By Elin Spring and Suzanne Révy
Another year is flying by! But before we launch into 2024, we encourage you to take yourselves and visitors to some of the enticing photography exhibits currently on view all around Boston and beyond. As always, we’ve listed our selections geographically for your planning convenience and remind you to check back throughout December, as we update shows and events regularly.
Perhaps this is preaching to the choir, but we have to say it: original artwork is a moving and generous gift. Many of the exhibits we feature in this article offer photographs for sale and your support ensures a vibrant future for photography in our region. And of course, photobooks offer an affordable option, gathering and contextualizing entire bodies of work. This is one of the reasons we spend so much time researching and compiling a selection of our favorite new monographs, retrospectives and exhibition catalogs each year. If you are thinking of making a gift of photography this season, we invite you to visit these exhibitions and peruse Our Favorite Photobooks of 2023.
Lastly, and most importantly, we want to take this opportunity to thank you for your interest, heartening words of encouragement, and your support throughout the year. You stoke our energy to bring you news and reviews of the most engaging photography in New England – and places like New York City and Paris – where we’ve made wonderful discoveries in 2023.
SPECIAL HOLIDAY EVENTS
“Your Work Here” Reception at PRC, Boston.
Photographic Resource Center, Cambridge – The annual Your Work Here holiday member exhibit has its free, public Opening Reception TONIGHT, DECEMBER 6TH, 2023 at the VanDernoot Gallery in Cambridge from 6:00 – 8:00pm.
For information, go to: https://www.prcboston.org/your-work-here-2023-a-prc-members-exhibition/
Becky Behar’s “Tu Que Bivas” series is featured at MFA, Boston .Hanukkah Celebration.
MFA, Boston – The museum’s annual Hanukkah Celebration will feature photographer Becky Behar’s Tu Que Bivas series on Thursday, December 7th, 2023 from 5:00 – 9:00pm.
For information & tickets, go to: https://www.mfa.org/event/special-event/hanukkah?event=6043
Roundtable event discussing the work of Berenice Abbott at MIT Museum.
MIT Museum, Cambridge – A roundtable discussion, So Easy To See; Berenice Abbott’s Super Sight Photography, with feature participants Julia Van Haaften, retired founding curator of photography at the New York Public Library and Abbott’s biographer, and Professor Rowena Kennedy-Epstein of the University of Bristol, author of a study of the poet and science biographer Muriel Rukeyser, who collaborated with Abbott on Super Sight. The discussion will be moderated by MIT Museum’s Gary Van Zante on Tuesday, December 12th, 2023 from 6:30 – 8:30pm.
For information and tickets, go to: https://mitmuseum.mit.edu/programs/so-easy-to-see-berenice-abbotts-super-sight-photography
Photograph by Karen Hosking in Winter Solstice 2023 at Griffin Museum of Photography.
Griffin Museum of Photography, Winchester – Winter Solstice 2023 will have a free ,public Opening Reception with many of the exhibiting artists on Saturday, December 16th, 2023 from 4:00 – 6:00pm.
For more information, go to: https://griffinmuseum.org/show/winter-solstice-2023/
“Martha Graham” by Barbara Morgan at BRIDGE Gallery.
BRIDGE Gallery, Cambridge – There will be a one day pop up show curated from the gallery’s private collection. a remarkable collection of iconic photographs like the photograph of Martha Graham by Barbara Morgan (above), along with others by Mary Ellen Mark, Elliot Erwitt and Sebastiao Salgado to name just a few. The annual Holiday Open House with seasonal refreshments is on Saturday, December 16th, 2023 from 12:00 – 5:00pm.
For information, go to: https://www.bridge.photos/about
SOWA
Feature Image: “Ely, Nevada”2023, by Frank Armstrong, courtesy of the artist and Gallery Kayafas, Boston.
Gallery Kayafas – As jets stream overhead and cars race along Interstate highways, photographer Frank Armstrong seeks “the obscure and transitory” landscapes along North America’s byways. In relishing this rarified relationship to the mostly unseen swaths of countryside, he discovers symbols and signs, often marked by the passage of time, that can appear whimsical, iconic or ironic. A selection of his striking photographs is featured in Frank Armstrong: 2023, on view from December 1st – December 30th, 2023, with an Artists Reception on First Friday, December 1st from 5:30 – 8:30pm.
For more information, go to: https://www.gallerykayafas.com/
BOSTON PROPER
“The Future Passed #16” 2023 by Arne Svenson, courtesy of the artist and Robert Klein Gallery, Boston.
Robert Klein Gallery – As the fight to control firearms or liberalize gun laws rages on in Congress, photographer Arne Svenson has mounted his own call to arms with his piercing ongoing series, The Future Passed. Guided by gun-violence data, Svenson locates fatal incident addresses and, via internet imagery, “photographs” the scenes, framing his view from the street, in a manner similar to real estate listings. Absent people, cars, or any signs of life, Svenson cleverly hijacks the viewer’s imagination with a terrifying sense of premonition, as he accompanies each image with a written description of the violence that has yet to occur within. On view from December 2nd, 2023 – February 3rd, 2024, there will be an Artist’s Reception on Saturday December 2nd from 2-5 pm at the gallery, as well as a conversation with the artist from 3-4 pm.
For more information, go to: https://www.robertkleingallery.com/exhibitions/77-the-future-passed-arne-svenson/
Gallery events are free and open to the public, but space is limited. Please RSVP to reserve a space: inquiry@robertkleingallery.com
Sugimoto Hiroshi, Self-Portrait (detail), 1990. Gelatin silver print. Gift of Sylvan Barnet and William Burto. © Hiroshi Sugimoto, courtesy Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco.
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA) – Creative Spaces: The Photographer’s Studio as Inspiration takes viewers behind the curtain in a gathering of the idea incubators and working environments of 20th and 21st century photographers who employ a range of approaches to the medium, including multiple exposures, photo collages, cyanotypes, Polaroids, and digital prints. On view through April 28th, 2024.
For more information, go to: https://www.mfa.org/exhibition/creative-spaces-the-photographers-studio-as-inspiration
“Untitled” from How Easily We Are Undone by Jennifer McClure, courtesy of the artist and Leica Gallery Boston.
Leica Gallery Boston – In her solo exhibition How Easily We Come Undone, photographer Jennifer McClure explores with poignancy and cinematic drama her personal struggles, longings and hopes amidst new motherhood and the pandemic’s social upheavals. On view through January 28th, 2024.
To read our review, go to: https://www.whatwillyouremember.com/jennifer-mcclure-how-easily-we-are-undone-at-leica-gallery-boston/
For more information about this exhibit or a Weekend Workshop with the artist on December 8th-10th, 2023, go to: https://leicagalleryboston.com/
Rear of 20 Mt. Vernon Street, From Joy Street, Beacon Hill, May 12, 1965. Gelatin silver print by Irene Shwachman, courtesy of Boston Athenaeum.
Boston Athenaeum (BA) – Famed documentary photographer Berenice Abbott is known for her commissioned photographs of NYC in the 1930’s but that assignment included other east coast cities like Boston, which she photographed with her characteristically empirical focus on composition. Thirty years later, Boston-based photographer Irene Shwachman, a onetime student of Abbott’s who photographed alongside, and even worked for a time as Abbott’s darkroom printer, diverged from her teacher’s approach as she created “The Boston Document” (1959-1968). Her lively, subjective lens highlighted the city’s 1960’s urban renewal projects, such as the demolition of the West End and erection of the Prudential Center. Exhibited together for the first time, Abbott and Shwachman elucidate seminal periods in Boston’s history with distinctive perspectives. Extending the timeline into the present, the Athenaeum has partnered with teen photographers of Artists For Humanity and displays their pictures at the entry to the gallery. Their images of Boston neighborhoods over the past two years offer fresh perspectives that broaden understanding of the city’s history. On view through December 30th, 2023.
To read our review, go to: https://www.whatwillyouremember.com/developing-boston-berenice-abbott-and-irene-shwachman-photograph-a-changing-city-at-boston-athenaeum/
For more information about the exhibit, go to: https://bostonathenaeum.org/blog/exhibition-abbott-schwachman/
“Connection” 2002, by Ted Gartland, courtesy of the artist and Panopticon Gallery, Boston.
Panopticon Gallery – From the 1970’s to the present, Boston Globe photographer Ted Gartland has chronicled every concert performed here by the Rolling Stones. His dynamic images are on view in All Down the Line: The Rolling Stones in Boston, on view through February 14th, 2024.
For more information, go to: https://www.panopticongallery.com/ted-gartland
CAMBRIDGE
“Shehuo performance team walks on stilts in a New Year’s parade, Xunxian County, Henan Province” 2019, by Zhang Xiao, courtesy of the artist and Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA.
Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology at Harvard University – Photographer Zhang Xiao examines the effects of modernization on Chinese culture through the transformation of Shehuo: Community Fire, a traditional spring festival held in rural northern China that coincides with the Lunar New Year. Zhang, the 11th recipient of the Peabody Museum’s Robert Gardner Fellowship in Photography, documents the ancient festivities in 2007 and its commercialization a decade later in 2018 & 2019 with vivid and thought-provoking imagery. Accompanied by a book and additional programming, this English/ Chinese bilingual exhibit is on view through April 14th, 2024.
To read our review, go to: https://www.whatwillyouremember.com/zhang-xiao-shehuo-community-fire-reflects-a-changing-china-at-harvards-peabody-museum-in-cambridge-ma/
For more information about the exhibit and associated programming, go to: https://peabody.harvard.edu/shehuo-community-fire
For information about the Aperture book, go to: https://aperture.org/books/zhang-xiao-community-fire/
THE BURBS
From the exhibition Transcendence: Awakening the Soul by Xuan Hui Ng, courtesy of the artist, the Griffin Museum of Photography and Foto Relevance, Houston, TX.
Griffin Museum of Photography, Winchester – Alongside the annual celebration of members in the Solstice exhibition, Xuan Hui Ng shares her magical landscapes from Japan in Transcendence: Awakening the Soul on view in both the Griffin and the Griffin Atelier Gallery alongside Bill Chapman’s Illuminating the Archive response, on view from December 13th, 2023 – January 7th, 2024. An online artist talk with Xuan-Hui Ng is scheduled for Thursday, December 14th from 7 to 8pm and an Opening Reception with the artist will be on Saturday, December 16th from 4 to 6pm.
For more information, go to: https://griffinmuseum.org/upcoming-exhibitions/
“Marine Art Works studios / Joanne Radmilovich Kollman’s studio / Aaron Kurzen’s studio” by Christopher Rauschenberg, 2018, 2018, 2014 from the series Studio Photographs, courtesy of the artist and the Griffin Museum of Photography.
Currently on view in the Griffin Museum of Photography Main Gallery, Leaving their Mark, Christopher Rauschenberg’s and Meggan Gould’s explorations of the messes, detritus and ephemera of creative work by painters, sculptors and photographers. LAST CHANCE! On view through December 10th 2023.
From the series Wig Heavier than Boot by David Johnson and Philip Matthews, courtesy of the artists and the Griffin Museum of Photography.
Currently on view in the Griffin Atelier Gallery is Wig Heavier than a Boot, a collaboration of photography, poetry and film between David Johnson and Philip Matthews; in the Griffin Gallery is Cody Bratt’s The Other Stories; in the Founders Gallery is Janice Koskey’s Illuminating the Archive. LAST CHANCE! On view through December 10th, 2023.
From the series Other Stories by Cody Bratt, courtesy of the artist and the Griffin Museum of Photography.
For more information on all current shows, go to: https://griffinmuseum.org/current-exhibitions/
“Untitled 4174” by Torrance York, 2019, from the series Semaphore, courtesy of the artist, Rick Wester Fine Art NYC and the Danforth Art Museum.
Danforth Art Museum, Framingham – Torrance York’s Semaphore is a nuanced meditation on quotidian details, created in response to her diagnosis with Parkinson’s Disease. In images inviting spiritual contemplation, York has found a way not only to cope, but to thrive in the face of a difficult life challenge. On view through January 28th, 2024.
To read our review: https://www.whatwillyouremember.com/torrance-york-semaphore-at-danforth-art-museum-in-framingham-ma/
This Sunday! Sunday Spotlight: Artist Talk in conversation with Museum Director Jessica Roscio at 3pm!
Coming on Sunday, January 21st at 3pm, Learning and Engagement Coordinator, Katherine Tako-Girard, will moderate a discussion about Parkinson’s and Creativity with Torrance York and developmental neuropsychologist, David H. Rose, EdD.
For more information: https://danforth.framingham.edu
The Shelley Hoon Keith Gallery at Curry College, Milton – Olivia Parker’s ingenuity erupts again in her latest work and solo show, Persephone’s Graffiti, a “collaboration” between the artist and her backyard mushrooms. Each fall, they complete their life cycle with explosions of black spores, followed by inky effusions. Parker records the mushrooms’ death knells against white paper, as they reflect the blue sky above and insects leave their oblivious tracks. Parker’s spirited abstractions embrace visual and metaphoric contrasts, recognizing the transcendent beauty of life in the face of mortality. EXTENDED! On view through January 3rd, 2024.
For more information, go to: https://www.curry.edu/student-life/student-center/hoon-keith-quiet-study-lounge
From the series Zoomorphics by Shelby Meyerhoff, courtesy of the artist and the Wallace L. Anderson Gallery at Bridgewater State.
Wallace L. Anderson Gallery, Bridgewater State, Bridgewater – Zoomorphics, Shelby Meyerhoff’s solo exhibit of extraordinary self-portraits, explores human connections with flora and fauna of the natural world. Her vibrant embodiments underline both our bonds and frailty with eye-popping vivacity. On view through February 21st, 2024.
For more information: http://www.bsuarts.com/MeyerhoffS.htm
“A crew member stands on the crosstrees of the schooner Lettie G. Howard during a Mayor’s Cup schooner race. The Howard, the Adventure, and the Roseway are three Essex-built schooners, September 1, 1997.” Photograph by Josh Reynolds. Gloucester Daily Times Collection of the Cape Ann Museum Library & Archives, Gloucester, MA. Gift of The North of Boston Media Group, 2021.
Cape Ann Museum, Gloucester – It has been said that newspapers are the first draft of history, and their archives can function like a time capsule of regional stories. The Gloucester Daily Times has covered the Cape Ann region for over a century and the paper’s owner, North of Boston Media Group, has donated their photography archive to the museum. To celebrate this recent acquisition, they are presenting Above the Fold: Photographers of the Gloucester Daily Times, 1973 to 2005, on view from December 2nd, 2023 – March 17th, 2024, open to the public with museum admission from 10:00am – 3:00pm followed by a Member’s Opening Reception from 3:0o to 5:00pm on December 2nd.
For more information: https://www.capeannmuseum.org/exhibitions/above-fold-photographers-gloucester-daily-times-1973-2005/
Malick Sidibé (1936-2016) “Nuit de Noël (Happy Club), 1963”, courtesy of Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, MA.
Peabody Essex Museum, Salem – Organized by the Aperture Foundation, As We Rise: Photography from the Black Atlantic is the year’s can’t-miss, blockbuster exhibit. Drawn from Dr. Kenneth Montague’s “Wedge Collection” (named for the shape of his home gallery) in Toronto, As We Rise is dedicated to artists of African descent. Highlighting themes of community, identity and power, this inspired collection features over one hundred works by artists such as Texas Isaiah, Gordon Parks, Dawoud Bey, LaToya Ruby Frazier, Seydou Keita, Michele Pearson Clarke, Ruddy Roye, Hank Willis Thomas, Malick Sidibé, Dawit L. Petros, Deana Lawson, Carrie Mae Weems and Jamel Shabazz. On view through December 31st, 2023.
For our review, go to: https://www.whatwillyouremember.com/as-we-rise-photography-from-the-black-atlantic-wedge-collection-kenneth-montague-at-peabody-essex-museum-salem-ma-and-aperture-book/
For more information about the exhibit, book and associated programming, go to: https://www.pem.org/exhibitions/as-we-rise-photography-from-the-black-atlantic
“Agricultural Panel B” by Archy LaSalle, center, flanked by color photographs by George Annan, Jr. and African artifacts from the Fitchburg Art Museum’s collection, on view in the Diasporas section of Dialogues, Diasporas, and Detours Through Africa. (Installation photograph by Suzanne Révy)
Fitchburg Art Museum (FAM), Fitchburg- The museum opens two multi-media shows with a large selection of photographs in each one. The first is Dialogues, Diasporas, and Detours Through Africa which includes photography by Archy LaSalle, George Annan, Lou Jones and Sharon Dunn in dialog with some of the museum’s collection of African sculpture and textiles. The second show, Capital Vice: Politics of the Seven Deadly Sins includes photographs from the collection by several local photographers such as Greer Muldowney and Barbara Norfleet, among others. On view through January 14th, 2024.
There will be a Conversation Café with the artists at 2:30pm this Saturday, December 2nd.
For more information, go to: https://fitchburgartmuseum.org/exhibitions/
“Aya (Draping), Gemmayze, Beirut, Lebanon” by Rania Matar, 2022, from the series Where Do I Go? courtesy of the artist, Robert Klein Gallery, Boston and the Fitchburg Art Museum.
Also at FAM– Rania Matar: Oceans at My Door celebrates the museum’s acquisition of the artist’s SHE portfolio. The exhibit includes new work from her more recent series, Where Do I Go?, an investigation of Lebanese women navigating the crossroads of a country in crisis. On view through January 7th, 2024.
To read our review: https://www.whatwillyouremember.com/rania-matar-oceans-at-my-door-at-fitchburg-art-museum-ma/
For more information, go to: https://fitchburgartmuseum.org/rania-matar-oceans-at-my-door/
ROAD TRIP!
Connecticut
“Crush & Pull with Hands & Penlights” 2022, by Ellen Carey, courtesy of the artist, JHB Gallery, NYC, Galerie Miranda, Paris, and New Britain Museum of American Art, CT.
New Britain Museum of American Art, New Britain – Ellen Carey: Struck by Light is a sweeping retrospective of Carey’s pioneering explorations of light, color, and shadow. Works include dazzling examples of her Polaroid 20 X 24 lens-based images and large-scale camera-less photograms that demonstrate Carey’s boldly experimental approach to image-making. On view through January 28th, 2024.
For more information about the exhibit, go to: https://nbmaa.org/exhibitions/ellen-carey-struck-by-light
Rhode Island
Postcard courtesy Rhode Island Center for Photographic Arts.
Rhode Island Center for Photographic Arts, Providence – In a collaboration with photography publication Frames Magazine, RIPCA presents prints from a circle of photographers who participate in monthly dialogs and presentations organized by the magazine which believes that “excellent photography belongs on paper.” And the gallery believes that prints should be shown on gallery walls! Participating photographers include Rene Algesheimer, Todd N. Allison, Kate Barclay, Bill Barton, Steve Bauserman, Ramsay Breslin, Jacob Buchowski, Joanna Butler, Wan Chantavilasvong, Robert Clark, Pascal Clément, Heather Cudworth, Andrew Cunningham, René Derome, Eric Falk, Anais Faraj, Susan Gans, Anne Helene Gjelstad, Susan-Mary Henderson, Jørn Holm-Pedersen, Ulrich Jousten, Pauls Kozlovskis, Jeet Kumar, John Lai, Peter CW Lim, Joyce P. Lopez, Lesley MacGregor, Michael Marx Beach, Piotr Meszynski, Stephane Monard, Keith Munger, Rudransh Nagi, S W. Scott Olsen, Claudio Pari, Ruggero Pellegrin, Reed Pike, Michael Potts, Ian Pye, Ernst Ryll, Stephen Smith, Norbert Snitil Chaos, Pia Soper, Mark Sullivan Barista, Stephen Sunnucks & Peter Wantula. On view through December 29th, 2023.
For more information: https://www.riphotocenter.org/frames-photography-circle-member-exhibition/
Maine
“Daytime, Owl’s Head, Maine” by Jon Tobiasz, courtesy of the artist and Cove Street Arts, Portland, ME.
Cove Street Arts, Portland – The photographers represented in Mind over Matter curated by Bruce Brown seek to find the tension between abstraction and representation. Participating artists are Elizabeth Root Blackmer, Hugh Blackmer, JC Camelio, Arnie Hoffman, Michael Kolster, Susan Partridge and Jon Tobiasz. On view from December 2nd, 2023 – January 13th, 2024, there will be an Opening Reception on December 2nd from 1 to 3pm.
For more information: https://www.covestreetarts.com
Unknown, Emancipation Day, Jamaica, August 1, circa 1895, two gelatin silver prints, 11 9/16 × 9 7/16 inches. Art Gallery of Ontario. Gift of Patrick Montgomery, through the American Friends of the Art Gallery of Ontario Inc., 2019. Photo © AGO. 2019/2704.
Portland Museum of Art, Portland – By bringing contemporary works into conversation with historic photographs from the Art Gallery of Ontario’s (AGO) Montgomery Collection of Caribbean Photographs Fragments of Epic Memory will immerse visitors in the Caribbean and its diaspora. The exhibition will engage personal memory and myth through past and present works of art curated by curated by Julie Crooks, PhD, Curator, Arts of Global Africa and the Diaspora at the Art Gallery of Ontario and the Portland Museum of Art’s Anjuli Lebowitz, PhD, the Judy Glickman Lauder Associate Curator of Photography. On view through January 7th, 2024.
For more information: https://www.portlandmuseum.org/fragments
“PerSlovak 2.0 Grid” by Yoav Horesh, courtesy of the artist and the Maine Jewish Museum.
Maine Jewish Museum, Portland – Yoav Horesh presents PerSlovak 2.0, a study of facial features among his extended family descended from a Persian-Jewish and Ashkenazi Jewish lineages. In addition to the series of fifty-five portraits, there will be an interactive component where visitors can create their own version from nine million possibilities for their own Jewish appearance. Horesh engages with the idea of a “melting pot” of Jews who came from around the world to settle in Israel after World War II. On view through January 5th, 2024.
For more information: https://mainejewishmuseum.org/exhibits/perslovak-2-0-2/
“Against these Ruins” by Suzanne Theodora White, courtesy of the artist and the Maine Museum of Photographic Arts.
Maine Museum of Photographic Arts – Portland – Spiritual Ecology is an idea that proposes that there is a spiritual element related to efforts around conservation and environmentalism. The exhibition includes photographers engaging ideas around our earth’s stewardship. They are Cole Caswell, Sal Taylor Kydd, Suzanne Theodora White (photo), Brian Buckley, Susan Davens, Joyce Tenneson, Sue Michlovitz, Ted Anderson, Jessica Burko, DM Witman, Amisha Kashyap, Paul Rider, Eugene Cole and Deb Dawson. LAST CHANCE!! On view through December 2nd, 2023.
For more information, go to: https://www.mainemuseumofphotographicarts.org/
Vermont
“Onlookers at the Unfinished Crazy Horse Memorial” by Epiphany Knedler, courtesy of the artist and the Vermont Center for Photography.
Vermont Center for Photography, Brattleboro – South Dakota based artist Epiphany Knedler photographs the plains of the midwest American states in Wish You Were Here. Often referred to as the “flyover,” Knedler engages with the mythologies promoted to tourists and road trippers while glossing over flawed narratives and histories. On view through December 31st.
For more information: https://vcphoto.org
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