A retrospective of Consuelo Kanaga (1894–1978), covering sixty years of work across nearly 200 photographs, ephemera, and films. Kanaga began as a photojournalist—an unusual position for women at the time—and developed into a modernist photographer known for portraits and still lifes. She photographed Black workers during the Jim Crow era, artists, and scenes of urban poverty and labor, using modernist visual language to address racial inequality and social injustice. Her peers included Dorothea Lange and Imogen Cunningham, but her approach was distinct: less concerned with the documentary image than with something harder to name. As she put it, "Most people try to be striking to catch the eye. I think the thing is not to catch the eye but the spirit." Following an international tour, the retrospective returned to the Brooklyn Museum, which holds the most extensive Kanaga collection in the world. Accompanied by a catalogue co-published with Fundación MAPFRE and Thames & Hudson—the first major publication on her work in thirty years—with essays by Drew Sawyer, Shalon Parker, Ellen Macfarlane, and Shana Lopes.
Year: 2025
Clients: Brooklyn Museum
Category: Exhibition, Direction