© Amy Stein
© Brian UlrichNot missing this show and neither should you!
Two of my favorite photographers and friends whose work, I really admire and inspire me the most. Both being educators, there is a lot to see and learn from.
See you tomorrow!
Photographs by Amy Stein and Brian Ulrich
Caption Gallery
55 Washington Street, No. 802
Brooklyn, NY 11201
www.caption.is
January 28-March 25, 2010
Opening Reception:
Thursday, January 28
6:30-8:30 p.m.
Amy Stein is represented by ClampArt
Brian Ulrich is represented by Julie Saul Gallery
Press release for the ones who don't know about his two stars here:
Instruments of Empire: Photographs by Amy Stein and Brian Ulrich
January 28 – March 25, 2010
Opening Reception Thursday, January 28, 6:30-8:30
Caption Gallery is pleased to announce a dual exhibition of photographs by Amy Stein and Brian
Ulrich. The exhibition links two powerful photographic series, Ulrich’s recent “Dark Stores,” and
“Stranded,” here presented for the first time.
“Dark Stores” examines the all-too-familiar landscape of global brands and big-box retail in the
context of a market economy in crisis. His work is a form of visual sociology, providing a portrait of
empty spaces, darkened outlets, and, by implication, people left out when the boom recedes.
Amy Stein’s “Stranded” offers us a vision of people at the mercy of forces beyond their control.
Metaphorically, the images stand in for the people we don’t see in Ulrich’s photographs. In the
aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Stein had the idea to take portraits of motorists she saw stranded
by the roadside. The series became, in her words, “a meditation on the despondence of the
American psyche stuck in an unfamiliar space between distress and relief.”
The powerful, dystopic visions of Stein and Ulrich expose the transformation of human beings into
consumers, with little power or agency. They recall Napoleon’s dictum: “In the eyes of the empire
builders, men are not men but instruments.”
Amy Stein is a photographer and teacher based in New York City. She has been exhibited nationally
and internationally and her work is featured in many private and public collections. In 2006 she won
the Saatchi Gallery/Guardian Prize for her “Domesticated” series, which was released as a book in
2008. In 2007, she was named one of the top fifteen emerging photographers in the world by
American Photo magazine.
Brian Ulrich lives and works in Chicago. His first monograph, Copia, was published in 2006 by
Aperture as part of the MP3: Midwest Photographers Project. In 2007 Ulrich was named one of the
year’s 30 Emerging Photographers by Photo District News and a critic’s pick by Richard Woodward
for ARTnews magazine. He was recently awarded a 2009 John Simon Guggenheim Memorial
Fellowship. Both he and Stein are members of Piece of Cake, a European-based group of photo
artists who collaborate on projects, discussions, publications and other initiatives.
Caption is dedicated to promoting photography as a narrative art, in an exhibition format that brings
together word and text. The gallery showcases leading artists whose projects bridge the gap
between art and editorial photography, as well as emerging visual storytellers. It is located
contiguous to Generation, a communications firm that works with not-for-profit, cultural and
cause-related institutions.
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