Women of Magnum at ICP

Taking over two vast floors of the International Center of Photography in New York City, Close Enough, a group show comprising ‘New Perspectives from 12 Women Photographers of Magnum,’ opens to the public today, September 30.

Below, we bring you the highlights of Wednesday’s preview day for press and special guests, followed by the VIP opening night, and a signing event at Dashwood Books the following day.

Olivia Arthur, standing far right, overlooks the exhibition before the start of a day of press tours, walkthroughs with special guests and the evening’s VIP preview on September 28, two days ahead of the public opening. To her left is fellow Brit, Charlotte Cotton, the curator of Close Enough. Behind them is a project by Lua Ribeira, and on the floor below is Arthur’s own work.

Above, an installation of Bieke Depoorter’s project, Agata, seen before guests begin to arrive (as seen below). A collaboration with Agata Kay, whom the Belgian photographer met in a chance encounter in a strip bar in Paris, the work examines friendship and trust, biography and introspection, fact and fiction, and the complex relationship between photographer and subject, including the negotiation of creating public engagements and exhibitions.

Above, an installation view of Carolyn Drake’s Knit Club, described as a meditation on the mythologies and evocative presence of Southern Gothic culture that emerged from her collaboration and friendships with an enigmatic group of women and girls, which the work represents as a cross between a gang, a cult of mysteries, and a group of friends bound by secrets only they share. Below, the American photographer talks about the project with visitors on the press and preview day.

Sabiha Çimen, below, at the preview day, standing in front of an installation of Hafiz, presented here as a multi-image screen. Hafiz explores the lives of young Islamic women in Turkey, weaving an emotional narrative that calls on her own personal experiences, through collected vignettes of the daydreams, quiet rebellions, and melodramas of students at all-girl Qur’an schools.

American photographer Hannah Price, below, in front of her 2009 series, City of Brotherly Love, which includes portraits of men on the streets of Philadelphia who had catcalled her on her daily travels. By turning her camera on these men, Price reconfigured the act, creating a series specific to her everyday encounters as a woman newly arrived in the city.

Olivia Arthur, above, addresses visitors, speaking in front of her work, shown circus-style in frames of different size and format. She is the only one of the artists to resist showing a singular project, electing instead to present a selection of different works from recent years that, together, reflects upon intimacy and bodily presence. Starting with In Private (2016–2018), Arthur uses photographs drawn from her recent work as well as her archive to create a visual “mind map” about physicality and intimacy in both private and public spaces. Together, the works also invite discussion about technology and how it can be used to enhance our bodies or create physical connections over long distances.

Lua Ribeira, above, presenting her work to guests. Mirroring the extremes of hedonism and nihilism embodied in the emerging trap and drill music scene, the Spanish-born photographer’s ongoing series Agony in the Garden is a close encounter with young people involved in a global and diverse cultural wave as it unfolds uniquely at the local level.

David E. Little, ICP’s executive director, below, welcomes guests to the VIP preview, before handing the microphone on to the show’s curator, Charlotte Cotton, and to Susan Meiselas, whose work can be seen on the wall behind. Her wall installation, A Room of Their Own, made in the Black Country in England, reflects on the participatory process of the works’ making, which included working with an illustrator and a writer in collaboration with survivors of domestic abuse living in shelters. She presents a multilayered, visual narrative incorporating photographs, firsthand accounts, and original artworks.

The following day, September 29, several of the photographers were invited to sign copies of their books at Dashwood Books, before returning to ICP for the second preview evening.

Close Enough: New Perspectives from 12 Women Photographers of Magnum runs until January 9, 2023. Visit ICP for full details.

Meanwhile, you can read more about the work here. And here four of the photographers discuss their thinking in a prerecorded roundtable discussion.