By Elin Spring and Suzanne Révy
Dive in! September is kicking off with a full slate of exciting photography exhibits and events around Boston and beyond. As always, we have arranged our recommendations geographically for your planning convenience and invite you to check back throughout the month for new exhibit openings and associated programming.
SOWA – Boston’s South End Arts District

“Tilt (Right)” 2019, by Fern Nesson, courtesy of the artist and Beacon Gallery, Boston.
Beacon Gallery – In her solo show TILT!, Fern Nesson’s abstract B&W photographs offer unique angles on natural and built geometries, inviting viewers to shift their own viewpoints and discover novel perspectives – an inspired and delightful analogy for looking at life. On view through October 29th, 2023, there will be an online talk with Crista Dix, Griffin Museum of Photography Executive Director, on Tuesday, September 12th at 7:00pm.
For more information about the exhibit, gallery hours and associated programming, go to: https://beacongallery.com/event-works.php?eventId=19045&event=Fern+L.+Nesson%3A+TILT%21

“Time Frame” from the series Bodies of Water by Camilla Jerome, courtesy of the artist and Gallery Kayafas, Boston.
Gallery Kayafas – Camilla Jerome’s solo exhibit Bodies of Water is a visualization and meditation on disability as a fluid state. Collecting samples of water from ocean and bath, Jerome makes cyanotypes with salt, sand, soap, and seaweed in a variety of tones and textures that emulate water and its ability to disrupt expectations. NOTE: There will be an Artist Talk with Camilla Jerome on Saturday, September 30th from 7:00 – 8:00 pm.
Also on exhibit, Collection Selections IV features over 20 photographs from the gallery’s private collection including work by Sally Mann (photo below), Duane Michals, Andrea Raynor, and Martin Parr.
On view from September 8th – October 14th, 2023, there will be an Opening Reception on Friday, September 8th from 5:30 – 8:00pm.
For more information, go to: https://www.gallerykayafas.com/

From the series and book Immediate Family (Aperture, 1992) by Sally Mann, courtesy of Gallery Kayafas, Boston.

“For KW, Playground” 2023 from the series and book Pictures from the Outside (Eighteen Publications, 2023) by Chantal Zakari, courtesy of the artist and Kingston Gallery, Boston.
Kingston Gallery – Chantal Zakari’s Pictures from the Outside is a combined solo show and book launch chronicling her unusual collaboration with thirteen incarcerated men enrolled in a bookmaking class. Following her offer to make a photograph of a meaningful outdoor location for each of them, the men drew diagrams and detailed descriptions of how she should make the pictures. Later, she paired her images with corresponding written responses from the prisoners. While their essays range widely from memories to fantasies, each imbues Zakari’s images with unnerving poignancy. On view through October 1st, 2023, there will be an Opening Reception with the artist on Friday, September 8th from 5:00 – 8:00pm.
For more information, go to: https://www.kingstongallery.com/center-zakari-2023

“Watching TV” from the series and book Making Good Time, 1989, by Mike Mandel, courtesy of the artist and Abakus Projects, Boston.
Abakus Projects – Inspired by his discovery of the early 1900’s photographs of Frank & Lillian Gilbreth, whose purpose was to improve factory worker efficiency, photographer Mike Mandel undertook his own time/motion studies of everyday activities, resulting in his book Making Good Time (1989). Vintage Cibachrome prints from this project, some of which have never been exhibited, will be on view through October 1st, 2023. There will be an Opening Reception and book signing on Friday, September 8th from 5:00 – 8:00pm.
For more information, go to: https://www.abakusprojects.com/
BOSTON PROPER
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/

Unidentified artist, African American Woman, American, 1860–79. Photograph, tintype. Charles H. Bayley Picture and Painting Fund.
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA) – Painted Tintypes: Photography for the People gathers a captivating and diverse selection of this personalized, inexpensive and decoratively framed form 19th century American portraiture, drawn from both private and MFA collections, on view through October 15th, 2023.
For our review of Painted Tintypes, go to: https://www.whatwillyouremember.com/revisiting-the-ruins-the-great-boston-fire-of-1872-at-boston-athenaeum-and-painted-tintypes-photography-for-the-people-at-museum-of-fine-arts-boston/
For more information on Painted Tintypes, go to: https://www.mfa.org/exhibition/painted-tintypes-photography-for-the-people

“Bears Ears National Monument, 2022” from the series Day To Night by Stephen Wilkes, courtesy of Robert Klein Gallery, Boston.
Robert Klein Gallery – Gathering Time is a solo exhibition featuring a selection of Stephen Wilkes’ new and well-known sweeping, immersive landscapes from locations across the globe, part of his series Day To Night. On view from September 23rd – November 4th, 2023. there will be an Opening Reception on Saturday, September 23rd from 2:00 – 5:00pm with a conversation between Stephen Wilkes and Robert Klein from 3:00 – 4:00pm. Registration is suggested.
For more information, go to: https://www.robertkleingallery.com/exhibitions/76-stephen-wilkes-gathering-time-solo-exhibition/works/

“Gymnasium Chases” by Christian Boltanski, 1989-1991, installation photograph courtesy of the Krakow Witkin Gallery, Boston.
Krakow Witkin Gallery – Whom is a group exhibition of portraiture that mines issues around identity, memory and perception featuring historic and contemporary works from luminaries Christian Boltanski, Robert Fillou, Lyle Ashton Harris, Cary Leibowitz, Sherrie Levine, Liliana Porter, David Robbins, Thomas Ruff, August Sander, Cindy Sherman, Laurie Simmons, Lorna Simpson, James Van Der Zee, and David Wojnarowicz. On view through October 14th, 2023.

From the series Fear and Loving by Brooklynn Kascel, courtesy of Leica Gallery Boston.
Leica Gallery Boston – If This Isn’t Love showcases the imagery of Leica Women Foto Project Mentorship award recipients Brooklynn Kascel (photo), Jackie Malloy and Natalia Neuhaus, whose work explores intimacy in its various forms. On view from September 9th – October 22nd, 2023, there will be Artist Talks from 2:00 – 4:00pm and an Opening Reception from 6:00 – 8:00pm on Saturday, September 9th.
For free registration and more information, go to: https://leicagalleryboston.com/exhibitions/

Photograph of The Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts 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. Those images are on view in All Down the Line: The Rolling Stones in Boston, on view through November 15th, 2023, with an Artist Reception on Thursday, September 21st from 6:00 – 8:00pm.
For more information, go to: https://www.panopticongallery.com/ted-gartland

“Graceful Opuntia” from the series The Embittered Heart by Sandra Klein, courtesy of the artist and Griffin Museum of Photography.
The Griffin Museum at Lafayette City Center Passageway (LCC) – The group show Nine Conversations invites viewers to engage with differing subjects, processes, and points of view along the walls of this long gallery in Downtown Crossing. Imagery by Julia Arstorp, Anne Berry, Cathy Cone, Sandra Klein (photo), Joan Lobis Brown, Marcy Palmer, Sara Silks, Vicky Stromee and Dawn Watson weave stories and provoke questions. On view through September 25, 2023, there will be three online Artist Talks throughout the month.
To register for the online artist talks or for more information about the exhibit, go to: https://griffinmuseum.org/show/nine-conversations/
SOMERVILLE
Somerville Toy Camera Festival (STCF) – This is the photo festival I await each fall with unabashed excitement. Fueling the fire, STCF’s 2023 dynamo curator is none other than Ann Jastrab, Executive Director at the Center for Photographic Art (CPA) in Carmel, California, who writes “I’ve been wanting to jury for years and I wasn’t disappointed. So many photographs, vignetted and sun-flared and just soft enough, to make me remember the dream that life can be.” See? STCF’s 10th Anniversary celebration will run through October 7th, 2023 in the usual three locations and all three are hosting Opening Receptions, listed below. Wild, wild horses couldn’t keep us away and just be warned, if you go, you may never miss another one.
For our review, go to: https://www.whatwillyouremember.com/somerville-toy-camera-festival-10th-anniversary-juried-by-ann-jastrab-in-ma/
Brickbottom Gallery Opening Reception is Saturday, September 9th from 3:00 – 5:00pm: https://brickbottom.org/
Washington Street Gallery Opening Reception is Saturday, September 9th from 6:00 – 8:00pm: https://washingtonstreet.squarespace.com/contact-us
Nave Gallery Opening Reception is Sunday, September 10th from 3:00 – 5:00pm: http://navegallery.org/wp/nave-gallery/
For a complete schedule of STCF exhibits, gallery hours, directions and associated events, go to: http://www.somervilletoycamera.org/festival-events
CAMBRIDGE/ WATERTOWN

“In Flight” 2020, from The Missing Photographs series by Denise Laurinaitis, courtesy of the artist and PRC, Boston.
Photographic Resource Center (PRC), Cambridge – EXPOSURE 2023: The 27th Annual PRC Juried Members Exhibition presents a medley of ten photographic portfolios selected by juror Shana Lopes, Assistant Curator of Photography at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Offering viewers a chance to appreciate greater complexity and deeper meaning than single image exhibits, EXPOSURE 2023 features work by Jimmie Allen, Amy Broderick, Nicholas Gaffney, Lei Han, Denise Laurinaitis (above), Yuang Li, Joetta Maue, Bruce Myren, Anh-Thuy Nguyen, and Kathryn Rodrigues. On view through September 17th, 2023.
To read our review, go to: https://www.whatwillyouremember.com/exposure-2023-exhibition-juried-by-shana-lopes-at-photographic-resource-center-in-cambridge-ma/
For more information, go to: https://www.prcboston.org/exposure-2023-the-27th-annual-prc-juried-members-exhibition/

“Taliq” by Jonathan Mark Jackson, courtesy of the artist and Gallery 263, Cambridge, MA.
Gallery 263, Cambridge – In Once Through a Lens, Jonathan Mark Jackson and Ali Newhard present work that considers the influence of New England’s landscape on each of their identities. Jackson investigates preserved sites of colonial racial slavery within the region through his patrilineal ancestry while Newhard combines still and moving imagery to create narratives through “queering and rupturing” that explore deviations in structure and gender. On view from September 7th – October 7th, 2023, there will be an Opening Reception with the artists on Saturday, September 9th from 6:00 – 8:00pm.
For more information about the exhibit and associated programming, go to: https://gallery263.org/exhibition/once-through-a-lens/

“Drew” by Ali Newhard, courtesy of the artist and Gallery 263, Cambridge, MA.

From the series TIKSI by Evgenia Arbugaeva, courtesy of the artist and Bridge Gallery, Cambridge, MA.
Bridge Gallery, Cambridge – Disappearing Worlds: The photographs of Evgenia Arbugaeva and Natela Grigalashvili pairs the remarkable Siberian photographs of Arbugaeva’s “Tiksi” with Grigalashvili’s “Final Days of Georgian Nomads” for five weeks from September 9th – October 14th, 2023. The exhibit opens on Saturday, September 9th, 2023 at noon (coinciding with Cambridge Open Studios on September 9th & 10th), with an Opening Reception from 5:00 – 9:00pm.
For more information, go to: https://www.bridge.photos/shows

From the series Final Days of Georgian Nomads by Natela Grigalashvili, courtesy of the artist and Bridge Gallery, Cambridge, MA.

“Villagers wearing a lion dance costume for two performers, Huozhuang Village, Henan Province” 2018, from the series Shehuo: Community Fire by Jhang Xiao, courtesy of the artist and Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology at Harvard University.
Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology at Harvard University, Cambridge – 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 New Year. Zhang, the 11th recipient of the Peabody Museum’s Robert Gardner Fellowship in Photography, documents the festivities and its commercialization in 2007, and then a decade later in 2017, 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.
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/

“Beirut Memory Project #56 (Digital Collage, 2018-2021)” by Ara Oshagan features an individual looking out from among the bookshelves of a library that opens entirely onto a war-ravaged boulevard in Beirut (courtesy of the artist and The Armenian Museum of America, Watertown, MA).
Armenian Museum of America, Watertown – Across trans-national geographies and interconnected spaces, Ara Oshagan: Disrupted, Borders combines photography, collage, installation, and film in an exploration of diasporic identity, afterlives of displacement and colonization among disrupted and marginalized communities. Curated by Ryann Casey, the exhibit is on view through October 29th, 2023.
For more information, go to: https://www.armenianmuseum.org/disrupted-borders
THE BURBS

(Feature Image) “Ancient sea’s limestone sinkhole Devil’s Ink Well Chihuahuan Desert New Mexico” By Bremner Benedict, from the series Hidden Waters, courtesy of the artist and the Griffin Museum of Photography.
Griffin Museum of Photography, Winchester, MA — The threat to climate change is explored through the work of six photographers in a show called Ceding Ground featuring Simon Norfolk, Jason Lindsey, Camille Seaman, Bremner Benedict and Amber Crabbe. The museum also hosts Ellen Konar & Steve Goldbland in Ceding Ground: Cut Short, a series of portraits of felled trees. Outside the museum they present Dawn Watson’s Alchemy and a site specific installation by Ville Kansanen. On view from September 8th through October 15th, 2023.
For more information and related programming go to: https://griffinmuseum.org
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. On view through November 1st, 2023, there will be a Reception with the artist on Tuesday, October 17th at 6:30pm.
For more information, go to: https://www.curry.edu/student-life/student-center/hoon-keith-quiet-study-lounge

“Burgess Park” by Liz Johnson Artur, 2010, from As We Rise: Photography from the Black Atlantic (Aperture, 2021). Courtesy Black Balloon Archive, Liz Johnson Artur.
Peabody Essex Museum, Salem – Organized by the Aperture Foundation, As We Rise: Photography from the Black Atlantic is this summer’s don’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 (above), 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.
NOTE: There will be a conversation about portraiture in AS WE RISE featuring Wedge Collection founder Dr. Kenneth Montague, artist Ayana V. Jackson and photographer Teju Cole on SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 23rd from 2:00 – 3:00pm. For free registration, go to: https://my.pem.org/17575/20968?utm_source=wordfly&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=PUBLIC%7CPhotographyVCEvent%7CAsWeRise%7CSept.23&utm_content=version_A&sourceNumber=10042
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

“Bonsai No.1” by Patricia Scialo, courtesy of the artist.
Marblehead Arts Association, Marblehead – In her solo show, The Handmade Photograph, Patricia Scialo creates layered abstractions of her subjects using mixed media, inviting curiosity and contemplation. On view through September 24th, 2023.
For more information, go to: https://marbleheadarts.org/patricia-scialo-the-handmade-photograph/

“Caution” by Judith Montminy from the exhibition Simplicity, courtesy of the artist and the Helen Bumpus Gallery, Duxbury, MA.
Helen Bumpas Gallery, Duxbury – Simplicity features work by the by “Minimalist Focus” group of the Duxbury Camera Club. Graphic and elemental images by Barbara Canney, Judith Laliberte, Judith Montminy, Camille Neville, Randy Otto, Glenn Pollock, Judy Pollock, Rain Rodolph and Myrna Walsh will be on view through October 31st, 2023.
For more information: https://helenbumpusgallery.com/exhibits/current

“Petra with Miss Lebanon 1972, Gemmayze, Beirut, Lebanon” by Rania Matar, with wall art by Brady Black, from the series Where Do I Go? courtesy of the artist, Robert Klein Gallery, Boston and the Fitchburg Art Museum.
Fitchburg Art Museum (FAM), Fitchburg – Rania Matar: Oceans at My Door celebrates the museum’s acquisition of Matar’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/