David Graham – Where We Live: Photographs of the American Home has just opened at the Laurence Miller Gallery where it will run until the end of June.
It is time to take greater note of David Graham’s 30 year career as a photographer with his well considered, often wry reports from “on the road” in the U.S. and his classic books: “American Beauty”, “Only in America: Some Unexpected Scenery”, ”Land of the Free: What Makes Americans Different”, “Taking Liberties” and “Declaring Independence”. This exhibition prominently features almost a dozen images from “Alone Together: Life on an Island in Maine”, his very moving, Chekovian portrait of an aging couple, the Kellams, told only with their surroundings: their cottage, the woods, their hand written notes to each other.
Graham’s amazing ability to put his subjects at ease is well demonstrated here. His portrait of “Mrs. Jackson & Friends, Philadelphia, PA, 1989” is given center stage, rightly so, because of the grace Graham finds with these three ladies regarding him comfortably in their garden. His familiar comic “REALLY REALLY GOOD”, “BUY NOW PAY LATER and”GOOD LUCK” roads signs are here, but this exhibition shrewdly makes the case for Graham as a classic artist, a seasoned and sensitive observer of this American life. There are many portraits, two of which include the artist’s beautiful and recently deceased wife, Jeannine, as well as an Elvis, a Bette Davis and a Revolutionary War impersonator, all rendered sweetly, in their homes, without any sense of urgency, just heart and soul, presence and intelligence. The home where we live is a state of mind. Welcome.
EXHIBITION
Where We Live, Photographs of the American Home
by David Graham
May 2 – June 26, 2015
May 2 – June 26, 2015
Laurence Miller Gallery
20 W 57th St
3rd Floor,
New York, NY 10019
États-Unis
