A Dialog or a Dance

What does a collaboration between a photographer and a sitter look like? When asked about her own experience working together with a model, photographer Susan Fenton’s reply was deceptively direct. “Working with a model is a dialog or a dance,” she stated, “There is a certain amount of relinquishing the lead.”

Making a portrait is always a negotiation between sitter and artist, a middle ground between how the artist would like to portray their sitter, and how the portrayed would like to be represented. This exhibition brings together fifteen collaborations from across the history of photography, with a focus on artists who worked closely with a model, family member, or lover over a prolonged period of time. Some of these collaborations lasted mere days, and others decades. But they share a particular intimacy and candor brought about by the mutual trust and engagement of subject and artist.