Jan Staller Exhibition Opening

It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see. 
Henry David Thoreau’s remark could well apply to the photography of Jan Staller. Images from his published monographs, Frontier New York and On Planet Earth, Travels in an Unfamiliar Land, will be exhibited in the Joseph Clayes III Gallery in the Athenaeum. These photographs depict the urban and industrial landscapes in Greater New York from the late 1970s through the 1990s, as well as those from travels to places as distant as Asia and as near as New Jersey. Selected from more than thirty years of work, these works plot the range of his interests while demonstrating a consistent investigation of the expressive possibilities of the photographic medium. Staller’s philosophy and process will be examined in a documentary film currently in production by independent filmmaker Dale Schierholt. The film will be screened at the Athenaeum in conjunction with the show.

Involved in photography from childhood and holding a BFA from the Maryland Institute, Jan Staller moved to New York City in 1976. He was soon completing assignments for The New York Times Magazine, Life, Fortune, Forbes, and other publications. At the same time he began his personal work: color photographs of the industrial and urban landscape of Manhattan and the greater metropolitan area. Before long these photographs would appear in photography journals and art galleries. Staller's influential nighttime photographs have been exhibited and collected by galleries and museums worldwide, including the Julie Saul Gallery, MoMA, the Whitney Museum, and the New Museum. His most recent photographs of a Manhattan construction site were published in the November 8 issue of The New York Times Magazine.