Melanie Einzig
Melanie Einzig (born 1967)[1] is an American photographer known for her street photography in and around New York City, where she has lived since 1990.[2] Einzig was a member of the first incarnation of the In-Public street photography collective, from 2002. Her work has been published in the survey publications on street photography, Bystander: A History of Street Photography and Street Photography Now. She has shown in group exhibitions at the Art Institute of Chicago; Somerset House in London; the Deichtorhallen in Hamburg, Germany; and KunstHausWien in Vienna, Austria. The Art Institute of Chicago and Brooklyn Historical Society hold examples of her work in their collections.
Life and work
Einzig was born in Los Angeles, California[3] and grew up in the suburbs of Minneapolis, Minnesota.[2][3] Attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the 1980s and then moved to New York City in 1990 to become an artist[2][3] and studied photography at New York University/International Center of Photography, focusing on computer-generated imagery and filmmaking.[3] She worked for Associated Press in New York City from 1998 to 2002 then as a self-employed event photographer.[3][4] She was a member of the first incarnation of the In-Public street photography collective, from 2002.[5]
In the book Street Photography Now, Howarth and McLaren write that "Einzig wanders the city that has been her home since 1990, sniffing out eccentric characters and tuning into tiny little plays that spontaneously erupt on city corners. [. . .] Einzig is a whimsical anthropologist whose seemingly arbitrary samplings show up sharp revelations".[6] Luc Sante is quoted in the same publication as saying "Einzig represents the very ideal of the street photographer. She's alert, funny, sympathetic, quick-witted, drily romantic".[6] Her photograph titled "September 11th, New York, 2011" was included in the Cartier-Bresson: A Question of Colour exhibition at Somerset House in London in 2012/2013. Harry Eyres' review in the Financial Times considered the photograph "[p]erhaps the most dramatic single image in the Somerset House exhibition [. . .] a brilliant, unforgettable photograph..."[7] Nancy Durrant in The Times wrote that "[i]n some ways the most powerful shot is Melanie Einzig's study on 9/11 in New York"[8] and Emily Luxton for HuffPost also considered it "[o]ne of the images which stands out the most" (despite being "one of the smallest").[9]
Publications with contributions by Einzig
- Bystander: A History of Street Photography: with a new afterword on street photography since the 1970s. By Colin Westerbeck and Joel Meyerowitz. Boston, MA: Bulfinch, 2001; ISBN 9780821217559. Bystander: a History of Street Photography. London: Laurence King, 2017; ISBN 978-1-78627-066-5.
- Cartier-Bresson: A Question of Colour. By William Ewing. London: Positive View Foundation, 2012. OCLC 913427536.
- 10 – 10 Years of In-Public. London: Nick Turpin, 2010. ISBN 978-0-9563322-1-9. Includes an essay by Jonathan Glancey, "Outlandish Harmony"; a foreword by Turpin; and chapters by Einzig and others.
- Street Photography Now. London: Thames & Hudson, 2010. ISBN 978-0-500-54393-1. Edited by Sophie Howarth and Stephen McLaren.[10]
- New York in Color. New York City: Abrams, 2011. By Bob Shamis. ISBN 978-1419700613.
- Read This if You Want to Take Great Photographs. By Henry Carrol. London: Laurence King, 2014. ISBN 978-1780673356.
- Seeing Things: A Kid's Guide to Looking at Photographs. By Joel Meyerowitz. New York: Aperture, 2016. ISBN 978-1-59711-315-1.
Group exhibitions
- The Sidewalk Never Ends: Street Photography Since the 1970's, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL, 2001/2002[11][12]
- Common Ground: Photographers on the Street, McMullen Museum of Art, Boston College, Brighton, Massachusetts, 2003; Tufts University Art Gallery, Tufts University, Medford / Somerville, Massachusetts, 2003[13]
- in-public @ 10, Photofusion, Brixton, London, 2010;[14] Les Ballades Photographiques de Seyssel, Seyssel, France, July 2011.[15][16] Photographs by In-Public members.
- Street Photography Now, Third Floor Gallery, Cardiff, 2010;[17] Contributed Studio for the Arts, Berlin, 2010/2011;[18] Museum of Printing, Historical Museum of Warsaw, Warsaw, 2011/2012.[19][20] Photographs from the book Street Photography Now (2010).
- Derby Museum and Art Gallery, Format International Photography Festival (Right Here, Right Now – Exposures From The Public Realm), Derby, UK, 2011. Photographs by In-Public members and the film In-Sight (2011).[21][22][23]
- Cartier-Bresson: A Question of Colour, Somerset House, London, 2012/2013. Curated by William Ewing.[24]
- iN-PUBLiC: An Exhibition of Street Photography, Thailand Creative and Design Centre, Bangkok, Thailand, 2013. In conjunction with the British Council.[25][26][27] Photographs by In-Public members.
- In Public, Snickarbacken 7, Stockholm, Sweden, 2013.[28][29] Photographs by In-Public members.
- The Sharp Eye. In-Public in Mexico, Foto Mexico, Cine Tonalá, Mexico City, Mexico, 2015. Slideshow of photographs by In-Public members. Curated by Mark Powell, Carlos Álvarez Montero and Alfredo Esparza.[30]
- ? The Image as Question, Michael Hoppen Gallery, London, 2016[31]
- Street. Life. Photography: Seven Decades of Street Photography, Deichtorhallen, Hamburg, Germany, 2018, during Triennial of Photography;[32] KunstHausWien, Vienna, Austria, 2019/2020[33][34]
Collections
Einzig's work is held in the following permanent collections:
- Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL: 6 prints (as of July 2020)[1]
- Brooklyn Historical Society, Brooklyn, NY[35]
Awards
- 1997: Aaron Siskind Foundation Individual Photographer's Fellowship[3]
Films
- In-Sight (2011) – 38 min documentary directed and edited by Nick Turpin, commissioned by Format for Format International Photography Festival, Derby, 2011. Includes an interview with Einzig, among others.
References
- "Melanie Einzig". The Art Institute of Chicago. Retrieved 2020-07-30.
- "Melanie Einzig". streetlondon.co.uk. Retrieved 2020-07-30.
- "Melanie Einzig: New York City Street Photos". Stadthaus Ulm. Retrieved 2020-07-30.
- "Melanie Einzig joins LSPF". London Street Photography Festival. Retrieved 2020-08-06.
- Turpin, Nick (2010). 10 – 10 Years of In-Public. London: Nick Turpin Publishing. ISBN 978-0-9563322-1-9.
- Howarth, Sophie; McLaren, Stephen (2010). Street Photography Now. Thames & Hudson. p. 40. ISBN 978-0-500-54393-1.
- Eyres, Harry (18 January 2013). "The humble heroes of Cartier-Bresson". Financial Times. Retrieved 2020-08-06.
- Durrant, Nancy. "Cartier Bresson: A Question of Colour, Somerset House, WC2". The Times. ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved 2020-07-30.
- Luxton, Emily (28 November 2012). "A Question of Colour at Somerset House". HuffPost. Retrieved 2020-07-30.
- Bakewell, Sarah (23 December 2010). "The ecstasy of street photography". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2020-08-02.
- "The Sidewalk Never Ends: Street Photography Since the 1970's - Art Institute of Chicago - Absolutearts.com". www.absolutearts.com. Retrieved 2020-08-02.
- "Photography: The Sidewalk Never Ends". The Art Institute of Chicago. Retrieved 2020-08-02.
- "McMullen Museum of Art". www.bc.edu. Retrieved 2020-08-02.
- "In-Public@10". Photofusion. Retrieved 23 March 2016.
- "74 - Seyssel • Balades photographiques de Seyssel". fr:Compétence photo. Retrieved 23 March 2016.
- "Les balades photographiques de Seyssel, du 12 au 23 juillet". fr:La Tribune républicaine de Bellegarde. 7 July 2011. Archived from the original on 5 February 2016. Retrieved 23 March 2016.
- "Street photography now at the Third Floor Gallery". In-Public. 5 October 2010. Archived from the original on 1 April 2016. Retrieved 23 March 2016.
- "Contributed Studio for the Arts". In-Public. Archived from the original on 23 July 2012. Retrieved 5 April 2016.
- "'Street photography now' – exhibition". City of Warsaw. Retrieved 5 April 2016.
- "Street Photography Here And Now". Culture.pl. Retrieved 5 April 2016.
- "In-Public at the Derby Museum and Art Gallery". Format International Photography Festival. Archived from the original on 2 April 2016. Retrieved 16 January 2016.
- "Format Programme Announcement". Format International Photography Festival. Archived from the original on 11 February 2015. Retrieved 23 March 2016.
- Battersby, Matilda (3 March 2011). "Format Festival: Street photography steals the show". The Independent. Retrieved 23 March 2016.
- Magazine, Wallpaper (14 November 2012). "'Cartier-Bresson: A Question of Colour' at Somerset House, London". Wallpaper. Retrieved 2020-07-30.
- "iN-PUBLiC: An Exhibition of Street Photography". British Council. Archived from the original on February 13, 2015. Retrieved 24 March 2016.
- "iN-PUBLiC: An Exhibition of Street Photography". Thailand Creative and Design Centre. Retrieved 24 March 2016.
- "In-Public: An Exhibition of Street Photography". Bangkok Post. Retrieved 24 March 2016.
- "Olympus sponsrar: CUP – Contemporary Urban Photography presents "In-Public – In Stockholm" - A Street Photography exhibition". Olympus Corporation. 22 May 2013. Retrieved 11 February 2015.
- "In Public". Snickarbacken 7. Retrieved 23 March 2016.
- "The Sharp Eye. iN-PUBLIC in Mexico: Group Show". Centro de la Imagen. Retrieved 10 June 2016.
- O'Hagan, Sean (28 September 2016). "Seeing is believing: documentary photography from Francis Bacon to 9/11". The Guardian. Retrieved 2020-08-02.
- "Seven Decades of Street Photography at Deichtorhallen". www.widewalls.ch. Retrieved 2020-07-30.
- "Street. Life. Photography. Seven Decades of Street Photography". MutualArt.com. Retrieved 2020-08-06.
- "Street. Life. Photography – Kunst Haus Wien. Museum Hundertwasser". KunstHausWien. Retrieved 2020-07-30.
- "Caring for Brooklyn's Digital History - Brooklyn Historical SocietyBrooklyn Historical Society". Brooklyn Historical Society. 8 November 2019. Retrieved 2020-07-30.