During the enforced isolation of the pandemic, I had the opportunity to revisit my archive of negatives and contact sheets from the 1980s, and discovered a number of interesting images that I had never printed. These photographs were made between 1979–1985 in a pre-digital, largely un-air-conditioned era, when people fled the heat of their houses to hang out in their yards and on the street. I notice a kind of relaxed sensuality in many of the pictures. Time moved more slowly…
~ Sage Sohier, Passing Time (2023)
Robert Klein Gallery is pleased to feature a solo exhibition of Sage Sohier's street photography from the 1980s. Passing Time features 25 works from the artist’s acclaimed 2023 Nazraeli Press monograph, Passing Time. Sohier’s photographs depict, in arresting images, a collective portrait of America before our social interactions were irrevocably influenced by the pervasive presence of cell phones. These photographs serve as a poignant reminder of a simpler era, where moments were savored spontaneously. Now viewed from a time when social media defines our interactions, these images remind us of how we used to pass time: simply and devoid of digital distraction. The exhibition will be on view from May 11 - June 21, 2024.
Join us at the gallery (38 Newbury Street, Boston, MA) on Saturday, May 11, 2024 from 3-5 pm for a conversation with the artist followed by a reception. Please RSVP to reserve your seat.
American photographer Sage Sohier (b. 1954) has been photographing people in their environments for over 30 years. She received her B.A. from Harvard University and has taught photography at Harvard University, Wellesley College, and the Massachusetts College of Art. She has also been awarded fellowships from the No Strings Foundation, the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Massachusetts Artists Foundation. Sohier’s work is housed in the collections of Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, the Portland Art Museum, and the Brooklyn Museum, among other notable institutions. In addition to “Passing Time” (Nazraeli Press 2023), her published monographs include “Peaceable Kingdom,” (Kehrer Verlag 2021) “Animals,” (Stanley/Barker 2019), “Americans Seen,” (Nazraeli Press 2017), “Witness to Beauty,” (Kehrer Verlag 2017), “At Home with Themselves: Same-Sex Couples in 1980s America,” (Spotted Books 2014), “About Face,” (Columbia College Chicago Press 2012), and “Perfectible Worlds,” (Photolucida 2007).
