Homai Vyarawalla (Indian, 1913–2012) The Victoria Terminus, Bombay  early 1940s Inkjet print, printed later 11 9/16 × 11 13/16 in. (29.3 × 30 cm) Alkazi Foundation for the Arts, New Delhi. Courtesy HV Archive / The Alkazi Collection of Photography — Homai Vyarawalla (Indian, 1913–2012) *The Victoria Terminus, Bombay* early 1940s
Inkjet print, printed later 11 9/16 × 11 13/16 in. (29.3 × 30 cm)
Alkazi Foundation for the Arts, New Delhi. Courtesy HV Archive / The Alkazi Collection of Photography

The New Woman Behind the Camera

The Met: July 2–October 3, 2021

The New Woman of the 1920s was a powerful expression of modernity, a global phenomenon that embodied an ideal of female empowerment based on real women making revolutionary changes in life and art. Opening July 2, 2021 at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The New Woman Behind the Camera will feature 185 photographs, photo books, and illustrated magazines by 120 photographers from over 20 countries. This groundbreaking exhibition will highlight the work of the diverse “new” women who made significant advances in modern photography from the 1920s to the 1950s. During this tumultuous period shaped by two world wars, women stood at the forefront of experimentation with the camera and produced invaluable visual testimony that reflects both their personal experiences and the extraordinary social and political transformations of the era.

The exhibition is made possible in part by the Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation, The Daniel and Estrellita Brodsky Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts. It is organized by the National Gallery of Art, Washington, in association with The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

The first exhibition to take an international approach to the subject, The New Woman Behind the Camera will examine women’s pioneering work in a number of genres, from avant-garde experimentation and commercial studio practice to social documentary, photojournalism, ethnography, and sports, dance, and fashion photography. It will highlight the work of photographers such as Ilse Bing, Lola Álvarez Bravo, Claude Cahun, Florestine Perrault Collins, Elizaveta Ignatovich, Dorothea Lange, Lee Miller, Niu Weiyu, Tsuneko Sasamoto, Gerda Taro, and Homai Vyarawalla, among many others.

Roe Ethridge, Beach Umbrella

Gogosian: July 1–August 27, 2021

When I arrived at the beach, it was littered with broken umbrellas and various other “day at the beach” sundries. It had that semi-apocalyptic vibe that permeates everything nowadays but was also joyful in anarchaeological way, like discovering the remains of a party or ritual celebration.—Roe Ethridge

Gagosian is pleased to present Beach Umbrella, an exhibition of new photographs by Roe Ethridge.

Moving fluidly between the realms of fine art, fashion photography, stock imagery, and socialmedia, Ethridge juxtaposes carefully staged scenes with vignettes from everyday life, pursuing avisual language that is, in his own words, “‘right’ in its wrongness.” Investigating the constant tension between chance occurrence and the photographer’s editorial eye, he produces surreal and theatrical images that reflect the textures of modern society. On four Mondays in July and August last summer, Ethridge photographed an assortment ofdiscarded umbrellas at Rockaway Beach, New York. Positioned against the sun, shot from beneath,and cropped to the point of near abstraction, the umbrellas fill each image from edge to edge withvibrant color, their wedges of luminous fabric stretched against graphic metal frames. In one picture,a broad, rainbow-hued umbrella arches over a volleyball and an open pack of cigarettes, casting theobjects in a stark and foreign light. The resulting still life seems highly contrived, blurring the linebetween realism and artifice.

Ethridge also explores additional unorthodox visual techniques throughout the series. In BeachUmbrella with Cup and Flip Flops (2020), he digitally montages multiple images atop each other: apalm tree–patterned umbrella intervenes with a pair of blue flip-flops, a discarded blue plastic cup,and a fallen red warning flag. With its strange geometries and crimson hue, the final compositionevokes the multiplied warm-toned photographs printed on brass featured in Ethridge’s 2017exhibition Innocence II. Other seemingly more straightforward images depict an untended and bent-over sunflower and the model Maryel Sousa in a swimsuit and faux fur coat with pink zinc on hernose, a beach umbrella slung over her shoulder. Haunting in their mundanity and utter solitude,these works exemplify Ethridge’s ability to evince uncanny and stylized forms through preciseexplorations of color, kitsch, and cultural symbolism.

Fire masks, Downshire Hill, London, England 1941 by Lee Miller © Lee Miller Archives England 2020. All Rights Reserved. www.leemiller.co.uk

The Woman Who Broke Boundaries: Photographer Lee Miller

Dalí Museum: July 3, 2021 – January 2, 2022

Sweeping in scope and intimate in focus, The Woman Who Broke Boundaries: Photographer Lee Miller surveys the work of photographer Lee Miller (1907-1977), who is known for her fascinating personal life and remarkably incisive portraiture and photojournalism. Organized by The Dalí Museum and on view exclusively in St. Petersburg, the exhibition features more than 130 images by the groundbreaking female photographer, an eyewitness to some of the most extraordinary moments of the 20th century, and confidante of many influential artists.

The exhibition concentrates on Miller’s portraits of important writers and artists, the majority associated with the Surrealist movement in Paris, and with whom she had sustained personal relationships. Also featured is a small selection of striking self-portraits, images captured during the liberation of Paris and Germany at the end of the Second World War, and photos representative of technical advancements in the medium she chose to express herself and capture the times. The Woman Who Broke Boundaries: Photographer Lee Miller is curated by William Jeffett, chief curator of exhibitions at The Dalí Museum.

Events:

But Still, It Turns Conversations—Curran Hatleberg and Kristine Potter (VIRTUAL)

ICP: July 7, 2021 (6PM – 7PM EST )

Photographers Curran Hatleberg and Kristine Potter discuss myth-making in photography and the draw of the open road to investigate the American landscape in relation to their work on view at ICP in But Still, It Turns: Recent Photography from the World. The artists will be led in conversation by writer, curator, and contributor to the But Still, It Turns catalog, Rebecca Bengel, as they discuss their projects and the exhibition on view at ICP through August 29, 2021.

About the exhibition: Guest curated by photographer Paul Graham, But Still, It Turns features nine contemporary photographers that present images made in the 21st -century United States, working directly from life and reflecting a movement towards a lyrical documentary practice. Extending the tradition of Robert Frank, Walker Evans, Gordon Parks, and Diane Arbus, this work fits a notion of “photography from the world”—photography that resists both narrative arcs and the drama of photojournalism or staged photography, grappling instead with the world as it is, in all its tangle and wonder. The exhibition features work by Vanessa Winship, Curran Hatleberg, Richard Choi, Gregory Halpern, Piergiorgio Casotti and Amanuele Brutti, Kristine Potter, and Stanley Wolukau-Wanambwa. Reserve your timed ticket to see the exhibition in person at icp.org/tickets.

Learn more and register here.

Narrative Materiality: Dawoud Bey and Torkwase Dyson in conversation (VIRTUAL)

Whitney Museum of American Art: Thursday, July 8, 2021 @ 6 pm EST

On the occasion of Dawoud Bey: An American Project, photographer Dawoud Bey speaks in dialogue with interdisciplinary artist Torkwase Dyson about the intersections of their artistic practices. In her essay for the exhibition catalogue, Two American Projects, Dyson asks of their shared concerns, “How do we invent new aesthetic forms that are imbued with radical ancestorship and that address our insistence on liberated spatial practice?” Dyson and Bey will speak to these ideas and their ongoing dialogue about materiality and narrative.

The conversation is moderated by Elisabeth Sherman, assistant curator and co-curator of Dawoud Bey: An American Project.

This event is free but registration is required. Register and learn more here.

FOTOCAL — PHOTOGRAPHY AWARDS, GRANTS AND OPEN CALLS CLOSING IN JULY 2021

To see the list of awards, grants, and open calls click HERE.