“Steinmetz appears to be acknowledging one of America’s dirty secrets: despite the promise of upward mobility for all, the lives of many families do not appreciably improve over the generations. Like characters in folk or rock ballads, the people in his pictures float on a sea of troubles that for the moment hasn’t drowned them.” —Richard B. Woodward
In this series of photographs set in Tennessee, Georgia and New Orleans, Mark Steinmetz’s empathy of the human condition becomes palpable. With a tenderness that presents his subjects as timeless characters in a quest for contentment, he gracefully hones in on life that resides on the fringes of capitalism. Although the struggle and isolation of these characters is not dismissed, Steinmetz’s compassionate eye exposes a deeper universal truth; the free will to perceive beauty moment to moment.
Mark Steinmetz lives in Athens, Georgia. He has taught at Harvard, Yale and Sarah Lawrence College, and is the recipient of a prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship. His work is in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Museum of Modern Art, The Whitney Museum of American Art and The Art Institute of Chicago, amongst others. This is the first exhibition of Steinmetz’s work in Portland, Oregon.