Fashioning Self: The Photography of Everyday Expression examines the role of photography in shaping, sharing, and shifting identity. March 8th through November 5th 2023

I made my annual pilgrimage to Arizona in March to photograph a few Cactus League games. On the 18th I left the Angels game at Tempe Diablo Stadium a few minutes early so I could stop by the Phoenix Art Museum on the drive back to California, I didn’t bother to check beforehand what was being shown because the Phoenix Art Museum has never disappointed me; it is also an amazing space which is interesting in its own right.

The featured Photography exhibition had 54 works of street, documentary, and self-portrait prints curated to examine the long-intertwined relationship between people’s use of fashion for self-expression and photography’s role in documenting it over a century of time. The exhibition was organized by the Phoenix Art Museum and the Center for Creative Photography. I didn’t see the curators listed for this exhibition, but I assume Becky Senf was very involved in this project.

I have a simple sense of fashion, I live in T-shirts, basketball shorts, and baseball hats (fitted & prefer wool 59Fifty’s) most days. So, an exhibition dealing with fashion shouldn’t be where you would find me. But this exhibition had Max Yavno and Garry Winogrand photographs in it, and they are two of my favorite photographers.

The exhibition is curated so well, the curators had knowledge of works I had never seen before, and they brought everything together perfectly to tell this story. Just the design of the exhibition layout is so creative. How the various prints were grouped, the use of video, and incorporating an interactive Instagram component all come together to create a perfect experience. It is not like the old days where the selected works were just hung in a line, and it was more about the individual prints or paintings. The creativity of the curators shows through. This exhibition is timely and a great document of part of our history, the Phoenix Art Museum and CCP staff nailed it. Below are my images of the exhibition.

I wasn’t that familiar with Bill Cunningham’s work but it was a perfect addition to this exhibition. They had a video installation showing Bill working and his photographs. Bill was definitely a street photographer, but when I picked up of his book, which I bought in the Museum shop, I learned that he considered himself a fashion historian before being a photographer. He was good at both.

Selfie on the left, a self portrait, with the help of Adam from Phoenix Art Museum staff on the right. Below are examples of the interactive Instagram component of the exhibit. Notice my classic T-shirt and hat style, perfect for a day at the yard watching ball (and looking at art and driving 350 miles comfortably). #PhxArtFashioningSelf .

The Geoffrey Beene exhibit was outstanding, and it was because of the design of the space. Graphic colors and patterns, how the mannequins are posed, and the incorporation of the fashion still photographs & proof sheets, just come together amazingly. The curators had incredible vision to be able to take the artifacts they had and create this space. The exhibition is obviously static but had the feel of action the way it was designed. I loved how they worked the photography component in too, it added to the experience perfectly.

More photographs of the Phoenix Art Museum. I love the scale and design of this space, plus I always discover artwork I didn’t know about every time I visit. Phillip C. Curtis’s paintings are fantastic and I love Rebecca Campbell’s “Jack and Diane”; humor in the title and the painting style was so unique how it dealt with the light.

Miguel Palma’s(1964) “Action Plan” (2009) was on display near the Museum Store and immediately grabbed my attention. Miguel is just a year younger than I am, so I assume he grew up with G.I. Joes like I did. I understand the psychology behind why societies have had toy soldiers for their boys to play with, and I recognize the horror of war, but as a kid I loved my collection of G.I. Joes and spent lots of days outside in the dirt playing with them. This collection of accessories is epic. I appreciate the deeper meaning here, but with every piece of artwork on display, each view brings their own past experiences with them when they experience the work. A nice work of art but I am still also jealous of this collection.

Richard Avedon - Relationships

Released in conjunction with Avedon’s 2022 retrospective exhibition in Milan, this book was published by Skira Publishers in Italy and edited by the Center for Creative Photography’s Rebecca Senf. The book is beautiful, it was printed and bound in Italy and the edit is outstanding. It was nice to finally get a signed copy of one of Becky’s books, I still need to get my copy of her Ansel Adams book, Making a Photographer: The Early Work of Ansel Adams autographed. The Center for Creative Photography houses Avedon’s archives and Becky was also involved with curating the exhibition as well as editing this book. You can see examples of the images in the book on Avedon's website.

Bill Cunningham -

Published by the New York Times in 2019 this retrospective of Bill Cunningham’s fifty-year career is a nice document of fashion during that time. Bill was a fashion columnist and photographer who worked for the New York Times. What I love about this book is all of these images were taken on the street, these photographs aren’t of models on a runway, they are all of people on the street. It is a better documentation of what fashion really was because it accurately shows what people were wearing during this period. Bill Cunningham referred to himself as a Fashion Historian more than a photographer. I agree with him 100% on his title but I also acknowledge he made interesting images and is more than worthy to also be called a photographer. Bill’s work is about the fashion not the frame or the interaction, but in this format it absolutely works. I wasn’t familiar with his work before seeing the exhibition Fashioning Self: The Photography of Everyday Expression at the Phoenix Art Museum but it was a perfect fit, and I purchased the book because I enjoyed how it was a different approach to document people on the street. If you are a fan of fashion photography you need to add this to your library.

Lee Friedlander - Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom

This very unique book, published in 2015 by Eakins Press, only documents the events of one day, May 17th, 1957 when Dr. Martin Luther King spoke at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC during the Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom. I wrongly first assumed this book documented the famed day when King gave his “I Have a Dream” speech but that would not occur until 1963. I researched the events and learned the Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom was actually the first time Martin Luther King addressed a national audience. It makes sense now why photographs of Dr. King were not more prominent in the book since he was the last speaker of the day. The book is an outstanding document plus Friedlander’s photographic style is amazing, I always love looking at his images. I found it ironic I discovered this book a couple months before Fraenkel Gallery’s Friedlander exhibition opened this past weekend. The most incredible thing is Friedlander was 22 years old when he photographed the event. The book is a nice reference point to examine how Friedlander’s vision and career developed. He obviously knew early on how to be at the right place at the right time.