“Respecting My Elders: Age and the Creative Spirit”, portraits by Ellen Wallenstein is the opening show of the autumn gallery season at New York City’s 92nd Street Y (www.92y.org), a multifaceted cultural institution and community center located on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. The photographs are exhibited at the Milton J. Weill Art Gallery through December 7, 2015.
The exhibit features artists and intellectuals born at the beginning of the last century, photographed in natural light at their homes and studios. Everyone is at least eighty years old. “Known as the ‘Greatest Generation’ and coming of age between the two World Wars, the effect of this group’s contribution is evident in their creative work, which includes books, poems, paintings, photographs, plays and performances,” notes Wallenstein. “My photographs are meant to celebrate these individuals and to inspire admiration of future generations”.
The 29 portraits in the exhibition include such notables as the playwright Edward Albee; the painters Lois Dodd and Wolf Kahn; the writers Francine du Plessix Gray and Richard Howard; the photographers Editta Sherman, Rosalind Fox Solomon and David Vestal; and the composers Ned Rorem and Dr. Billy Taylor.
“Each person I met was still actively engaged with his or her craft. As an artist I am curious about how to sustain one’s interest, talent and practice over a lifetime, especially a long one. It takes stamina, drive and a deep belief in one’s creative self. I am awed by the genius of these people.””
About the photographer:
Ellen Wallenstein is a photographer, writer and professor based in New York City. She earned a BA in Art History from Stony Brook University and a MFA in Photography from Pratt Institute, where she is currently an Adjunct Full Professor. She also teaches in the BFA and MPS Photography programs at the School of Visual Arts in New York City.
Wallenstein’s work has been nominated for the Alfred Eisenstaedt Award for Magazine Photography and the Santa Fe Prize. She is a NYFA (New York Foundation for the Arts) Photography Fellow.
A book of these photographs is available at http://www.magcloud.com.
Other portfolios can be seen on her website and her blog.
