Gaze – Changing Face of Portrait Photography From Bank of America Collection

The gaze of the portrait’s subject reaches not only the lens of the camera but the future viewer as well. The sitter poses consciously to leave a message to the future from his/her own time. Boundless possibilities for communication and meaning arise from the relationship the subject establishes with future viewers through photograph. At the point where gazes intersect, the portrait stands at the very centre of a network established between different times and spaces; each gaze opens the door for another existence.

In the exhibition "Gaze - The Changing Face of Portrait Photography", Istanbul Modern Photography Gallery shed light on the 160 years of portrait photography through the works of 54 photographers selected from the Bank of America collection. The exhibition did not just look at portrait photography but also traced the social and artistic transformation that has taken place from the emergence of photography to the present.

The exhibition was part of Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s art loaning programme: Art in our Communities™. This unique initiative allows museums and non-profit galleries worldwide to borrow complete or customised exhibitions at no cost.

Artists: Dieter Appelt, Shelby Lee Adams, Henry Clay Anderson, Diane Arbus, Richard Avedon, Tina Barney, Erwin Blumenfeld, Mathew B. Brady, George Brassaï, Manuel Alvarez Bravo, Harry Callahan, Julia Margaret Cameron, Chan Chao, Rineke Dijkstra, Andre Adolphe Eugene Disderi, Mike Disfarmer, Walker Evans, Roger Fenton, Gerrit Petrus Fieret, Robert Frank, Lee Friedlander, Alexander Gardner, Ben Gest, Emmet Gowin, Philippe Halsman, David Octavius and Robert Adamson Hill, Lewis Wickes Hine, David Hockney, Peter Hujar, Yousuf Karsh, William Klein, Gertrude Käsebier, Nikki S. Lee, Hellen Van Meene, Lisette Model, Zwelethu Mthethwa, Nicholas Nixon, Arno Nollen, Bill Owens, Man Ray, James Ross & John Thomson, August Sander, Gary Schneider, Fazal Sheikh, Malick Sidibé, Aaron Siskind, W. Eugene Smith, Albert S. Southworth & Josiah Johnson Hawes, Edward Steichen, Paul Strand, Thomas Struth, Roman Vishniac, Weegee (Arthur H. Fellig), Carrie Mae Weems

Curator: Sena Çakırkaya