Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMA)

Exhibitions

In the Right Place

This exhibition brings together three photographic series made in the 1970s: Barbara Crane’s People of the North Portal (1970-1), Melissa Shook’s Daily Self Portraits (1972-3), and Carol Taback’s photo booth pictures (1978-1980). While each photographer focused on different constituencies--with Crane capturing strangers on the street in Chicago, Taback memorializing friends in her Philadelphia studio, and Shook becoming the subject of her own pictures—they nevertheless operated under similar self-imposed constraints. They created strict guidelines that delimited where they would photograph, confining their working environments to a single doorway, a cramped photo booth, or a small New York apartment. Despite, or perhaps because of, these rigid parameters, each photographer was able to forge an innovative and highly original approach to portrait-making, producing pictures that deftly call attention to the complexity of lived experience.

Photographs by Barbara Crane, Melissa Shook, and Carol TabackThis exhibition brings together three photographic series made in the 1970s: Barbara Crane’s People of the North Portal (1970-1), Melissa Shook’s Daily Self Portraits (1972-3), and Carol Taback’s photo booth pictures (1978-1980). While each photographer focused on different constituencies--with Crane capturing strangers on the street in Chicago, Taback memorializing friends in her Philadelphia studio, and Shook becoming the subject of her own pictures—they nevertheless operated under similar self-imposed constraints. They created strict guidelines that delimited where they would photograph, confining their working environments to a single doorway, a cramped photo booth, or a small New York apartment. Despite, or perhaps because of, these rigid parameters, each photographer was able to forge an innovative and highly original approach to portrait-making, producing pictures that deftly call attention to the complexity of lived experience.

Seeing with Empathy: The Female Gaze in American Modernism

This exhibition considers a variety of perspectives employed by eight American women artists.

Diana Scultori, Renaissance Engraver

Cassatt at Work

Dates

Photographs by Barbara Crane, Melissa Shook, and Carol Taback, Opening January 2024

Seeing with Empathy: The Female Gaze in American Modernism, through Spring 2024

Diana Scultori, Renaissance Engraver, Winter/Spring 2024

Cassatt at Work, May 18 - September 8, 2024

Locations

In the Right Place, Honickman Gallery 156, Main Building

Seeing with Empathy, Gallery 208, Main Building

Diana Scultori, Renaissance Engraver,

Cassatt at Work

2600 Benjamin Franklin Pkwy, Philadelphia, PA 19130

Contact

Maggie Fairs, Communications Director

  • maggie.fairs@philamuseum.org

Jessica Smith, Curator of Special Initiatives and The Susan Gray Detweiler Curator of American Art

  • jessica.Smith@philamuseum.org