The Gendered Lens
Female Street Photographers and the Reframing of Narratives
About the Event
In honor of our exhibition, Vivian Maier: Unseen Work, join us for a compelling panel discussion on Vivian Maier and her influence on the world of street photography!
Hosted by Mary Engel, and featuring Amy Touchette & Dara Gottfried, the discussion will focus on Vivian Maier’s impact on the canon of street photography, the role gender plays in the photographs of Ruth Orkin, Amy Touchette, and Arlene Gottfried, and in the genre of street photography more broadly.
About the Speakers
Panel discussion host Mary Engel is the daughter of photographer Ruth Orkin, as well as a consultant, archivist and director of the Orkin/Engel Film and Photo Archive. Mary is committed to the preservation and legacy of photography archives, and is the Founder/Executive Director of the American Photography Archives Group, APAG.
Panel member Amy Touchette is a Brooklyn-based photographer who specializes in street portraits. Her latest monograph, Personal Ties: Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn, published by Schilt Publishing in 2022, was shortlisted for the Lucie Photo Book Prize. She has exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery in London, the MoMA in Moscow, the Hamburg Triennial of Photography in Germany, and at Lincoln Center in NYC, and has been published in The New York Times, The Guardian, and in the books Women Street Photographers, published by Prestel, and Brooklyn Photographs Now, published by Rizzoli. She teaches at the International Center of Photography, where she was trained, and is represented by CLAMP in NYC and Little Big Galerie in Paris, France.
Panel member Dara Gottfried is the sister-in-law of the late Arlene Gottfried, a striking street photographer of 1970s and 1980s New York City. After Arlene’s passing, Dara has managed the handling of Arlene’s art, and determining how to keep her images accessible to the public.