Larry Siegel, A 60 Year Legacy: New York and Beyond
Creating an Exhibition
Reka found me via my online Photobook Book Group and reached out for assistance with an exhibition proposal to showcase and pay tribute to the expansive archive of her late husband, Larry Siegel. Siegel’s long career spanned six decades as a NYC gallery director, regarded street photographer, and School of Visual Arts professor.
As Reka states, “Sybylla’s Photobook topics were so wide ranging, which impressed me. I knew she would understand the breadth of Larry’s contributions. Larry’s photographs of 60 years were wide-ranging and wouldn’t easily fit into one project category.”
Photo by Larry Siegel
Reka had painstakingly organized his archive in a cloud-based application, Art & Archive. We set to edit his 800 images into a series of impactful ones which touched on all the ways in which he saw the world. From the streets of his native New York City to his years living in Europe, trips to the Middle East and covering the Olympics in Mexico.
Reka notes, “I trusted Sybylla to choose images for us to consider. And she described why she chose one image over another. I started to learn how a curator sees.”
I could see the value in Larry’s legacy and started to explore the natural intersections with his work, exhibition spaces connected to NYC and SVA. I had curated an exhibition at a very special, non-traditional gallery and could picture Larry’s work fitting in perfectly. I contacted the team I had worked with to exhibit, Full Circle, work by NYC street photographer Donato DiCamillo. The unique auspice has an incredible public presence, it is the Charles P. Sifton Gallery at the United States District court for the Eastern District of New York in Brooklyn. I relished working again with Judge Levy and Daniel Schur.
Reka, Daniel and I met over Zoom to discuss the final edit, the thematic groupings, the wall text and the artist statement. Daniel and Reka did the heavy lift of installation. The exhibit opens on December 9, 2021 at 6:00 PM at the Charles P. Sifton Gallery, Theodore Roosevelt United States Courthouse, 225 Cadman Plaza East, Brooklyn, New York 11201.
