It’s the year of Tod Papageorge!
His beach pictures, which we showed in Los Angeles in the summer of 2022, are now the featured exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Westport, Connecticut (through October 26). His lauded book of photographs taken in Central Park primarily in the 1970s and 80s, "Passing Through Eden", will be re-released shortly. And photographs from the Central Park series will be featured in the Museum of Modern Art’s upcoming show "Time Travelers: Photographs" from the Gayle Greenhill Collection (opening on October 31). So for our online exhibition this month we are pleased to present a selection of 20 of our favorite images from "Passing Through Eden" along with a dozen unpublished photographs from the series that have never been shown before.
Tod started photographing in New York’s Central Park starting in the late 1970s and continued shooting there until he moved away from the city in the early 1990s. More than ten years later, he edited these pictures into a book which, in its marriage of the sensual and poetic, evokes the unspoiled Eden suggested by its title.
In Papageorge’s essay in the book, he connects the evolution of his photography to his early attempts to write poetry. He further describes how the first half of the book follows the opening chapters of the Book of Genesis, from the Creation through the (metaphorical) generations that follow Cain, suggesting how, even in the heart of a modern city, we might find echoes of elemental Biblical tales being acted out by those drawn into the park and its promise of beauty and peace.
Central to Tod’s art, if not his life, is the question of what makes a photograph extraordinary.Using both small and mid-sized cameras he directly and sensitively observes the physical world in his efforts to trace a revelatory moment. Papageorge’s Central Park photographs are poetic demonstrations of this photographic interrogation, weaving the landscape and visitors together in ways that are sensual, narrative, and unmistakably photographic.
In singles, couples, and groups, Papageorge’s Central Park subjects unselfconsciously compose themselves into memorable tableaux. A young woman sits pensively on the ground surrounded by dogs engaged in their own exchange. A young couple recline on each other in a classical pose. A hippy-like group enjoy the sun amidst early season cherry blossoms. And finally – in the book’s coda – four intentionally upside down pictures suggest a heavenly apotheosis, or in Tod’s words “a loving ease on celestial clouds, a passing through nature to eternity”’.
The recipient of two Guggenheim Fellowships and two National Endowment for the Arts grants, Papageorge’s work is represented in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and the Bibliotheque Nationalein Paris, as well as numerous other collections. He is the author of nine books, including “American Sports, 1970, or How We Spent the War in Vietnam”, “Studio 54”, “Dr. Blankman’s New York”, “On the Acropolis”; and “At the Beach”.
To see Tod Papageorge’s previous shows at the gallery: “On the Acropolis” and “The Beaches” click on the titles.