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