Photographing one’s town can be challenging. When you already know so much about the place you grew up in, how do you ensure your viewers care about it like you do? The answer lies somewhere in enticing them enough yet leaving the work open for interpretation. Still wondering how you do that? You have come to the right place because Guggenheim Fellow and Magnum Photos member Gregory Halpern will reveal just that through his latest photography exhibition.
The lead image and those within the article are by Gregory Halpern, courtesy of Huxley-Parlour. All are used with permission.
As a professor of photography at the Rochester Institute of Technology in New York, Halpern’s documentary approach is quite distinct from that of his counterparts. His monograph ZZYZX was awarded Photobook of the Year at the Paris Photo Aperture Foundation PhotoBook Awards, and his works are held in the Museum of Modern Art, the Cleveland Museum of Art, and the George Eastman Museum. In his latest exhibit, which coincides with his new photobook, King, Queen, Knave, Huxley-Parlour, presents 21 photographs by Gregory Halpern, which are poetic, as they are inviting. The exhibition, which shares the same name as the monograph, is about his hometown, Buffalo, New York, but goes beyond to capture the place’s magic and his idiosyncrasies of daily life.
The project began two decades ago, but after several years of back and forth, the photographer finally revealed what makes Buffalo such an extraordinary place. Throughout his photographs, Gregory Halpern depicts what remains of the city, which was once a center of the industry. Over the years, as people began to migrate, Buffalo stood its ground, becoming a much larger, albeit quiet, space for those who stayed back. In Halpern’s images, people, animals, abandoned buildings, and lush landscapes depict the loss but also the beauty and resilience of the town. The snow-covered pathways, an unfinished Go game, and a paper kite stuck in the tree all come together to appear like a moment where Buffalo paused, grieving over the loss of its inhabitants.
In his unique approach, Gregory Halpern depicts contradictions rather wonderfully. A rundown house mirrors a neat apartment, nature taking over abandoned places. In contrast, a woman basking in the summer glow while a man walks past the dead silent neighborhood during winter. The seasons change, as do the colors, which help depict the cycle of life and death, of hope and dejection.
Through King, Queen, Knave, Halpern revealed the challenges in photographing the known and how often our perception of the place colors our images and the message we wish to convey. Speaking about the medium, Halpern once said that it “‘sits in a space somewhere between truth and fiction,” meaning that your images can be the universal truth when, in fact, that is simply your opinion. To avoid this, Halpern’s images are close-ups of places without revealing too much about Buffalo. What you will learn, instead, is to take his image and weave it with your own narrative. The daily life of Halpern’s town is surreal, as it is ordinary, and the pictures stand at the intersection of the two. For instance, in one image, a floor is painted back and red, with white dots dancing around like stars. It is only at closer inspection that we realize that it’s not the Milky Way but a colorful part of a house or restaurant.
Each photograph offers us a unique depiction of Buffalo: for some, it is a fictional land away from our reality, while for others, it is an ordinary place where time still stands still. It’s up to you, dear reader, which path you choose to take.
King, Queen, Knave will open on October 31 at Huxley-Parlour, London, and will end on November 30. For more information, visit Huxley-Parlour’s website.