Bruce Silverstein Gallery is pleased to announce the opening of three exhibitions at our 24th Street gallery. The opening reception will be Saturday, March 14th.

Having relocated to London in 1900 at the age of 22, the Munich born photographer Emil Otto Hoppé became one of the founding photographers of the London Salon, and gained international acclaim for his portrait studies. Inspired by his adopted home, over the course of 35 years, Hoppé amassed one of the most unique photographic documents of London, capturing the British capital at a critical point in its history—transitioning from a 19th century city into a modern metropolis. Similar to Eugene Atget’s images of Paris and Berenice Abbott’s images of New York, Hoppé’s photographs artfully chronicle London’s landmarks, architecture, and inhabitants. In addition, Hoppe’s photographs, those of architecture in particular, reveal a truly ingenious break from academic and historical traditions, reflecting a modernist aesthetic and interpretation which was working its way through urban life in the form of graphics, motorcars and other technological advancements to the city’s infrastructure. Hoppe’s photographs of London contain the same visual cues that inspired the early photo-modernist views of New York created by his contemporaries—Edward Steichen, Paul Strand and Alfred Stieglitz. This suggests that another parallel history of photography remains untold. Early London Photographs (1910-1939) includes thirty-one rare vintage photographs.

Cloud 9 is a group of nine original vintage photographs of the sky by esteemed photographers Imogen Cunningham, Alfred Stieglitz, and Edward Weston. Alfred Stieglitz photographed clouds from 1924 to 1935. He termed these cloud photographs Equivalents. For Stieglitz, the abstract forms and formations of clouds perfectly equated to the modern idea of equivalence, holding that abstract forms, lines, and colors could represent and evoke universal inner human states, emotions and ideas—a powerful notion which numerous later photographers recognized and emulated. Edward Weston's search for purity of form—the essential—seems simultaneously fulfilled and alleviated in his cloud studies. The abstract and impossibly fleeting nature of clouds played to his interest in form and texture, but even to Weston, clouds ultimately remain an elusive subject—free-association, subjective emotional reaction abound. Cunnigham’s clouds, while the most ‘cloud-like’ of the three, perfectly reflect her early interest in the abstract images created by the interplay of positive/negative space. This marked attention to positive/negative space in nature is seen also in her well-known masterpieces: Triangles, 1928 and Magnolia Blossom, 1925.

André Kertész: In the Depths of Winter pulls together a small selection of some of Kertesz’s best-known winter scenes near his home and from his window at 2 Fifth Avenue. Among these is one of his most iconic images: Washington Square Day, 1954. While winter is unarguably a trying and reflective season for all, Kertesz seems especially affected and inspired by the melancholic light and sparse terrain. In his later years, the winter weather, combined with his recurring feelings of loneliness and isolation bound Kertesz to his apartment. His photographs from this period, while undoubtedly sentimental, remain true to his innovative perspective and vision.