From her first encounter with photography to the opening of her gallery…
Bess grew up influenced by her family’s musical and athletic passions; however, she always loved photography, having taken darkroom classes in high school and college. Her athletic pursuits were her priority most of her life, even playing professional basketball in Europe for five years–touring different countries of the world with her team. Her love of photography was only heightened through travel.
While living in Denmark, she reached out to different influential Danish photographers- Morten Bo, Jacob Fuglsang Mikkelsen, Jacob Holdt, Henrik Saxgren, and Joachim Ladefoged — all pointing her to the photography programs at the International Center of Photography in New York City. Granted a Jack Kent Cooke Scholarship, she left Europe and basketball for her waiting passion, in order to complete a combined study in documentary and fine art photography over three years.
After her masters, and interning at The New York Times, ICP teacher/ photographer Josh Lutz introduced her to the developer of a retail space on Central Park West that had sat empty for more than two years. She says that when she saw the space, many things came together in her head. She had the intuition that she wanted to invent a more approachable gallery and cultural space that would celebrate art as well as the community around it–where the environment and surrounding individuals would facilitate a progressive conversation on socially relevant issues through diverse mediums of art. Most importantly, she wanted to create a space that was dynamic and diverse—one that would inspire people to relax, participate and engage. From the start, her vision was strong , and with the support of a multitude of photographers and friends, she opened 25CPW Gallery in 2009.
A photograph that has a special importance in her life…
My secret Garden, from the Hide and Seek series, 2012, by Ayumi Tanaka
“I love the creation of this intimate and layered world. It retains raw texture as an object, yet is a portal to a beautiful, quiet and dark land.” BG
A fond memory…
A bad memory…
A little before Editta Sherman’s 100th birthday, her son Lloyd had come to see Bess to ask her if they could organize a show and projection around his mother’s birthday. Bess put up a great show with many of the famous photographer’s portraits, her old large format camera and a movie screening of the Lost Bohemia documentary by Josef birdman Astor (about the last artists living in Carnegie Hall).
Bess remembers how Editta and her Daughter Melisande sat in the gallery all-day and everyday of the show. And how the summer went by with conversation, amazing beauty and great success. And then she also remembers that moment when Melisande stepped in the gallery one day with the terrible news that her brother Lloyd had just been killed in a car accident. The show was supposed to come down a few days after, but Bess decided to keep the show , as a respect to the family, and as a memorial to Lloyd. Editta and Melisande continued to come every single day and greet visitors.
“A show that began as a celebration of a long life, ended up being a memorial of one that ended too soon. However, it was the most inspired show that I have had in the gallery. Life and loss go hand in hand, and it was extremely powerful and meaningful to have experienced the peaks and valleys of life with an amazing artist, individual, and her surrounding family. The gallery is much more than just images on a wall.” BG
On her bedroom wall…
One of the first pictures she took when her brother was a musician travelling cross-country in a 1960 GM bus with his band. The image is of an arm holding a cigarette dangling outside the old bus window
A photo taken by a photographer friend of her brother of a Christmas morning in India.
A photo of a tree by Martine Frank
A photo taken by her father’s cousin and given to her a few years ago. The image depicts a leg coming out from the bottom of a wooden boat and an arm emerging from behind the same piece of wood at an unexpected angle—an image that has a particular resonance for Bess: “I feel like I could have taken that photo, “ she added.
Stéphanie de Rougé
