Dynamic Duos

What Makes It Great? / Featured / April 16, 2025

By Elin Spring

Ah, the mysteries and intrigues of relationships! How can we begin to fathom them? Turns out, photographs provide a cunning window. By freezing personal interactions, an image confines our perceptions while suggesting a host of others. Visual hints and innuendoes further intensify our fascination. In a witty exhibit drawn from the rich photographic archives of the Addison Gallery of American Art in Andover, MA, museum Director Allison Kemmerer has assembled “Dynamic Duos,” a selection of images charged with the undercurrents of two bodies sharing a frame. Also on view, “On and Off Stage: Performance and Persona” features a number of photographs examining the duality of the self through the art of performance. Tantalizing and delectable, both exhibits are on view through July 31st, 2025.

Diane Arbus “Identical twins, Cathleen (l.) and Colleen, members of a twin club in New Jersey” 1966, printed 1970, Gelatin silver print, Gift of the Stephen C. Sherrill Collection of American Art Foundation, 2024.122.2.1

In an attestation to the Addison’s remarkable holdings, all images on view are either famous and/or created by famous photographers. It is a feast for the eyes. Photographs by artists such as Walker Evans, Diane Arbus, Elliott Erwitt and Helen Levitt, or more recently, Dawoud Bey, Sage Sohier, Alec Soth (feature image), and Tina Barney, intrigue and mesmerize. By providing ambiguous narratives that shape-shift and evolve even as we view them, these images raise more questions than answers. We naturally respond by probing for deeper understanding and contextualization, whether pondering images that are poignant, humorous or raging with conflict.

Elliott Erwitt “Scratchers, Kyoto, Japan” 1977, Gelatin silver print, Gift of Edward B. Perlberg, 1987.501.7

Dawoud Bey “The Birmingham Project: Taylor Falls and Deborah Hackworth, 2012,” Archival pigment prints mounted to dibond, Collection of Andrew Z. Scharf (PA 2002), 3.2021.1.1a,b

Neil Leifer “Ali-Liston, First Round Knockout, Lewiston, Maine, May 1965,” Chromogenic print, Gift of the Stephen C. Sherrill Collection of American Art Foundation, 2024.122.43

There is yet another duality at play in these photographs, invisible but no less important. As Ansel Adams famously intoned, “To the complaint, ‘there are no people in these photographs,’ I respond, There are always two people: the photographer and the viewer.” Our impression and interpretation of each image on view (in both Addison shows described here) hinges on the photographer’s intention and our own perception. While the photographer’s angle is fixed on the page, the viewer’s receptivity and attitude are moving targets. This creates an opportunity for us to bring something new to an image over time, just one of the things that makes photography so magical. Although many of the photographs here are quite famous, I enjoy seeing them with fresh eyes when offered in this new curatorial context.

Wayne F. Miller “Father and son at Lake Michigan, May 23, 1947,” Gelatin silver print, Gift of the Wayne F. Miller Family, 2023.33

John Goodman “Tremont St. #4 / Combat Zone, 1978, printed 2017,” Gelatin silver print, Gift of the artist, 2022.67

Also at the Addison, “On and Off Stage: Performance and Persona” includes two galleries of photographs that examine the dualities of self that inhabit a person while role-playing. In these images, the relationship between photographer and viewer becomes even more entangled and complex.

Hunter Reynolds “Shhh… , 1990/2012,” Digital chromogenic print mounted on sintra, Purchased as the gift of Louis Wiley, Jr. (PA 1963) in memory of Paul Monette (PA 1963) and his partner Roger Horwitz, 2012.83

Cindy Sherman “the dashing leading man, 1976-2000,” Gelatin silver print, Purchased as the gift of Katherine D. and Stephen C. Sherrill (PA 1971, and P 2005, 2007, 2010), Sidney Knafel (PA 1948), Scott Mead (PA 1973), Michael Schmertzler (PA 1970), Drew Chin (PA 2000) and Emily D. Griset (PA 2000),
and Amy Falls (PA 1982), and museum purchase, 2013.58.5

Sally Mann “New Mothers, 1989,” Gelatin silver print, Museum purchase, 1990.58

In examining our relationships with one another in “Dynamic Duos” and the dualities of our public and private selves in “On and Off Stage:Performance and Persona,” the photographs on display from the Addison Gallery’s collections are like a layered cake with icing, delicious all the way through.

For more information, go to: https://addison.andover.edu/exhibition-pages/on-view-now/