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As the saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words. In its more than ten years, Pier 24 Photography has exhibited many thousands of photographs, and thus hundreds of thousands of hypothetical words. Up until now, every show has begun with the Pilara Foundation Collection and expanded from there. Turning the Page is the first exhibition that does not feature works from our collection. Instead, it looks at and celebrates the photobook, a medium that has undergone its own renaissance parallel to our years in operation. Each of the galleries presents works from a distinct photobook, whether an iconic volume or a recent monograph. The content, sequence, and design of each selected book guided our approach to that particular installation, aiming for a thoughtful translation of its overall tone and intent. Ultimately, Turning the Page invites you to consider how the viewing context impacts our understanding of a photographic project.
SF/Arts Curator Insight
Pier 24 ends its residency on San Francisco's Embarcadero with an immense collection of (mostly) classic photo books. The show opens with Libby Black's Trompe-l'oeil take on the (printed) matter; her selection of lovingly reproduced monographs calls out classics and salutes the other photographers in this monumental exhibition. A museum show of Jim Goldberg's 1995 "Raised by Wolves'' dominates the adjoining room. Combining home movies, stories true and false, bleak and buoyant photography, and confessional notes scrawled on paper scraps, this decade-long project documenting the lives of runaways invokes the visceral grime of hand-to-mouth existence. The soft, sublime blues and pinks of Vasantha Yogananthan's "A Myth of Two Souls' provides soothing counterbalance to Goldberg's hardscrabble black and white. Using hand painting, dreamy color, collage, staging, and documentary, "Myth" manifests a gentler humanity. Drop in on familiar friends, including Helen Levitt, Cindy Sherman, and Rineke Dijkstra, in the space's 15 other rooms. "Turning the Page'' reminds us how much will be missed as Pier 24 closes the book on a phenomenal run.
Mark Taylor
SF/Arts Curator
Pier 24 Photography
Pier 24 Photography provides a quiet, contemplative environment for viewing photographic works. Pier 24 Photography houses the permanent collection of the Pilara Foundation, which is dedicated to collecting, preserving and exhibiting photography.
Pier 24 Photography provides a quiet, contemplative environment for viewing photographic works. Pier 24 Photography houses the permanent collection of the Pilara Foundation, which is dedicated to collecting, preserving and exhibiting photography.