For five decades, the photographer Mitch Epstein took the American stage as its subject. His iconic images of the nation during his spare time in a pre-selfie and pre-digital era will be featured at Yancey Richardson from February 23 to April 8, 2023. Entitled Recreation, the exhibition depicts celebrations, rituals, competitions, travels and other activities from 1973 to 1988. With an ironic and subtle spirit, Epstein presents a late 20th century America century looking for fun and relaxation in a convincing, joyful and sometimes questionable way. The complete series of Recreation has recently been published in a new updated edition (Steidl, 2022), which expands on the first edition published by Steidl in 2005.
Speaking recently on leisure, Epstein noted that work “was born out of my enthusiasm for images, for being in the world, in places where people engage in different types of leisure activities. The world itself was less self-aware. It was pre-digital… There was something more free at that time.”
Filled with raw energy, the photographs in the exhibition offer an empathetic wink. In several very complex compositions, Epstein squeezed an extraordinary amount of information into the frame. Uniformed veterans gather for a Vietnam War parade in New York. Tourists with binoculars survey the mountain vistas of Glacier National Park. Cheering revelers crowd into an elevator in Dallas. Acrobats soar through the air in Santa Monica. Half-naked bodies gather on a beach in Queens, New York. Each image documents a certain time and place that no longer exists.
One of the few photographers to work in color in the 1970s, Epstein reveled in a highly saturated palette, using color to emphasize the kinetic energy of images. While a student at the Cooper Union in New York, Epstein’s teacher, influential photographer Garry Winogrand, told him: “Put color film in the camera. Forget the fact that you have color.” Note Epstein, “It has become part of my language. The world is in color, so why not photograph in color. It really was that simple.”
-Mitch Epstein (b. 1952 in Holyoke, MA) has gained fame over the past 50 years for photographing the culture, landscape, and “Americanness” of the United States. He has won numerous awards including the Prix Pictet (2011), the Prix de Berlin (2008) and a Guggenheim Fellowship (2003). He was inducted into the National Academy of Design in 2020. His work has been exhibited and published widely in the United States and Europe. His 17 books include Silver+Chrome (Steidl, 2022), Break (Steidl, 2022 and 2005), American Power (Steidl, 2009) and Family Business (Steidl, 2003). His work is in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art; Metropolitan Museum of Art; Whitney Museum of American Art in New York; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles; and Tate Modern, London. In 2022, he exhibits his photographs and films (Hello Bombay! And Indian Cabaret) at the Rencontres d’Arles in the Abbey of Montmajour, Arles, France. He lives in New York.
Mitch Epstein: Recreation
February 23 – April 8, 2023
Yancey Richardson Gallery
525 W 22nd St
New York, NY 10011
https://www.yanceyrichardson.com/
