Photo Gallery Show Reviews

Documentary photographer Walker Evans (1903-1975) was not only one of America’s most influential artists of the 20th century; he was a superb visual storyteller. His approach to photography was simple: “Stare. It is a way to educate your eye, and more. Stare, pry, listen, eavesdrop. Die knowing something. You are not here long.”

Herb Ritts (1952-2002) began his career in the late 1970s, when photographers helped ignite the modern celebrity cult. The stars shone so brightly, the media coverage was widespread, and the public’s appetite was so great that the photographers were themselves illuminated by the glow from their subjects.

My dog-eared copy of Josef Koudelka’s Gypsies sits in the bookcase next to Cartier-Bresson’s Decisive Moments and Robert Frank’s The Americans. Like those books, it was fundamental to my development as a photographer. From the moment I saw it I was mesmerized by its stunning black-and-white images. Published by Aperture Books in 1975, it contained page after page of Koudelka’s dark and brooding photographs of European gypsies; the Romani or Roma people.

Carleton Watkins was perhaps America’s greatest 19^th century landscape photographer yet today he’s largely unknown. His breathtaking landscapes of the Yosemite Valley were instrumental in preserving the valley for future generations and paving the way for both the National Parks system and the environmental movement.

By any definition, Sebastião Salgado is one the most important photographers working today. Currently he has a large exhibition of his work on display at the International Center for Photography (ICP) in New York City through the very beginning of January 2015. It is will be the last photo show at this location, before ICP’s move next year to a new exhibition space in New York’s Bowery neighborhood.

Storyteller: The Photographs of Duane Michals is a retrospective opening on November 1, 2014 at the Carnegie Museum of Art (CMOA). The show will be the largest presentation of this pioneering photographer’s work, and is organized by Linda Benedict-Jones, curator of photography at CMOA.

The George Eastman House is currently hosting the Innovation in the Imaging Capital exhibit from September 20, 2014 to January 4, 2015. The main focus of the show is the major contributions to the development of imaging technology made possible by the various inventions that were created—or developed—in the town of Rochester, New York. Since 1888 Rochester has been widely known as America's center for imaging innovation.