Recent photographs by Nicholas Nixon will be on view at Fraenkel Gallery, 49 Geary Street, Fourth Floor, San Francisco from November 26 through December 24, 1997.
Nicholas Nixon has been photographing his wife and children, in tightly-cropped, closely examined 8 x 10″ contact prints, since the birth of his daughter in 1985. In this exhibition of new photographs he has turned his large-format camera on its side, working for the first time in a vertical format and, also for the first time, turning the camera on himself. Always interested in the aging process, Nixon takes a hard look at himself and his wife as they reach mid-life: the way they are transforming physically and in their relationship with each other.
Since the mid-1970s, Nixon has helped to lead a revival of the old-fashioned view camera with its precise photographic description. Nixon’s work has included early group portraits of the poor and working class in Boston, annual portraits of his wife and her sisters, portraits of the elderly, people with AIDS, and students in a variety of classrooms settings. Many of these projects have documented change over time in the lives of their subjects, and together they have described people of all ages.
Nixon has received two fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts as well as two Guggenheim Fellowships. One of the most influential contemporary photographers, his exhibition history includes one person shows at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Detroit Institute of Arts and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, among many others.
This exhibition runs concurrently with Irving Penn: The Small Trades.
