By Elin Spring and Suzanne Révy
On the one hand, daylight is getting longer and stronger as we enter meteorological spring, but news and events of the world are distressingly dire. Engaging with art and photography at museums and galleries can replenish your mental reserves. To that end, we bring you our Best Photography Picks for March, organized geographically for your planning convenience. We frequently add to and update these listings, so be sure to check back during the month.
BOSTON PROPER
“Paris ,Folding Chair” by Robert Frank (American, born in Switzerland, 1924–2019), Photograph, gelatin silver print, 1949, Gift of The June Leaf and Robert Frank Foundation © The June Leaf and Robert Frank Foundation, courtesy of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA, Boston) – Renowned photographer and filmmaker Robert Frank was born 100 years ago. To celebrate, the museum is exhibiting Robert Frank: Mary’s Book, featuring seventy-five photographs and inscriptions he created in 1949 as part of a gift scrapbook to the woman who would become his first wife, Mary Lockspeiser. These original spreads from the MFA’s collection are accompanied by photographs Frank took in Paris, on loan from the artist’s foundation. On view through June 22nd, 2025.
To read our review, go to: https://www.whatwillyouremember.com/robert-frank-marys-book-at-the-museum-of-fine-arts-boston/
For more information, go to: https://www.mfa.org/exhibition/robert-frank-marys-book
“Care” from the Self-Portraits series by Dola Posh, courtesy of the artist and Leica Gallery, Boston.
Leica Gallery, Boston – Reclamation, Resilience, and Rebirth features the 2024 Leica Women Foto Project Awardees Luvia Lazo, Camille Farrah Lenain, Dola Posh (above) and Stasia Schmidt. There will be an Opening Reception on Friday, March 7th, 2025 from 7:00 – 9:00pm. On Saturday, March 8th from Noon – 2:00pm, Sybylla Smith leads a panel discussion with three of the artists.
To read our review, go to: https://www.whatwillyouremember.com/luvia-lazo-camille-farrah-lenain-dola-posh-and-stasia-schmidt-at-leica-gallery-boston/
For more information, go to: https://www.instagram.com/leicagalleryboston/
“Through the River” by Andriana Nativio from the series As We Rest in the Shadows, courtesy of the artist and Panopticon Gallery, Boston.
Panopticon Gallery – The annual juried portfolio showcase, “First Look 2025” features the work of five artists whose portfolios offer viewers context, richness and meaning that is not possible with the display of a single piece. Diana Cheren Nygren’s Mother Earth, Andriana Nativio’s As We Rest in the Shadows (above), Austin Bryant’s Where They Still Remain, Ira Garber’s Kinetic Landscapes, and work by Anne Sol will be shown in the main gallery space, while a new addition to the gallery called The Wall will present First Look: Second Glance. Both exhibits are on view through April 28th, 2025.
To read our review: https://www.whatwillyouremember.com/austin-bryant-andriana-nativio-diana-cheren-nygren-anne-sol-and-ira-garber-in-first-look-2025-at-panopticon-gallery-boston/
For more information, go to: https://www.panopticongallery.com/first-look-2025-1
“Central Square, Cambridge” by Jeff Larason, courtesy of the artist.
“Number 39” by Lynn Saville, courtesy of the artist and Yancey Richardson Gallery, NYC.
Griffin Museum at Lafayette City Center, Downtown Crossing – Unexpectedly quiet moments in monumental city and urban environments are a hallmark of the work of photographers Jeff Larason and Lynn Saville. Larason has explored Boston with an eye toward architectural and geometric forms that emphasizes scale and solitude. Saville’s studies of New York City blanketed by the night sky recall the psychological charge of Hopper paintings and the surrealistic bent of DeChirico. On view through March 23rd, 2025.
To read our review, go to: https://www.whatwillyouremember.com/jeff-larason-and-lynn-saville-exhibit-solitude-in-cities-at-griffin-museum-lafayette-city-center-gallery-in-boston-ma/
For more information, go to: https://griffinmuseum.org/current-exhibitions/#satellite
From the series Circumference by S. Billie Mandle, courtesy of the artist and the Boston Atheneaum.
Boston Athenaeum, Alcove Gallery – S. Billie Mandle’s quiet contemplation of Emily Dickinson’s writing room evokes the emotional resonances of changing light and the parallels found in the poet’s evocative works. Created over the course of a year, the textures of the walls shimmer and transform, inviting viewers to join her reverie. On view through May 17th, 2025.
For more information: https://bostonathenaeum.org/whats-on/exhibitions/circumference/
SOWA- South End Arts District
Abakus Projects – Zora J Murff: The Devil Hiding in Plain Sight features photographs and photo-collages indicting police brutality and the persistent American racial inequities that support it. On view through Sunday April 20th, 2025, there will be an Artist Talk on Saturday, March 8th at 1:00pm.
For more information, go to: https://www.abakusprojects.com/
“A Community of Hunters at the edge of The Sea Ice, Siorapaluk, Greenland, 2017” by Stephen Gorman from the series Not For Sale, courtesy of the artist and Anderson Yezerski Gallery, Boston.
Anderson Yezerski Gallery – In light of recent Presidential interest in acquiring Greenland and the Canadian Arctic, photographer Stephen Gorman’s solo exhibit Not For Sale honors the sovereignty of indigenous peoples who have called the arctic home for centuries. Gorman’s visual narratives ask viewers to reflect on these new threats to Inuit culture. Through his embracing black and white documentary photographs, he shares his belief that these historical inhabitants are “the rightful stewards of their land, whose legacy is not for sale.” On view through March 22nd, 2025, an opening reception with the artist is planned for First Friday, March 7th from 6:00 – 8:00pm.
For more information, go to: https://andersonyezerski.com/stephen-gorman-not-for-sale-1
GREATER BOSTON – BROOKLINE AND CAMBRIDGE
“Roscoe & Jordan” by John Shen,, 2020, from the series Straw Inscriptions, courtesy of the artist and Praise Shadows Gallery, Brookline.
Praise Shadows Gallery, Brookline – In his solo show After Image, multidisciplinary artist John Shen features a CRT television monitor in which he has inscribed an image of his mother and presents photographs from his ongoing series Straw Inscriptions, direct positive gelatin silver prints created from cameras built using using approximately 28,000 hand-glued, black drinking straws. Shen’s low-resolution approach prioritizes capturing moments of love, intimacy, and affection of his closest friends and family and challenges the prevailing obsession with technical perfection. On view through March 29th, 2025.
For more information about the exhibition, go to: https://www.praiseshadows.com/exhibitions/51-after-image-solo-exhibition-by-john-shen/
A Simple Circle, photographs by James Gerht at the Photographic Resource Center, installation photograph by Suzanne Révy
Photographic Resource Center (PRC), Cambridge – Photographer James Gehrt draws inspiration from the clean, simple circular compositions made using the Kodak No. 1 camera, invented in 1888. In A Simple Circle, he revisits the round format in his own contemporary images which are displayed alongside vintage Kodak cameras, circular pictures from the 1880s, and early advertisements, paying tribute to and creating dialog with the past. On view through March 16th, 2025.
For more information, go to: https://www.prcboston.org/a-simple-circle/
“Joe Cole, Bobo, Mississippi, October 2001” from Deep Inside the Blues series and book (University Press of Mississippi) by Margo Cooper, courtesy of the artist and Bridge Gallery, Cambridge, MA.
Bridge Gallery, Cambridge – Documentary photographer Margo Cooper has spent nearly three decades recording the history of the Mississippi Delta Blues. Her portraits are inscribed with the hardship, pride and determination of Blues musicians and their families in her solo exhibition Deep Inside the Blues. In her accompanying book, you can learn their stories. On view from March 8th – April 5th, 2025, there will be an Opening Reception with the artist on Saturday, March 8th from 4:00 – 8:00pm.
For more information, go to: https://www.bridge.photos/contact
From the exhibition Joanna Choumali: Languages of West African Marketplaces, courtesy of the artist and the Harvard Art Museums.
Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge – The excess of consumer goods circulating from the United States and Europe to Africa, particularly t-shirts with English slogans or graphics worn by those that artist Joanna Choumali has met in the marketplaces in Ghana and Côte D’Ivoire are the subject of life-sized hand made quilts and embroidered portraits in Joanna Choumali: Languages of Western African Marketplaces. On view through May 11th, 2025.
For more information: https://harvardartmuseums.org/exhibitions/6415/joana-choumali-languages-of-west-african-marketplaces
“Baby Dolls” by Wendel White, Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture; Gift of Kate Clark Harris in memory of her parents Kenneth and Mamie Clark, in cooperation with the Northside Center for Child Development, Washington, D.C.
Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology at Harvard University, Cambridge – In his award-winning project, Manifest: Thirteen Colonies, Wendel A. White selected and photographed objects with charged historic and spiritual impact on African Americans. Black and white baby dolls from a famed social science experiment, a midcentury voting machine, a lock of Frederick Douglass’ hair all gain resonance in White’s spare, naturally-lit images. As the 2021 Robert Gardner Fellow in Photography at the museum, White’s exhibition is accompanied by a book published by the museum in conjunction with Radius Books.On view through Sunday, April 13th, 2025.
To read our review, go to: https://www.whatwillyouremember.com/wendel-white-exhibit-manifest-thirteen-colonies-at-harvard-peabody-museum-of-archaeology-and-ethnology-in-cambridge-ma/
For more information, go to: https://peabody.harvard.edu/news/wendel-white-photo-exhibition-manifest-thirteen-colonies-open-harvard%E2%80%99s-peabody-museum
THE BURBS
Diane Arbus, Identical twins, Cathleen (l.) and Colleen, members of a twin club in New Jersey, 1966, printed 1970. Gelatin silver print, 14 3/4 x 14 3/4 inches. Addison Gallery of American Art, Phillips Academy, Andover, MA. Gift of the Stephen C. Sherrill Collection of American Art Foundation, 2024.122.2.1
Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover – Drawing on its extensive photographic archive, museum Director Allison Kemmerer has curated Dynamic Duo, an exhibit that considers the relationships and interactions of two beings sharing space, whether they be romantic partners, family members, close friends, rivals, strangers, or interspecies companions. On view through July 31st, 2025.
For more information, go to: https://addison.andover.edu/exhibition/dynamic-duos/
“Airborne” from the series Imaginary Circus by Fran Forman, courtesy of the artist and Pucker Gallery, Boston.
Manninen Center for the Arts, Endicott College, Beverly – Fran Forman’s career retrospective, Suspended Realities: A 20-Year Journey through Whimsy to Noir features her work in photography, digital painting and AI techniques. With over 35 images and some recent experimental videos, the exhibit follows Forman’s evolution from whimsical images to those with darker themes of longing, disconnection and uncertainty. On view through March 14th, 2025, there will be a Closing Reception with the artist on Wednesday, March 12th from 4:00 – 6:00pm.
For more information, go to: https://www.franforman.com/exhibits-blog/2025/1/18/suspended-realities-a-20-year-journey-through-whimsy-to-noir
“Banyi & Stella” by Mengwen Cao, 2022, from the series Liminal Space, courtesy of the artist and Griffin Museum of Photography.
Griffin Museum of Photography, Winchester – Family values are probed through the lenses of six LGBTQ+ artists who celebrate their domestic spheres in Nuclear Family. Curated by artist Katalina Simon in collaboration with the Griffin’s Executive Director Crista Dix, the exhibition features Jess T. Dugan’s A Letter to my Daughter, Mengwen Cao’s Liminal Space (above), Yorgos Efthymiadis’ Lighthouse Keepers, Laurence Philomene’s untitled explorations of the self, Matthew Leifheit’s Queer Archives and Ann Vetter’s Love is Not the Last Room.
“Line Dry” by Kevin Bennett Moore from the series Mediations in an Emergency, courtesy of the artist and the Griffin Museum of Photography.
“Marshalll and me off to our sweet sixteen party” by Matthew Finley from the series An Impossibly Normal Life, courtesy of the artist and the Griffin Museum of Photography.
Also on view is Kevin Bennett Moore’s Meditations in an Emergency in the Griffin Atelier Gallery and Matthew Finley’s An Impossibly Normal Life in the Griffin Gallery. All exhibitions on view through March 30th 2025.
For more information and related programming: https://griffinmuseum.org
“Telling You” by Hannah Altman from the exhibition As it Were, Suspended in Midair, courtesy of the artist.
Kniznick Gallery at Brandeis University, Waltham – Hannah Altman’s solo show, As It Were, Suspended in Midair explores how myths and legends are shared, woven and reconsidered through generations within the Jewish diaspora. Employing Yiddish literature and mystical texts, Altman places her female sitters either in the landscape or within interiors that are fraught with tension as she interprets and retells traditional stories based in a patriarchal culture. On view through June 12th, 2025. An artist talk and book launch are planned for March 20th at 6:30pm
To read our review: https://www.whatwillyouremember.com/as-it-were-suspended-in-midair-by-hannah-altman-kniznick-gallery-brandeis-university-waltham-ma/
For more information: https://www.brandeis.edu/hbi/artist-program/index.html
deMenil Gallery at Groton School, Groton – Photographers Jesse Burke (photo above) and Craig J. Barber join in What Gorgeous Thing at the deMenil Gallery at Groton School. On view through March 28th, 2025.
For information, go to: https://www.groton.org/arts/visual-art/galleries
“Lights Out, Chilmark, MA, July 5th, 1998” by Stephen DiRado, from the Dinner Series, courtesy of the artist and the Fitchburg Art Museum.
Fitchburg Art Museum, Fitchburg – Stephen DiRado, Better Together: Forty Years of Photography presents work from the artist’s large format black and white projects including his Dinner Series, Bell Pond, Jump and portraits from Martha’s Vineyard. This retrospective also features a projection of the entire Across the Table project which boasts just over a thousand images, as well as films that examine his process of making art from everyday encounters with family, friends and surroundings. On view through June 1st, 2025.
“Ascendo” by Tara Sellios from the series Ask Now the Beasts, courtesy of the artist and the Fitchburg Art Museum, Fitchburg, MA.
Also on view at Fitchburg Art Museum, Fitchburg – Tara Sellios: Ask Now the Beasts revels in the dance between mortality and immortality through still-life images of organic material such as dried flowers, desiccated insects and animal skeletons. Sellios creates these divine and physical tableaux based on expressive and detailed sketches, then renders them in lush color on 8″ by 10″ film and large format prints. On view through December 2025.
NOTE!: March 6th is Free First Thursday.
For more information about all exhibits and to register for events, go to: https://fitchburgartmuseum.org
From the series Ways of my Ancestors – We are Still Here by Scott Strong Hawk Foster, courtesy of the artist and the Worcester Art Museum.
Worcester Art Museum, Worcester – Scott Strong Hawk Foster is a Native American photographer whose Hassanamisco Nipmuc, Mohegan, and Cherokee heritage inspire the exhibition Ways of My Ancestors – We are Still Here. Installed as part of the Central Massachusetts Artist Initiative, the show features seven portraits of prominent Nipmuc people who are indigenous to Central Massachusetts and northern Rhode Island. On view through May 11th, 2025.
For more information: https://www.worcesterart.org/exhibitions/cmai/scott-strong-hawk-foster/
From the series The Village by Yoav Horesh, courtesy of the artist and the Shiltkamp Gallery, Clark University.
Schiltkamp Gallery, Clark University, Worcester – If you missed this show when it was installed in Maine, here’s a chance to catch it again. The Village by Yoav Horesh features thirty gelatin silver black and white prints made during daily walks with his daughter in the small town of Kittery, Maine. These affecting images are filled with a kind of wonder at both his daughter and this unassuming and humble neighborhood. On view through March 16th, 2025.
For more information: https://www.clarku.edu/departments/visual-and-performing-arts/facilities/schiltkamp-gallery/
ROAD TRIPS!
Rhode Island
“Mayor White’s Seniors Prom, Boston, 1972” by Roz Gerstein, courtesy of the artist.
Dodge House Gallery at Providence Art Club – Roz Gerstein’s solo retrospective, That’s What Life Felt Like, includes several of her documentary series created across five decades, with a focus on feminist themes during times of dramatic social change. These are accompanied by the display of four large lay-flat books, each telling the story of one woman’s relationships in images and quotes, along with eleven figurative oil paintings. HURRY! Closes tomorrow March 6th, 2025,
For more information, go to: https://providenceartclub.org/galleries/
Rhode Island Center for Photographic Arts (RICPA), Providence – RICPA’s annual exhibit, Behind the Lens: Women in Photography, curated by by Grace Marie DeWitt in 2020, was only viewable online due to the COVID shutdown. Five years later, the same artists have been invited back into the gallery to show their newest work: Deb Ehrens, Grace Marie DeWitt, Molly Lamb and Jess Voas. On view through March 14th, 2025.
For more information about this exhibit, as well as the off-site exhibit “Re/vision Re/visited” on view through March 15th nearby in The Atrium at the First Unitarian Church, go to: https://www.riphotocenter.org/category/exhibits/
Connecticut
Folded Cyantoype by Fritz Horstman, courtesy of the artist and the New Britain Museum of American Art.
New Britain Museum of American Art, New Britain – In his solo show Valleys & Blue Light, Fritz Horstman experiments with cyanotype and folded paper to create sculptures inspired by the glaciers of Svalbard, ranging in size from a few inches to six feet. On view through March 30th, 2025.
For more information about both exhibits: https://nbmaa.org
New Hampshire
“Ha’ina ‘ia mai” by Cara Romero, 2024, archival pigment print. Collection of the artist. © Cara Romero, courtesy of the Hood Museum, Hanover, NH.
Hood Museum, Hanover, NH – In her first major solo exhibition, artist Cara Romero explores themes of indigenous culture. Titled Cara Romero: Panûpünüwügai (Living Light) the show includes over sixty large-scale photographs and site specific installations curated by Dr. Jami Powell, Associate Director of Curatorial Affairs and Curator of Indigenous Art. On view through August 10th 2025.
For more information: https://hoodmuseum.dartmouth.edu/news/2023/11/hood-museum-present-cara-romeros-first-solo-museum-exhibition-2025
“Celebrations after the last prayers of Ramadan” by Gerald Annan Forson, 1980, Accra Ghana, courtesy of the artist and the Hood Museum.
Ongoing at Hood Museum, Hanover – Off Beat: Portraiture and Politics in the Photography of Gerald Annan Forson brings the tumultuous events of late 20th-century Ghana into focus. Annan Forson’s interest in both grand spectacle and quiet, intimate moments brings his work into dialog with important forebears such as Felicia Abbas and Malick Sidibé. On view through winter of 2025.
For more information: https://hoodmuseum.dartmouth.edu/explore/exhibitions/beat
Vermont
(Feature Image) “Sasha at Land’s End, San Francisco ” by Nelson Chan, 2021, courtesy of the artist and the Vermont Center for Photography, Brattleboro, VT.
Vermont Center for Photography, Brattleboro – Of Land and Place: A Juried Exhibition features forty-one photographers (including our very own Suzanne Révy) from across the U.S.A and Canada, juried by Karen Haas, Lane Curator of Photographs at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and interdisciplinary artist Sharon Harper. The call sought to find photographers looking at our environment in engaging and thoughtful ways. Opens with a reception from 5 to 8pm on March 7th and on view through April 27th, 2025.
For more information: https://vcphoto.org/of-land-and-place-a-juried-exhibition/
Maine
“Serpent #1” by Jo Sandman, 1998, platinum/palladium print, courtesy of the artist and the Portland Museum of Art.
Portland Museum of Art, Portland – Celebrating the acquisition of twelve unique photograms of snakeskins arranged as hieroglyphs with Jo Sandman: Skin Deep on view through August 17th, 2025.
For more information: https://www.portlandmuseum.org/jo-sandman-skin-deep
Maine Jewish Museum, Portland – In his solo exhibition, Lorica: Masks of Eternity, Craig Becker extends his passion for masks to express “our current state of vulnerability, the subconscious, and the corners of ourselves, individually and collectively, that exist in darkness.” On view through May 2nd, 2025.
For more information, go to: https://mainejewishmuseum.org/exhibits/
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