By Elin Spring & Suzanne Révy
We start 2026 with both trepidation and conviction. In so many ways, the past year was nerve-wracking. But each New Year presents a chance for us to renew our hopes. At “What Will You Remember?” we try to present opportunities for our readers to see the world through fresh eyes. By featuring exhibits and events in which photographers transform their ideas, dreams and emotions into inspiring visual expressions, we endeavor to raise awareness, offer insights and nurture engagement with our complicated world. Our January features around metro Boston and New England are arranged geographically for your planning convenience, and as always, we invite you to check back throughout the month for updates and additions.
BOSTON PROPER
“Taxi” 2016, by Luc Delahaye (French, born in 1962), Photograph, chromogenic print. Museum purchase with funds donated by Richard and Lucille Spagnuolo, Photograph © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston – “Faces in the Crowd: Street Photography” presents a five-decade global slice of street photography that brings us up to the present. This gem-like show features the images of twenty-five photographers drawn from the museum’s collection. Their viewpoints illuminate individual and collective responses to socio-political changes, but also the ways in which people’s attitudes and gestures remain familiar over time. On view in the Herb Ritts Gallery through July 26th, 2026.
To read our review: https://www.whatwillyouremember.com/faces-in-the-crowd-street-photography-at-museum-of-fine-arts-boston/
For more information, go to: https://www.mfa.org/exhibition/faces-in-the-crowd-street-photography
“Strays 99” 2010, by Arne Svenson, courtesy of the artist and Robert Klein Gallery, Boston.
Robert Kelin Gallery – Arne Svenson: Sock Monkeys & Strays brings a needed dose of levity to the season. A celebration of endearing stray kittens and beloved sock monkey dolls will warm both heart and soul, as Svenson’s images find humanity in the handmade and the forsaken. On view through January 31, 2026, there will be an Artist’s Reception & Talk on Saturday, January 10, 2026 from 2:00 – 4:00pm.
For more information, go to: https://www.robertkleingallery.com/exhibitions/87-arne-svenson-sock-monkeys-strays/works/
“Susie, Maria” from the series The First Ones in Line by Yorgos Efthymiadis, courtesy of the artist and ICA Boston.
Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) Boston – We’ve all seen pictures of striking laborers, but what are they like individually? What about them gives them the courage to challenge authority, bring people together, and lead their coworkers out on strike? With characteristic empathy, Yorgos Efthymiadis explores the unseen side of workers, in and around their homes and often with their families. As one of four winners of the 2025 James and Audrey Foster Prize, Efthymiadis is exhibiting photographs from this project, The First Ones in Line, along with his previous series, The Lighthouse Keepers. Established to “nurture and recognize exceptional Boston-area artists,” the Foster Prize celebrates recipients with this annual ICA/Boston exhibition, on view through January 19th, 2026.
To read our review: https://www.whatwillyouremember.com/photography-shows-yorgos-efthymiadis-the-first-ones-in-line-and-the-lighthouse-keepers-rania-matar-portraits-of-samira-at-ica-boston/
For more information, go to: https://www.icaboston.org/exhibitions/2025-james-and-audrey-foster-prize/
“Peace Study, Purple” by Sarah Schorr, courtesy of the artist and Leica Gallery Boston.
Leica Gallery Boston – In her solo exhibit, “Ephemeral Field Journal,” Sarah Schorr, photographer and Visual Artist-in-Residence at Harvard’s Center for the Study of World Religions (CSWR), presents work initiated in Claude Monet’s garden in Giverny, France, in Aarhus, Denmark and on Walden Pond in Massachusetts. Her images in the series “Peace Studies” reflect the evanescent nature of temperature shifts, water clarity, plant life, and environmental disturbances in elegant composite photographs of flowers from Monet’s Garden with site specific watercolors. Her series “The Color of Water” and “Skywater” are a meditations on the transient essence of water as a metaphor for life. On view from January 9th – March 22nd, 2026 there will be an Opening Reception from 6:00 – 9:00 pm, featuring an Artist Talk with Sarah Schorr and Charles Stang, theologian and director of Harvard’s CSWR from 6:00 – 7:00pm.
For more information, go to: https://leicagalleryboston.com/exhibitions/
“Frank” by Jordanna Kalman, courtesy of “A Yellow Rose Project” and Leica Gallery Boston.
Upcoming event at Leica Gallery Boston – On Saturday, January 17th from noon to 2:00pm, the gallery will present “KeepingWomen’s Rights in the Picture: A Live Discussion,” with “A Yellow Rose Project” authors Meg Griffiths and Frances Jakubek, along with participating photographers Jordanna Kalman (photo above), Kathya Maria Landeros, and discussion host J. Sybylla Smith. “A Yellow Rose Project” invited over one hundred women across the United States to come together in photographic collaboration to “make work in response, reflection, or reaction to the ratification of the 19th Amendment” giving women the right to vote. This event includes the opportunity to contribute images with loaner cameras from Leica!
For information and free registration, go to: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/keeping-womens-rights-in-the-picture-a-live-discussion-tickets-1978905442449?utm-campaign=social&utm-content=attendeeshare&utm-medium=discovery&utm-term=listing&utm-source=wsa&aff=ebdsshwebmobile
“Crystal Forest” by Tony King, courtesy of the Judy and Tony King Foundation and Pucker Gallery, Boston.
Pucker Gallery – In a tribute to the late photographer Tony King (1934-2017), “A Singular Journey” celebrates his graceful and precise imagery across genres, not only capturing a moment but reflecting the attentive and empathetic eye of this prolific artist. On view from January 31st – March 8th, 2026, there will be an Opening Reception on Saturday, January 31st from 3:00 – 6:00pm.
For more information, go to: https://www.puckergallery.com/
“Murmuration, 2020” by Jessica Hays, courtesy of the artist and Griffin Museum of Photography.
Griffin Museum at Lafayette City Center (LCC) – “As Above, So Below” features the work of two photographers: Jessica Hays’ (above) series The Sun Sets Midafternoon – Wildfires in the America West is an exploration of the immediate aftermath of megafires on surrounding communities, interweaving narratives to describe their ecological devastation and emotional trauma. Melinda Hurst Frye’s (below) series Regeneration investigates ecological cycles of the understory of the Pacific Northwest, often near ground level and below, employing a flatbed scanner as a camera to discover vestiges of regenerative growth following wildfires. On view from January 12th – March 30th, 2026.
For more information, go to: https://griffinmuseum.org/show/as-above-so-below/
“Ghost Pipes, 2019” by Melinda Hurst Frye, courtesy of the artist, Griffin Museum of Photography and J. Rinehart Gallery, Seattle WA.
CAMBRIDGE
“And Yet It Moves” 2016 © TRES [ilana boltvinik + rodrigo viñas], courtesy of the artists and Peabody Museum of Archeology & Ethnology at Harvard University, Cambridge, MA.
For more information, go to: https://peabody.harvard.edu/castaway-afterlife-plastic
THE BURBS
Feature Image: “Murder of Matthew Shepherd Site” by Rich Frishman from the series Ghosts of Segregation, courtesy of the artist and the Griffin Museum of Photography.
Griffin Museum of Photography, Winchester – To commemorate the 250th anniversary of the United States, the museum is planning a year-long series of four exhibitions called State of the Union. They begin with Manifest Destiny, addressing the 18th and 19th century notion of our inevitable expansion into a vast “empty” western terrain. Reinterpreted through contemporary sensibilities, the Main Gallery show features landscape photographs by Craig Easton, Drew Leventhal, Lisa Elmaleh, Rich Frishman, Scott Conarroe and Victoria Sambunaris. Expanding this theme are solo shows by John Willis from his series A View from the Rez and Mni Wiconi in the Griffin Gallery and Austin Bryant’s Where They Still Remain in the Griffin Atelier Gallery. On view from January 9th – March 15th, 2026, there will be an Artist Panel from 3:00 – 4:30pm, followed by a Reception from 5:00 – 7:00pm on Saturday, January 24th.
For more information: https://griffinmuseum.org
From the series A View from the Rez by John Willis, courtesy of the artist and Griffin Museum of Photography.
From the series Where They Still Remain by Austin Bryant, courtesy of the artist and Griffin Museum of Photography.
Nesto Gallery at Milton Academy, Milton – Renowned Boston-based photographer Lou Jones has not only photographed people and cultures all over the globe in both the fine art and commercial realms, but he has mentored many students and interns who have gone on to great careers of their own. The group show Influence is a family reunion of sorts, with exceptional images curated by Lou Jones in a gathering of the artists who have gleaned his guidance in their photographic journeys. On view from January 15th – March 4th, 2026, there will be a free, public Opening Reception on Thursday, January 15th from 5:30 – 7:00pm.
For more information, go to: https://www.milton.edu/arts/nesto-gallery/
“Constellations XXIV, Verplanck, NY” by Tommy Kha, 2024, courtesy of the artist, Higher Pictures, Brooklyn, NY and the Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, MA.
Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover – Tommy Kha is the second recipient of the biannual Bartlett H. Hayes Jr. Prize in support of living artists. In his first solo museum show, Tommy Kha: Other Things Uttered, he pays homage to the Korean-American artist Theresa Hak Kyung Cha who, like Kha, explores themes of translation and mistranslation in the sometimes fragmented identities of immigrants. On view through January 25th, 2026.
NOTE: Also on view, “Family Portrait” featuring photography from the Addison’s rich archives through January 4th, 2025 and a large selection of landscape photographs in a multi-media show called “Captive Lands” on view through January 18th, 2025
To read our review: https://www.whatwillyouremember.com/tommy-kha-other-things-uttered-at-the-addison-gallery-of-american-art-andover-ma/
For more information: https://addison.andover.edu/exhibition/hayes-prize-2025-tommy-kha/
“Generations IV” by Sonya Tanae Fort, 2025, courtesy of the artist and the Danforth Museum of Art at Framingham State University.
Danforth Museum of Art, Framingham – With the largest concentration of people from Cape Verde in Brockton, Massachusetts, photographer Sonya Tanae Fort has probed her familial connections to the island nation from her home near Boston, while also exploring the islands of Maio and Fogo. Her soulful black and white images resonate with deep kinship and abiding love. Sonya Tanae Fort: I See You is on view through January 11th, 2026.
For more information: https://danforth.framingham.edu/exhibition/sonya-tanae-fort-i-see-you/
Installation view of the series Evergreen Tower (2001) by Jung Yeondoo, courtesy of the artist and Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, MA. (Photo by Elin Spring)
Peabody Esssex Museum (PEM), Salem – As part of their Korean art bonanza, PEM presents Building Dreams, South Korean artist Jung Yeondoo’s photographic and video investigations into his people’s dreams and aspirations. In his series Bewitched, subjects pose identically in side-by-side scenes picturing what they do versus what they want to do. In the series Evergreen Towers, Yeondoo observes the individuality and personalities of families living in identical units of generic high rise buildings. On view through January 25th, 2026.
To read our review: https://www.whatwillyouremember.com/korean-photographer-jung-yeondoo-building-dreams-show-at-peabody-essex-museum-salem-ma/
For more information, go to: https://www.pem.org/exhibitions/jung-yeondoo-building-dreams
Manuel Goulart (Portuguese, 1866-1946), Studio Portraits. Dry Plate Glass Negative, 5 x 7 in. NBWM 1993.48.19.36.
New Bedford Whaling Museum, New Bedford – The exhibition, Look Pleasant, Please, debuts a collection of archival photographic portraits reflecting historical and cultural changes in New Bedford as it transformed from a whaling town to a textiles center. Over 300 portraits from 1839 to 1900 feature examples of Daguerreotypes, ambrotypes, tintypes, carte-de-visites, cabinet cards, gelatin silver prints and albums. On view from January 17th – September 7th, 2026.
For more information, go to: https://www.whalingmuseum.org/exhibition/look-pleasant-please-early-portrait-photography-in-new-bedford/
CENTRAL AND WESTERN MASSACHUSETTS
“Dilucesco” by Tara Sellios from the series Ask Now the Beasts, courtesy of the artist and the Fitchburg Art Museum.
Fitchburg Art Museum, Fitchburg – Good news: the museum now offers free admission! And after a three month hiatus this past fall to prepare for a centennial celebration, they have re-opned with the ongoing show Ask Now the Beasts by Tara Sellios with an artist talk planned for February 7th from 2 to 3pm, and on view through May 24th, 2026.
To read our review: https://www.whatwillyouremember.com/ask-now-the-beasts-tara-sellios-at-fitchburg-art-museum-in-ma/
For more information: https://fitchburgartmuseum.org
From the exhibition RACE/HUSTLE by Zora J. Murff, courtesy of the artist and MASS MoCa, North Adams, MA.
MASS MoCA, North Adams – Zora J. Murff presents photographs, collages, video and text in RACE/HUSTLE that probes physical, psychological and institutional forms of societal violence. Curated by Terence Washington through MASS MoCA’s Curatorial Exchange Initiative, Murff examines the deleterious effects of institutional racism that have been visually normalized through history and how they manifest in every day culture. A reception with the artist is planned for February 21st from 5:30-7:30pm, and is currently on view.
For more information: https://massmoca.org/event/zora-j-murff-race-hustle/
ROAD TRIP!
Connecticut
“Saint Anthony Falls, Minneapolis, MN” attributed to Alexander Hesler and Joel Whitney, sixth plate Daguerrotype, from the Greg French Collection, courtesy of the Wadsworth-Atheneum.
The Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford – Invented in France by Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre, the Daguerrotype became widely used for portraiture in the 1840’s, but a few early photographic practitioners such as Sam Bemis and James Presley Ball made landscapes with the difficult process. The Scenic Daguerrotype in America 1840-1860 showcases 83 precious examples from a private collection offering a rare look at the 19th century American landscapes. On view through March 22nd, 2026.
For more information: https://www.thewadsworth.org/explore/on-view/scenic-daguerreotype/
From the exhibition “Photographic Drawings” by Gerald Incandela, courtesy of the artist and the Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, CT.
Also on view at the Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford – Gerald Incandela uses a unique darkroom process to blend photography, drawing and painting. In Gerald Incandela: Photographic Drawings the artist creates abstract forms, shapes and imagery to create rich and painterly compositions. On view through March 8th, 2026.
For more information: https://www.thewadsworth.org/explore/on-view/gerald-incandela/
Left) Gene Pelham (1909–2004), Reference Photographs for Going and Coming, 1947, Cover illustration for The Saturday Evening Post, August 30, 1947, Norman Rockwell Museum Collection, Norman Rockwell Art Collection Trust, ST.1976.2992; ST.1976.2993 © Norman Rockwell Family Agency. All rights reserved.
(Right) Norman Rockwell (1894–1978), Going and Coming, 1947, Cover illustration for The Saturday Evening Post, August 30, 1947, Oil on canvas, Norman Rockwell Museum Collection, Norman Rockwell Art Collection Trust, NRACT.1973.009. © SEPS: Curtis Licensing, Indianapolis, IN. CurtisLicensing.com. All rights reserved.
New Britain Museum of American Art, New Britain – Norman Rockwell: From Camera to Canvas brings together the photographic studies and ephemera that Rockwell referenced for his many illustrations over a forty year career. With over seventy photographs, tear sheets and paintings, visitors will find how this detailed-oriented illustrator used photographs to fine tune the expressive qualities of each painting. On view through February 15th, 2026.
For more information: https://nbmaa.org
Vermont
“Georgia O’Keeffe, Ghost Ranch” by Arnold Newman, 1946, courtesy of the Vermont Center for Photography.
Vermont Center for Photography, Brattleboro – “Icons in Hand: Masterworks from Local Collections” features iconic photographs from local private collectors, affording visitors an opportunity to see vintage prints and how the photographic object itself can convey meaning or story behind the picture. The exhibition is co-curated by Joshua Farr and Mitch Weiss, and will open with a conversation around collecting and stewardship. Opening with a reception from 5 to 8pm on January 9th and will be on view through March 1st, 2026.
For more information, go to: https://vcphoto.org/icons-in-hand/
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