Selections from the Joe Baio
Collection of Photography
Selections from the Joe Baio Collection of Photography will be exhibited publicly for the first time at The Photography Show. Spanning the history of the medium from the 19th century to the present, the Baio Collection is built around the themes of childhood and adolescence with images evoking the unalloyed joy, rambunctious mischief, lack of inhibition, and confounding changes experienced during the early years of life. Nearly every medium and movement in photography’s history is represented in Baio’s collection paralleling the medium’s aesthetic and social progress. Vernacular photography hangs democratically beside related images by famous photographers. Culled from his collection of 6,000 images, the selection for The Photography Show, curated by Mr. Baio and Anne Griffin, is installed salon-style to echo the collection as it is displayed in their home.
From photography’s inception, the urge to wield a camera has echoed the inherent human need to document, freeze, and preserve the desire to remain forever young. Many approaches towards muses are featured. Charles Dodgson, aka Lewis Carroll, author of Alice In Wonderland, photographed the young daughter of a Christ Church colleague, Alexandra “Xie” Kitchin; Robert Frank photographed his wife Mary and their newborn son, Pablo, with a tenderness and care reserved for those closest to him; Bjørn Sterri, a Norwegian photographer, has for 17 years collaborated with his wife and sons making for a very robust view of the family. Many of today’s significant photographers are included as well. Elinor Carucci, Larry Fink, LaToya Ruby Frazier, Nan Goldin, Emmet Gowin, Pieter Hugo, Ryan McGinley, Vik Muniz, Nicholas Nixon, and Hellen van Meene meet classics of 20th century photography by Diane Arbus, Richard Avedon, Brassäi, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Roy De Carava, Lewis Hine, André Kertész, Dorothea Lange, Saul Leiter, Helen Levitt, Ray Metzker, August Sander, and Garry Winogrand among many others.