Opening reception includes his Meet the Author talk on Sunday, September 25, 2016 from 4pm - 6pm.
Active as a photographer for fifty years, Philip Trager is one of the foremost photographers of architecture and dance. His distinctly personal photographs of buildings are regarded as landmarks in architectural photography. His expressionistic photographs of dancers in outdoor settings have expanded the genre of dance photography.
Photographs in this exhibition are from his most recent books Photographing Ina and New York in the 1970s both published by Steidl, which also published Philip Trager, a retrospective book, and Faces. Trager’s other published volumes include Echoes of Silences, Philip Trager: New York, Photographs of Architecture, Wesleyan Photographs, The Villas of Palladio, Changing Paris, Dancers andPersephone.
Twelve monographs of his photographs have been published. These books capture the spirit of their subject matter in luminous and compelling photographs that are simultaneously historical documents and emotional, aesthetic expressions of form.
Trager’s books have received exceptional critical acclaim. Four of his books have been selected for inclusion in the annual Holiday Books issue of The New York Times Book Review. His books have received various awards including Finalist for the Grand Prix Award of Les Recontres Internationales de la Photographie, Book of the Year of the American Institute of Graphic Arts and inclusion in the Best Books selections of Interview, Vanity Fair, The Times (London), New York Magazine, Los Angeles Times Book Review and others.
The Library of Congress is acquiring a complete collection of Trager's published and unpublished photographs as well as his definitive archive as part of its core collections.
Trager's work is included in numerous museum and private collections including the Museum of the City of New York, The Museum of Modern Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Bibliothèque Nationale, The New York Public Library, and the Center for Creative Photography.
Reviews:
" . . . the pictures in this book are stunning . . . ”
- The London Times Literary Supplement
“[T]he personality with which Trager shows each building [in Philip Trager: New York] derives from his own emotional response to it . . . distinctly personal vision.”
- Art in America
Photographing Ina
"Throughout their many years together, Philip Trager photographed his wife Ina during only two distinct periods of time. Photographing Ina presents a selection of photographs from these very different bodies of work: color photographs made between 2006 and 2011, after 50 years together, and black-and-white photographs made after 25 years together. These intimate, openly theatrical images, made in concentrated sessions rather than as an ongoing diary, embody an enduring love and shared passion for art.
In Photographing Ina Trager, renowned for his black-and-white images, embraces color for the first time. The striking and intimate color photographs reveal Trager’s sophisticated, complex use of color, presenting an unanticipated and layered reality. These photographs are as much about the act of photographing, perception, color, and light as they are about his subject, whose presence is a constant and unifying motif.
Philip Trager was born in Connecticut in 1935. His photographs are, among others, in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of the City of New York, the Musée Carnavalet, the Bibliothèque Nationale and the New York Public Library. The Library of Congress has acquired the definitive collection of his photographs and will house his archives as part of its core collections."
- from essay by Andrew Szegedy-Maszak
