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Arthur Tress, “Boys Flying Dream,” gelatin silver print, included in the exhibition “City Games,” 1978. ©Arthur Trees; reproduced courtesy ClampArt, New York City.

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Patrick D. Pagnano, “Lexington Avenue, 1981,” chromogenic print, 1981, included in the exhibition “Color Photography in the Urban Environments,: 1981, and published in Shot in the Street©; reproduced, courtesy Patrick D. Pagnano.

FOR 5-18

THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY PHOTOGRAPHS MIDTOWN Y PHOTOGRAPHY GALLERY w/2 cuts

ak/lsb set 5/11 #699581

NEW YORK CITY — The pioneering gallery that offered photographers an opportunity to publicly exhibit their work during a period in which few galleries showed photography at all will be honored with an exhibit at The New York Public Library’s Humanities and Social Sciences Library at Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street through September 16. “Making the Scene: The Midtown Photography Gallery, 1972–1996” features more than 160 photographic prints from the Midtown Y Photography Gallery Archive, bequeathed to The New York Public Library in 1998.

Photographs in “Making the Scene” represent a diverse range of topics, but many of them capture the raw urban sensibility of New York in the era directly before parts of the city were transformed by gentrification and upscale development. The dawn of AIDS, the vital Jewish population on the Lower East Side and a variety of public protests are among the subjects that are threaded throughout the works displayed, especially those exhibited during the gallery’s first decade.

Photographers whose work is featured in this exhibition include David Attie, Niki Berg, Dawoud Bey, Roy Colmer, Nathan Farb, Larry Fink, John Ganis, Robert Giard, Bruce Gilden, Arlene Gottfield, Ed Grazda, Linda Hackett, Peter Hujar, Sid Kaplan, Arthur Leipzig, Joan Liftin, Ari Marcopoulos, John Messina, Abelardo Morell, Larry Siegel, Aaron Siskind, Sage Sohier, Michael Spano, Louis Stettner, Neil Trager, Arthur Tress, Susan Unterberg and William E. Williams.

The exhibition is divided into three sections: a retrospective survey of photographers who showed individual bodies of work during the two major phases of the gallery’s life, 1972–1982 and 1983–1996, respectively; a selection of photographs drawn from some of the gallery’s large group exhibitions; and a significant group of Sy Rubin’s photographs from “14th St.,” a project sponsored by the Midtown Y in 1981.

Additionally, smaller sections called “Negotiations,” inform viewers on transitional topics such as gender, color photography, historical awareness and the alternative and mainstreams of photography.

The exhibition is accompanied by a four-color illustrated publication, featuring an essay written by Stephen C. Pinson, a timeline of important events in photography during the Midtown Y Photography Gallery’s lifetime and the complete exhibition history of the gallery.

For information, 212-869-8089.