Following Danny Lyon’s extensive retrospective New Mexico exhibition ‘Journey West’ at the Albuquerque Museum this Summer, Obscura Gallery is thrilled to present ‘Danny Lyon: Prints and Photographs 1963 – 2023’, featuring the seminal documentary photographer’s 60-year career of exploring people, places, and land through photographs and montages. Also included will be a selection of new works that capture New Mexico’s diverse landscapes, seeking to raise awareness of fires, drought, and climate change. Other featured works span Lyon’s career photographing the Civil Rights Movement, the Texas Prison System, the Chicago Outlaw Motorcycle Club, and more. The latter culminated in his seminal book, ‘The Bikeriders’, a landmark of modern photojournalism that collected interviews and photographs, documenting the abandon and risk implied in the name of the Chicago Outlaw Motorcycle Club. A feature-length film by Jeff Nichols, ‘The Bikeriders’, is based on Lyon’s book of the same name and will be released soon.

VIEW ALL THE WORKS IN THE EXHIBITION HERE.

DOWNLOAD THE FULL PRESS RELEASE HERE.

WATCH THE RECORDED ZOOM WEBINAR WITH THE CAPONIGROS HERE.

Please join us Friday, September 15 from 5-7pm for the artist reception of Two Generations: Paul Caponigro and John Paul Caponigro, a father-and-son exhibition including over two dozen photographs highlighting the careers of this family of artists. John Paul will give an informal chat at 4pm before the reception begins.

For both artists, Santa Fe was home for over twenty years (1970 – 1990s) while Paul lived here raising John Paul in a community of artists. Now, decades later, their work will be shown together in this joint exhibition at Obscura Gallery. Responding to interest in seeing the work of father and son together, the show “Two Generations†was originally assembled from the personal collection of John Paul and first exhibited more than three decades ago – it has traveled and evolved ever since and we are thrilled to have curated our own version at Obscura Gallery.

While at first glance both artists seem a world apart — Paul’s work in black and white gelatin silver and John Paul’s work in vivid color by use of digital means — their work is unified by the same spiritual thread that runs through their landscape photography. They both revere the land they photograph and try to convey their responses to the land they love. They are both successful photographic interpreters of the majesty that our Earth offers us.

VIEW THE VIRTUAL EXHIBITION TOUR HERE.

VIEW THE WORKS IN THE EXHIBITION HERE.

DOWNLOAD THE FULL PRESS RELEASE HERE.

Please join us for a book signing and intimate exhibition of Henry Horenstein’s recently published, Speedway. With a foreward by Ray Magliozzi  of ‘Car Talk’, Horenstein’s images in the book “present us with a slice of what the world of motor racing looked like then [in 1972], before racing became big business, as it slowly morphed into Nascar – the worlds fastest growing sport.â€

THE MONTH OF AUGUST 2023

This August, Brant Mackley Gallery has a stellar exhibition of contemporary Sikyátkii revival pottery by Hopi potter Bobby Silas in his first solo exhibition and we are thrilled to be exhibiting photographs that complement this incredible work!

Silas is the first Hopi to use the lost tradition of lignite coal-fired pottery in hundreds of years. Bobby will be bringing new works weekly until Indian Market so come before the reception if you wish, the show is up and ready for viewing!

Below is a selection of the photographic works included in the exhibition, and visit the gallery to view the entire selection.

EDWARD CURTIS, A Hopi Girl, Plate 406, 1905, 15.5 x 11.25″ Image Size, 18 x 22″ paper size, vintage photogravure on Holland Van Gelder paper from Portfolio 12.

WILLIAM HENRY JACKSON. View in Tewa Looking Towards Walpi, AZ, 1875, (Nampeyo the Potter and her brother Tom Polacca on the roof of the Corn clan dwelling in the village of Hano), 1875. 4.5 x 6″, Vintage albumen.

JOHN K. HILLERS. Walpi, Mokitown, Arizona, c.1872-3, 9.5 x 12.5â€, vintage albumen print

Obscura Gallery is thrilled to welcome Debbie Fleming Caffery back to Santa Fe for a Summer solo exhibition, Portraits of Birds, a beloved project Debbie has undertaken most of her career. At a young age growing up on the Bayou Teche in Louisiana, Debbie was inspired by her grandfather, who raised doves, pigeons, and chickens and took her on day trips to visit wild birds. Throughout Debbie’s career, she continued her passion for these creatures, photographing birds in many varied settings:  living wild in Louisiana, freed from animal markets in Mexico, and most recently rehabilitated as Avian Ambassadors in New Mexico. Debbie brings the same sensitivity into this stunning collection of black and white gelatin silver portraits of birds as she is known for when photographing people of various cultures.

VIEW THE VIRTUAL EXHIBITION HERE.

The artist reception takes place on Friday, July 7 from 5-7pm.

DOWNLOAD THE FULL PRESS RELEASE HERE.

VIEW THE ENTIRE BIRD PORTFOLIO HERE.

A select survey of photogravures representing over a century, with prints dating from as early as 1897 to contemporary prints made in 2023. The earliest print in this exhibition is by Alfred Stieglitz from his 1897 portfolio Picturesque Bits of New York and Other Studies created from a steel plate.  The most recent work included in the exhibition are 2023 abstract prints of New Mexico and Patagonia created from polymer plates by Santa Fean Eddie Soloway.

The photogravure is an intaglio print process that, in the early development of photography, was invented to produce high-quality ink reproductions of photographs, featuring deep shadows and luminous highlights. Early photographic pioneers Joseph Nicéphore Niepce and William Henry Fox Talbot invented the process in the 1840s, and then it was perfected in 1879 by Karl V. KlíÄ. Traditionally, photogravures were photographs that were etched into a metal plate using light sensitive carbon tissue. The plate was then inked and run through a printing press to produce a positive ink print known for its distinctive, luminous tonal qualities. With most contemporary photogravures, the metal plates have been replaced with polymer plates and other less toxic chemicals are used in the process.

DOWNLOAD THE FULL PRESS RELEASE HERE.

VIEW THE WORKS IN THE EXHIBITION HERE.

Still Beauty is a three-person photographic exhibition representing the beauty found within the cold, quiet, short days of winter. The exhibition includes two gallery artists, California-based Brigitte Carnochan and New Jersey-based Michael Massaia, as well as guest artist Jim Bailey, from New Mexico.

Brigitte Carnochan’s series Still Beauty, from which the show derives its title, includes luminous color still lifes that she creates from plants she grows in her garden. Michael Massaia captures the images for his large format gelatin silver prints during quiet hours of the night in Central Park, New York City.  In his printing, he adds subtle color through meticulous use of special darkroom toning techniques. Jim Bailey combines the extremes of climbing and ski mountaineering in Norway, France and the United States with photographic artistry, contrasting human interaction with other-worldly landscapes.

The opening reception takes place on Friday, January 27, 2023 from 5-7pm and the show continues through April 1, 2023. Brigitte Carnochan and Jim Bailey will be in attendance at the reception.

VIEW ALL THE WORK IN THE EXHIBITION HERE.

VIEW THE FULL PRESS RELEASE HERE.

EXHIBITION EXTENDED THROUGH JANUARY 14, 2023

Obscura Gallery announces our second annual Winter Holiday exhibition, One-of-a-Kind II, a group show of unique photo-based artworks found exclusively at our gallery. The exhibition consists of six contemporary artists producing one-of-a-kind artworks through various photo-based processes. This year’s exhibit features William Albert Allard (U.S), Angie Brockey (U.S),  Coco Fronsac (France), Lori Henson (U.S and Mexico), Erin McGean (Canada), and Robert Stivers (U.S).  The exhibition reception takes place on Friday, November 25, from 5-7pm.

In the 21^st Century we are most familiar with photography as a medium enabling multiple prints of the same image.  Yet many of the photographic processes that were used in the 19^th and 20^th Century yielded one-of-a-kind prints.  In some cases, the processes made a singular print for each exposure; in other cases, the treatment of prints during production led to singular images.   Included in this exhibition are 1980’s vintage Polaroid positive prints, contemporary tintypes, early 20^th Century gelatin silver prints with contemporary mixed media, photo collage, encaustic, and  hand-applied surface texture to gelatin silver prints.

VIEW THE WORKS IN THE EXHIBITION HERE.

DOWNLOAD THE FULL PRESS RELEASE HERE.