Austen, Brenner, Gelles, GisMo, Gotfryd, Kriegsmann, Schulman, Slavin, Smith,Squillante,Stern,Tucker: Taking a Broad View: Portrait Photography from the Collection

This exhibition features more than two dozen images by thirteen photographers working in the United States from the late nineteenth through the early twenty-first centuries. Their photography ranges across genres including environmental, group, and family portraits. At the same time, most of the photographers are keenly aware of the medium’s power to shape individual and group identities—to resist or reinforce stereotypes.

 Subjects represent a diverse cross-section of identities—from women rabbis, cantors, faculty, and students at the Jewish Theological Seminary in Manhattan by Frédéric Brenner (b. Paris, France, 1959) to a girl with her mother and younger sister preparing for first communion in the Bronx by Larry Fink (b. Brooklyn, New York, 1941–d. Martins Creek, Pennsylvania, 2023); from Cuban American princesses in a staged self-portrait tableau by GisMo (Jessica Gispert, b. Miami, Florida, 1984, and Crystal Pearl Molinary, b. Hialeah, Florida, 1983) in Miami to the potters of a Pueblo community in the Southwest by Toba Tucker (b. Bronx, New York, 1935). The exhibition also includes portraits of such iconic cultural and historical figures as Ray Charles, James Dean, Betty Friedan, Lee Krasner, Pete Seeger, and Frank Sinatra. 

 Marking the 250th anniversary of the United States, this exhibition highlights how photography constructs and critiques American social identities through both insider and outsider perspectives while showing how photographers can build and extend empathy across communities.

 Additional photographers in the exhibition include Alice Austen (b. New York, New York, 1866–d. New York, New York, 1952); Judy Gelles (b. Somersworth, New Hampshire, 1944–d. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 2020); Bernard Gotfryd (b. Radom, Poland, 1924–d. New York City, 2016); James J. Kriegsmann (b. Vienna, Austria, 1909–d. Queens, New York, 1994); Richard Schulman (b. Los Angeles, 1954); Neal Slavin (b. Brooklyn, New York, 1941); Cedric Smith (b. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1970); Joseph Squillante (b. Bronx, New York, 1949); and Phil Stern (b. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1919–d. Los Angeles, California, 2015).

Image: Larry Fink (b. Brooklyn, New York, 1941–d. Martins Creek, Pennsylvania, 2023), First Communion, Bronx, N.Y., 1961, from Making Out 1957–1980, 1980. Gelatin silver print, 15 1/8 x 19 1/4 in. (image); 16 x 20 in. (sheet). Gift of Karen Estrin, HHAR 5464. © 2026 Larry Fink.