This website is part of The New York Public Library's Online Exhibition Archive. For current classes, programs, and exhibitions, please visit nypl.org.

Group Shows

During its first decade, the Midtown Y Photography Gallery issued open calls to photographers to participate in a number of exhibitions built around specific themes. These exhibitions, which were frequently related to New York City and dealt with social and/or historical subjects, included The Jew in New York (1973), City Games (1978), and Brooklyn Bridge (1983), which celebrated the centennial of one of the oldest suspension bridges in the United States. Other exhibitions were broader in scope. The gallery’s first group show, the two-part Women Photographers, opened in 1972, the year that Gloria Steinem published the first regular issue of Ms. magazine and Congress passed the Equal Rights Amendment. Weekend in June, documenting the disarmament rally that drew one million people to New York City on June 12, 1982, also addressed the broader popular movement against the buildup of nuclear weapons during the Reagan administration. The gallery’s largest group exhibition, Coming of Age in America (1974), examined what director Larry Siegel called a “deep-seated cultural and economic problem in our country,” which he defined as the antagonism between the “great, yet empty overvaluing of youth and things youthful and the equally great yet empty undervaluing of aging and the aged.” Including almost 170 works by 38 photographers, and marking one of the first public exhibitions by Peter Hujar, Coming of Age in America traveled throughout New York State from 1975 to 1977.

Sardi Klein (b. 1949)
“Wedding—Loraine and Frank—Long Island”
Included in the exhibition Women Photographers Part II, January 7–January 28, 1973

 

Nancy Polin
Two untitled photographs
Included in the exhibition Women Photographers Part II, January 7–January 28, 1973

 

Marion Faller (b. 1941)
Untitled
Included in the exhibition Women Photographers Part II, January 7–January 28, 1973

 

Barbara Jo Revelle (b. 1946)
Untitled
Included in the exhibition Coming of Age in America, December 15, 1974–January 26, 1975

 

John Messina (b. 1940)
Untitled
Included in the exhibition Coming of Age in America, December 15, 1974–January 26, 1975
 “Bathing Beauty Contestant”
Included in the exhibition Coming of Age in America, December 15, 1974–January 26, 1975

 

James Carroll (b. 1940)
Untitled
Included in the exhibition Coming of Age in America, December 15, 1974–January 26, 1975

 

Jeffrey Wanerman
Untitled
Included in the exhibition Coming of Age in America, December 15, 1974–January 26, 1975

 

HujarPeter Hujar (1934–1987)
Two untitled photographs
Included in the exhibition Coming of Age in America, December 15, 1974–January 26, 1975

 

Joan Liftin (b. 1935)
“Upstate New York”
Included in the exhibition Coming of Age in America, December 15, 1974–January 26, 1975

 “Hilda”
Included in the exhibition Coming of Age in America, December 15, 1974–January 26, 1975

 

Sardi Klein (b. 1949)
Untitled
Included in the exhibition Coming of Age in America, December 15, 1974–January 26, 1975

 

Leonard Speier
“Skateboard, Riverside Park, NYC,” 1979
Included in the exhibition City Games, June 22–September 17, 1978

Untitled
Included in the exhibition City Games, June 22–September 17, 1978

 

TressArthur Tress (b. 1940)
“Boys Flying Dream”
Included in the exhibition City Games, June 22–September 17, 1978

 

Bernard Pierre Wolff (b. 1930)
Untitled
Included in the exhibition City Games, June 22–September 17, 1978

 

Janie Eisenberg
Untitled
Included in the exhibition City Games, June 22–September 17, 1978

 

Marilyn Stern (b. 1953)
Untitled
Included in the exhibition Weekend in June, December 2, 1982–January 2, 1983

 

Dianora Niccolini (b. 1936)
Untitled
Chromogenic print
Included in the exhibition Weekend in June, December 2, 1982–January 2, 1983

 

Christopher Braun
Untitled, 1982
Included in the exhibition Weekend in June, December 2, 1982–January 2, 1983

 

Mariette Pathy Allen (b. 1940)
Untitled, 1982
Chromogenic print
Included in the exhibition Weekend in June, December 2, 1982–January 2, 1983

 

Stephanie Cohen (b. 1954)
Untitled
Chromogenic print
Included in the exhibition Weekend in June, December 2, 1982–January 2, 1983

 

WexlerLee Wexler (b. 1951)
Untitled, 1982
Included in the exhibition Weekend in June, December 2, 1982–January 3, 1983

 

Carl Glassman
Untitled, 1983
Included in the exhibition Brooklyn Bridge, the 100th Anniversary, May 22–September 11, 1983

 

Sid Kaplan (b. 1938)
Untitled, 1983; printed 1984
Included in the exhibition Brooklyn Bridge, the 100th Anniversary, May 22–September 11, 1983

 

Dudley Gray
Untitled
Cibachrome print
Included in the exhibition Brooklyn Bridge, the 100th Anniversary, May 22–September 11, 1983

 

Toby Old (b. 1945)
Untitled

Included in the exhibition Brooklyn Bridge, the 100th Anniversary, May 22–September 11, 1983

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