"Encounters: Picturing the Campaign for POTUS" photo exhibition at NYU Tisch will include photographs focused on the theme of the 2016 campaign for President of the United States.
The Department of Photography & Imaging at the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University will present Encounters: Picturing the Campaign for POTUS, an exhibition curated by Deborah Willis, arts professor and chair of the NYU Tisch Department of Photography & Imaging, and photographer Karl Peterson. The exhibition opens Monday, August 29, 2016, and will be on view at NYU Tisch’s Gulf + Western Gallery and its 8th floor Photography & Imaging Gallery, both located at 721 Broadway, between Washington and Waverly places, in Manhattan.
Encounters: Picturing the Campaign for POTUS includes photographs and video by 14 photographers and photojournalists, all focused on the theme of the 2016 campaign for President of the United States. Set against the backdrop of arguably the most divisive US presidential campaign in recent times, images in the exhibition document the campaign in urban and rural settings and depict the varied desires and hopes for this country.
Photographs include candid and posed images of supporting and opposing factions, reflecting candidates in both the Democratic and Republican fields including Jeb Bush, Ben Carson, Hillary Clinton, Chris Christie, Ted Cruz, Carly Fiorina, John Kasich, Rand Paul, Marco Rubio, Bernie Sanders, and Donald Trump.
“The American Dream has been about upward mobility, each generation claiming as its birthright the expectation of having more opportunities than the generation before… And it has been about people, no matter their race, religion, gender, or country of origin, having the right to express an opinion without fear of retribution while acknowledging that compromise sometimes is necessary for the greater good,” said Fred Ritchin, Dean of the School at the International Center of Photography (ICP), whose essay on the exhibition and the nature of political photography will be published in the exhibition brochure. “The imagery in Encounters: Picturing the Campaign for POTUS searches for reality in the ongoing spectacle. It tries to peel away the façade so as to see what might be concealed behind. And in doing so, this group of photographs poses a pointed question: What can we, the viewers, do to reframe the discourse so that America, however imperfectly, can be coherent again?”
Contributing photographers for Encounters: Picturing the Campaign for POTUS include Mangue Banzima, Brandy Dyess, Mark Davis, Danny Wilcox Frazier, Wyatt Gallery, Maegan Gindi, Mark Kauzlarich, Kieran Kesner, Jackson Krule, Terrence Jennings, Lorie Novak, Jonno Rattman, Hank Willis-Thomas, and Deborah Willis.
About the NYU Tisch Department of Photography & Imaging
The Department of Photography & Imaging (DPI) at Tisch is a four-year Bachelor of Fine Arts program. Founded in 1982, it is centered on making and understanding images grounded in the history of photography through to the evolving media climates of today. Students explore photo-based imagery as both personal expression and cultural dialogue and address the problematic construction of the social, political and aesthetic image.
One of the world's leading centers of undergraduate and graduate study in the arts, the Tisch School of the Arts offers acting, dance, design, performance, film, animation, writing for musical theatre, stage, screen & television, preservation, recorded music, photography, interactive media, games, and public policy.
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