalgia from his grad school days in 1972. He hung out at small town New England speedways and, in the style of his heroes Brassai and Weegee, chronicled his brother-in-law Paul and buddies who raced their customized beat-up junkers. Fifty years on, stock car racing still flourishes, albeit differently, and this is Horenstein’s wonderfully dated and insightful slice-of-life tribute to a time gone by. There will be an Opening Reception with the artist on First Friday, December 2nd, 2022 from 6:00 – 8:30pm and thereafter on Saturdays and Sundays from noon – 4:00pm or by appointment through the remainder of December.
For more information, go to: https://www.abakusprojects.com/upcoming-exhibitions

Installation view of “Dusk Elegies” from the series Black & Blue by Judy Haberl, courtesy of the artist and Gallery Kayafas, Boston.
Gallery Kayafas – In her solo exhibit Black & Blue, artist Judy Haberl creates monoprints from photographs she made using the backlit window frame over her kitchen sink during the long, dark pandemic shut-down. Haberl’s meditations on this period are at once solemn and fanciful, a nuanced reflection of the conflicting desires for sanctuary and escape. On view from through December 10th, 2022, there will be a Reception with the artist on First Friday December 2nd from 5:30 – 8:00pm.
For more information, go to: https://www.gallerykayafas.com/
BROOKLINE

Installation view of “Fractured & Found” by Jessica Burko, courtesy of the artist.
Brookline Arts Center – The teetering structures in Jesica Burko’s installation Fractured & Found are a pointed and poignant exploration of life’s conflicting roles, demands, and emotions, embodied by photographic self-portraits compartmentalized in reclaimed wooden drawers. Origin Stories, photographs chronicling Burko’s discovery of the furniture, enliven nearby walls. On view at the Beacon Street Gallery through January 15th, 2023.
For more information, go to: https://www.brooklineartscenter.com/beacon
THE BURBS

“Anamika Bhatnagar & Dennis Willette, BBC World News/ Access Hollywood, Thursday, October 2, 2003, 7-8 pm” from the Screen Lives series by Matthew Pillsbury, courtesy of the artist and Edwynn Houk Gallery, NY. From the collection of Gary Leopold.
Griffin Museum of Photography, Winchester – Curated by Andrew Epstein, Griffin Museum Director of the Board and veteran collector, Critical Eye gathers a selection of works from ten New England based photography collectors that focus on twentieth and twenty first century photography, from hand painted tintypes and albumen prints to gelatin silver and collage.
Also at the Griffin Museum – In her solo exhibit Fugue States, Aline Smithson creates haunting and sometimes disturbingly disrupted images through chemical and/or digital manipulation, probing both the legacy of physical prints and the lifespan of digital files in our rapidly changing photographic world. In his solo show A Facefull of Mangoes, Justin Michael Emmanuel presents his award-winning graduate thesis work completed at the University of Hartford Art School in 2021. In this series of sensitive B&W documentary images, he addresses systemic racism by inviting empathy and “showing the human aptitude to love.” In Call and Response, (on view through January 8th, 2023) Becky Behar curated a visual dialogue between (museum founder) Arthur Griffin’s photographs and her ongoing project, The 50th Hour to spark a conversation focused on women, motherhood, and life transitions.
LAST CHANCE! Except where noted, all exhibits are on view through December 4th, 2022.
To read our review, go to: https://www.whatwillyouremember.com/critical-eye-photographic-collections-before-digital-age-aline-smithson-fugue-states-justin-michael-emmanuel-a-facefull-of-mangoes-becky-behar-call-and-response-at-griffin-museum-winchester-ma/

From an end and a beginning by Alyssa Minahan, courtesy of the artist and Griffin Museum of Photography.
Coming next to Griffin Museum of Photography – In the Griffin Gallery, Alyssa Minahan’s an end and a beginning presents photographic objects – chemigrams, gelatin silver prints, photograms, lumen prints and polaroids – that oscillate between light and darkness, representational and abstract, and ephemeral and permanent. Her unfixed images ultimately disappear or deteriorate into something else, creating lyrical works that explore, both materially and philosophically, the meaning of time, personal and collective loss, and the tension between image and object. In the Griffin Atelier Gallery, Sarah Schorr’s The Color of Water frankly defies description, but flows with water, paint and photographs of her swimming, “charting the fluctuations of emotion in color.” Both exhibits will be on view, along with the Winter Solstice member’s exhibit from December 8th, 2022 – January 8th, 2023, with an Opening Reception for all shows on Saturday, December 10th, 2022 from 4:00 – 6:00pm.
For more information, go to: https://griffinmuseum.org/griffin-museum-galleries/

From The Color of Water by Sarah Schorr, courtesy of the artist and Griffin Museum of Photography.

“Mothercraft” by Toni Pepe, rephotographed appropriated press image from the series Mothercraft, courtesy of the artist and the Danforth Art Museum.
Danforth Art Museum at Framingham State University, Framingham – Three solo exhibits curated by Danforth Art Director Jessica Roscio, Toni Pepe’s An Ordinary Devotion, Lisa Rosowsky’s Othering and Jane Szabo’s Family Matters, grapple with the current political landscape through the lens of the personal, utilizing or appropriating photography to consider the role of family and memory in the hierarchies of private and public power. On view through January 29th, 2023.
For our review, go to: https://www.whatwillyouremember.com/toni-pepe-an-ordinary-devotion-lisa-rosowsky-othering-jane-szabo-family-matters-at-danforth-art-in-framingham-ma/
For more information, go to: https://danforth.framingham.edu/see-art/

“Lévitan” by Lisa Rosowsky, 2012, cotton, wool, wood, LED Lights, featuring inventories of stolen family heirlooms on the side. (Installation photograph by Suzanne Révy)

“Unplugged” by Jane Szabo, 2019 from the series Family Matters, courtesy of the artist and the Danforth Art.

“BU Terrier Invitational Day” by Pelle Cass, from the series Crowded Fields, courtesy of the artist, DeCordova Sculpture Park and Museum and Abigail Ogilvy Gallery, Boston, MA.
DeCordova Sculpture Park and Museum, Lincoln – New Formations celebrates the human body in athleticism and performance through painting, video and photography including work by Pelle Cass, Heather Rasmusson and Philip Trager. Contemporary photographs will be installed along with a collection of vernacular pictures recently donated to the museum from the Peter Cohen Collection. In addition, the museum presents Downstream using photography and video with an element of fluidity to evoke the disparities in living conditions during this age of climate change, featuring photographs by Paul D’Amato, Charles “Teeny” Harris, Arno Rafael Minkkinen, and Abelardo Morrell among others. All exhibitions are on view through March 12, 2023.
For more information: https://thetrustees.org/program/decordova-exhibitions/

“Great Egret, Western Foundation of Vertebrate Zoology, Camarillo, CA” by Rosamond Purcell, 2007-8, courtesy of the artist and the Addison Gallery of American Art. © Rosamond Purcell.
Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover – Rosamond Purcell: Nature Stands Aside is the first retrospective of this Boston-based photographer and conceptual artist who has influenced Mark Dion and Sally Mann among others. Working alongside paleontologists, anthropologists and other scholars, Purcell explores the human drive to collect and inspect in an effort to understand the world. On view through December 31st, 2022. Also at the Addison, Harry Benson: Four Stories offers a dive into the legendary photojournalist’s archive, emphasizing his coverage of the building of the Berlin Wall, the Beatle’s first American tour, the James Meredith March Against Fear and the Robert F. Kennedy assassination. On view through January 30th, 2023.
To read our review, go to: https://www.whatwillyouremember.com/rosamond-purcell-nature-stands-aside-harry-benson-four-stories-at-addison-gallery-of-american-art-andover-ma/
For more information, go to: https://addison.andover.edu/

Harry Benson, John Lewis, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., & Ralph Abernathy singing “We Shall Overcome” on the James Meredith March Against Fear, Mississippi, June 1966, gelatin silver print, 24 x 30 inches, courtesy of the artist and Gigi Benson. © Harry Benson

“Valeriia” by Faith Ninivaggi, from the series Unwavering Spirit, courtesy of the artist.
Hoon Keith Quiet Study Lounge Gallery, Curry College, Milton – In Unwavering Spirit, photojournalist Faith Ninivaggi’s uses a 4″x5″ camera and black and white film to make portraits of Boston area Ukrainian students and activists. She accompanies the portraits with interviews that reveal their anxieties and fears and how they supported each other in the wake of Russia’s unprovoked attack on their country. On view through January 23rd, 2023.
For more information: https://www.curry.edu/student-life/student-center/hoon-keith-quiet-study-lounge

“Ritual Dance, Bhutan” by Ron Rosenstock, 2009, courtesy of the artist and the Fitchburg Art Museum.
Fitchburg Art Museum, Fitchburg – Ron Rosenstock’s World in Color presents saturated studies from global travels of this the central Massachusetts based photographer. Known primarily for his black and white pictures and overseas workshops, this is the first time the photographer presents his color work. On view through March 15th 2023.
For more information: https://fitchburgartmuseum.org/ron-rosenstocks-world-in-color/

John Thomson, Portrait of a Woman, 1868–72. Albumen print. Peabody Essex Museum. Gift of George J. Harrington Jr., 1993. PH27.34. Courtesy of the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, MA.
Peabody Essex Museum (PEM), Salem – Power and Perspective: Early Photography in China explores how the camera transformed perceptions of 19th-century China through more than 130 extraordinarily rare photographs accompanied by paintings, decorative arts, and prints. Exhibit co-curator Stephanie Hueon Tung, PEM’s Byrne Family Curator of Photography lends perspective on the show: “Photography has never been a neutral technology of documentation; who and what gets captured and the stories that these photographs tell is a function of power.” The show incorporates work from a collaboration with current emerging photographers in China, who responded to images in the exhibit with works that offer their personal insights into China today. On view through April 2, 2023.
For more information, go to: https://www.pem.org/exhibitions/power-and-perspective-early-photography-in-china

Welcome Home Camille, Great Brook Valley, 1992 by Peter Hagberg, courtesy of the artist and Worcester Historical Museum.
Worcester Historical Museum, Worcester – In 1993, a group of photographers came together to photograph contemporary Worcester, documenting the city’s changing face as a new century approached. Worcester Scene: Reseen looks back at these original photos 29 years later, highlighting not only the city but the perspectives of these nine local photographers: Stephen DiRado, Peter Faulkner, Elizabeth Garamy, Peter Hagberg (above), Rosemary Lebeau, Robert Nash, Mari Seder, Robert Raslavsky and the late David Prifti. Ongoing.
For more information, go to: https://www.worcesterhistory.org/exhibitions/worcester-scene-reseen/
ROAD TRIP!
Vermont

“there’s a place i want to take you” by Vanessa Leroy, courtesy of the artist and Gallery Kayafas, Boston.
Vermont Center for Photography (VCP), Brattleboro – Vanessa Leroy’s “there’s a place i want to take you” features her dreamlike autobiographical cyanotypes. Created with images made between 2014 and 2019, they connect her childhood and recent experiences by exposing them to light, creating diptychs, inserting text and illustrations, and binding the timeline with thread. On view through January 1st, 2023.
For more information, go to: https://vcphoto.org/exhibits/current/

From the exhibition Renate Aller: Between Memory and Expectation, courtesy of the artist and the Brattleboro Museum and Art Center, Brattleboro, VT.
Brattleboro Museum and Art Center, Brattleboro – “The interval—the space in between—is about the moments during which apparently nothing happens; but without these moments, change is impossible. The Space Between Memory and Expectation is another way to describe this stillness and transition.” In Renate Aller’s solo exhibition (and accompanying monograph, Kehrer Verlag 2021) she uses large-format photographic installations to create “picture windows” that invite the viewer to enter and absorb the textures of the landscapes and all that they imply: movement, change, time, and human influence. On view through February 12th, 2023.
For more information, go to: https://www.brattleboromuseum.org/2022/06/10/renate-aller-the-space-between-memory-and-expectation/
Connecticut

Defining Studios, LLC, Courtesy of the Hartford Art School.
Joseloff Gallery at Hartford Art School, University of Hartford, West Hartford – The first large scale exhibition in the U.S. of Japanese artist Komatsu Hiroko: Second Decade features her signature immersive photographic environments together with handmade artist books, photograms, and 8mm films, plunging viewers into a magical world of monochrome. LAST CHANCE! On view through December 10th, 2022.
For more information: https://www.hartford.edu/academics/schools-colleges/art/galleries/default.aspx
Maine

Norman Seeff (United States, born South Africa, born 1939), Robert Mapplethorpe and Patti Smith, New York, 1969, archival pigment print, 15 x 22 inches. Promised Gift from the Judy Glickman Lauder Collection, 1.2016.1. Image courtesy Luc Demers. © Photograph by Norman Seeff.
Portland Museum of Art, Portland – Presence: The Photography Collection of Judith Glickman Lauder highlights a broad range of 20th century photography, including works by James Van Der Zee, Berenice Abbot, Diane Arbus, Sally Mann, Gordon Parks and Roman Vishniac among others. The exhibition marks Lauder’s promised gift to the museum of some six hundred works, which will transform and enhance the museum’s photography holdings. On view through January 15th, 2023.
For more information: https://www.portlandmuseum.org/exhibitions