Mitch Epstein
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Mitch Epstein, an American photographer and author, has carved a distinguished path through the world of visual storytelling. His extensive bibliography includes landmark works like "Vietnam: A Book of Changes" from 1997, and the critically acclaimed "Family Business" in 2003, which garnered the prestigious Kraszna-Krausz Photography Book Award in 2004. Other notable publications include "Recreation: American Photographs 1973–1988," "Mitch Epstein: Work," "American Power," "Berlin," "New York Arbor," "Rocks and Clouds," "Sunshine Hotel," "In India," and "Property Rights."
Beyond his photographic endeavors, Epstein has also lent his creative vision to film, contributing as production designer to "Salaam Bombay!" in 1988 and "Mississippi Masala" in 1991, serving as co-producer on the latter, both directed by his former wife, Mira Nair. His impactful work is celebrated and preserved in the collections of esteemed institutions such as the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the J. Paul Getty Museum, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and Tate Modern in London.
Born around 1952 and raised in a Jewish family in Holyoke, Massachusetts, Epstein's early education included studies at Williston Academy under the guidance of artist Barry Moser. He further honed his skills at Union College, the Rhode Island School of Design, and the Cooper Union, where he was a student of the renowned photographer Garry Winogrand.
By the mid-1970s, Epstein had shifted his focus from academia to a profound photographic exploration of the United States. His early work, characterized by its blend of tradition and originality, captured scenes of abandonment and subtle danger, middle-aged enchantment with nature's beauty, and the complexities of childhood. As critic Ben Lifson noted in The Village Voice, Epstein mastered the language of black-and-white photography, even as he embraced color, demonstrating a deep respect for photography's past while boldly stepping into its future.
His journey continued in 1978 with a pivotal trip to India alongside his future wife, Mira Nair. There, he contributed as producer, production designer, and cinematographer to several films, including "India Cabaret." This immersive experience culminated in his book, "In Pursuit of India," a testament to his profound connection with the country.
The period from 1992 to 1995 saw Epstein deeply engaged in Vietnam, producing an exhibition and the compelling book, "Vietnam: A Book of Changes." Art in America's Peter von Ziegesar lauded the exhibition, highlighting the "stunning epiphany" found in images like "Perfume Pagoda," noting few photographers could imbue a single image with such beauty and meaning.
After over a decade of extensive travel, Epstein found himself drawn back to the vibrant energy of New York City. His 1999 series, "The City," delved into the intricate relationship between public and private life within the urban landscape. Vince Aletti, reviewing the exhibition, described the photographs as "as assured as they are ambitious."
In 1999, Epstein returned to his roots in Holyoke, Massachusetts, to document the decline of his father's businesses. This deeply personal project, "Family Business," brought together large-format photographs, video, archival materials, and written reflections, resulting in a book that received the 2004 Kraszna-Krausz Best Photography Book of the Year award. Nancy Princenthal, writing for Art in America, praised Epstein's "patiently plotted bell curve" of the family business's history, comparing it to the literary prowess of Theodore Dreiser.
From 2004 to 2009, Epstein embarked on a significant exploration of energy production and consumption across the United States with his series, "American Power." This project, which questioned the very essence of electrical and political power, often led to him being stopped by security and even interrogated by the FBI for photographing energy infrastructure from public streets. The large-scale prints from "American Power" have since been exhibited globally.
Dave Coggins, in Art in America, observed that Epstein "grounds his images…in the human condition, combining empathy with sharp social observation, politics with sheer beauty." Brian Wallis, in an essay for "Contemporary African Photography from The Walther Collection," recognized Epstein's unique approach to documentary storytelling, noting his intention was not to illustrate events or create propaganda, but rather to explore how abstract political concepts could be represented photographically. Martha Schwendener of The New York Times highlighted Epstein's ability to merge seemingly opposing photographic styles, blending the conceptualism of supersize scale and saturated color with the narrative power of documentary photography. In 2009, Epstein collaborated with his second wife, author Susan Bell, on a public art project and website, "What Is American Power?," utilizing billboards and posters to engage the public on environmental issues.
A theatrical interpretation of "American Power" premiered in 2013 at the Walker Art Center, a collaborative effort with cellist Erik Friedlander, directors Annie-B Parson and Paul Lazar, and featuring projected photographs, archival material, video, music, and storytelling.
In 2008, Epstein was honored with the Berlin Prize in Arts and Letters from the American Academy in Berlin, leading to a six-month residency in the city. The resulting photographs of Berlin's historical sites were published in his 2011 monograph, "Berlin."
His "New York trilogy," encompassing "New York Arbor" and "Rocks and Clouds," utilized an 8x10 view camera and black-and-white film to capture the interplay between society and nature within the city. Rob Slifkin noted that Epstein's work on trees in this series extended his long-standing interest in humanity's impact on the environment, focusing on how the human world "clumsily perches itself upon and amidst the natural world."
Epstein's significant contributions have been recognized with a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2002–2003, the Kraszna-Krausz Photography Book Award in 2004, the Guna S. Mundheim Fellow in the Visual Arts and Berlin Prize in Arts and Letters in 2008, and the Prix Pictet in 2011.
His personal life includes a prior marriage to director Mira Nair, which ended around 1990 or 1991, during which he experienced "uncomfortable" racial discrimination. He credits his travels in India for both his photography and Nair's film productions as profoundly perspective-shifting experiences. Epstein has also shared his expertise as a visiting artist and professor in the photography program at Bard College.
His filmography includes "India Cabaret" as Director of Photography, and "Salaam Bombay!" and "Mississippi Masala" as Production Designer, with "Mississippi Masala" also crediting him as Co-producer. He also served as producer and director for "Dad" in 2003.
Epstein's solo exhibitions have been showcased internationally, including at the Henri Cartier-Bresson Foundation in Paris, Kunstmuseum Bonn, Musée de l'Élysée in Lausanne, and the Open Eye Gallery in Liverpool.
His esteemed work is permanently held in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Whitney Museum of American Art; the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; and Tate Modern, London.
His publications, spanning decades, include "In Pursuit of India," "Fire, Water, Wind: Photographs from Tenri," "Vietnam: A Book of Changes," "The City," "Family Business," "Recreation: American photographs 1973–1988," "Work," "American Power," "Berlin," "New York Arbor," "Rocks and Clouds," "Sunshine Hotel," "Property Rights," and "In India."
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Mitchell Epstein (born c. 1952) is an American photographer and author. His books include Vietnam: A Book of Changes (1997); Family Business (2003), which won the 2004 Kraszna-Krausz Photography Book Award; Recreation: American Photographs 1973–1988 (2005); Mitch Epstein: Work (2006); American Power (2009); Berlin (2011); New York Arbor (2013); Rocks and Clouds (2018); Sunshine Hotel (2019); In India (2021); and Property Rights (2021).
He has also worked in various roles on several films. He was responsible for production design on Salaam Bombay! (1988) and Mississippi Masala (1991), and as co-producer on the latter; both of these films were directed by his ex-wife, Mira Nair.
Epstein's work is held in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York, Whitney Museum of American Art, J. Paul Getty Museum, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and Tate Modern, London.
== Early life and education ==
Mitch Epstein was born around 1952, and raised in a Jewish family in Holyoke, Massachusetts.
He graduated from Williston Academy, where he studied with artist and bookmaker Barry Moser. In the early 1970s he studied at Union College, New York; Rhode Island School of Design, Rhode Island, and the Cooper Union, New York, where he was a student of photographer Garry Winogrand.
== Career ==
By the mid-1970s, Epstein had abandoned his academic studies and begun to travel, embarking on a photographic exploration of the United States. Ten of the photographs he made during this period were in a 1977 group exhibition at Light Gallery in New York. Ben Lifson wrote in his Village Voice review:"He stands between artistic tradition and originality and makes pictures about abandoned rocking-horses and danger, about middle-age dazzled by spring blossoms, about children confused by sex and beasts. He has learned the terms of black-and-white photography, and although he adds color, he hasn't abandoned them, loving photography's past while trying to step into its future."
In 1978, he journeyed to India with his future wife, director Mira Nair, where he was a producer, production designer, and cinematographer on several films, including India Cabaret. He did the production design on Salaam Bombay! (1988) and Mississippi Masala (1991), and co-produced the latter. His book In Pursuit of India is a compilation of his Indian photographs from this period.
=== Vietnam: A Book of Changes. ===
From 1992 to 1995, Epstein photographed in Vietnam, which resulted in an exhibition of this work at Wooster Gardens in New York, along with a book titled Vietnam: A Book of Changes. Reviewing an exhibition of the Vietnam pictures for Art in America, Peter von Ziegesar writes, "In a show full of small pleasures, little prepares one for the stunning epiphany contained in Perfume Pagoda…Few photographers have managed to make an image so loaded and so beautiful at once."
=== The City ===
Having lived and traveled beyond the United States for over a decade, Epstein began to spend more time in New York City. His 1999 series The City investigated the relationship between public and private life in New York. Reviewing The City exhibition at Sikkema Jenkins in New York, Vince Aletti wrote that the pictures "[are] as assured as they are ambitious."
=== Family Business ===
In 1999, Epstein returned to his hometown of Holyoke, Massachusetts, to record the demise of his father's two businesses—a retail furniture store and a low-rent real estate empire. The resulting project assembled large-format photographs, video, archival materials, interviews and writing by Epstein. The book, Family Business, which combined all of these elements, won the 2004 Kraszna-Kraus Best Photography Book of the Year award. In reviewing the book, Nancy Princenthal wrote in Art in America that "his patiently plotted bell curve" of the history of the family business "is worthy of Dreiser".
=== American Power ===
From 2004 to 2009, Epstein investigated energy production and consumption in the United States, photographing in and around various energy production sites. This series, titled American Power, questions the meaning and make-up of power—electrical and political. Epstein made a monograph of the American Power pictures (2009), in which he wrote that he was often stopped by corporate security guards and once interrogated by the FBI for standing on public streets and pointing his camera at energy infrastructure. The large-scale prints from this series have been exhibited worldwide.
In his Art in America review, Dave Coggins wrote that Epstein "grounds his images…in the human condition, combining empathy with sharp social observation, politics with sheer beauty." In an essay for the catalogue Contemporary African Photography from The Walther Collection: Appropriated Landscapes (2011), Brian Wallis wrote,"Epstein has made clear that his intention is neither to illustrate political events nor to create persuasive propaganda. Rather, he raises the more challenging question of how inherently abstract political concepts about the nation and the culture as a whole can be represented photographically…But equally significant is the unique form of documentary storytelling that he has invented in American Power—colorful, sweeping, concerned, intimate, honest."
In The New York Times, Martha Schwendener wrote:"What is interesting, beyond the haunting, complicated beauty and precision of these images, is Mr. Epstein's ability to merge what have long been considered opposing terms: photo-conceptualism and so-called documentary photography. He utilizes the supersize scale and saturated color of conceptualism, and his odd, implied narratives strongly recall the work of artists like Jeff Wall."
In 2009, Epstein collaborated with his second wife, author Susan Bell, on a public art project and website based on American Power. The What Is American Power? project used billboards, transportation posters, and a website to "inspire and educate people about environmental issues."
In 2013, the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis commissioned Epstein and cellist Erik Friedlander to create a theatrical performance of American Power, which premiered at the Walker and, in 2015, traveled to the Wexner Center for the Arts in Ohio and The Victoria and Albert Museum in London. Created in collaboration with directors Annie-B Parson and Paul Lazar, this theatrical rendition of Epstein's photographic series combines projected photographs, archival material, video, music, and storytelling.
=== Berlin ===
In 2008, Epstein won the Berlin Prize in Arts and Letters from the American Academy in Berlin. Awarded a 6-month residency, he moved to Berlin with his wife and daughter from January–June 2008. The photographs he made there of significant historical sites were published in the monograph Berlin (2011).
=== New York Arbor and Rocks and Clouds ===
For his New York trilogy, New York Arbor and Rocks and Clouds, Epstein photographed the city's trees, rocks, and clouds with an 8×10 view camera and black and white film to depict the interplay between society and nature. "Epstein's trees extend the photographer's longstanding interest in mankind's disruption of our environment," writes Rob Slifkin, "...his new work typically addresses this theme of human engagement with nature without recourse to the inclusion of actual people. Instead it is the way the human environment clumsily perches itself upon and amidst the natural world that defines Epstein's approach to landscape."
== Recognition and awards ==
2002–2003: Guggenheim Fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation
2004: Kraszna-Krausz Photography Book Award
2008: Guna S. Mundheim Fellow in the Visual Arts, Berlin Prize in Arts and Letters, from the American Academy in Berlin
2011: Prix Pictet
== Personal life ==
Epstein's first marriage to director Mira Nair ended in divorce around 1990 or 1991. Epstein experienced "uncomfortable" racial discrimination due to his interracial relationship with Nair.
He has identified his travels in India for his photography work and as part of Nair's various film productions as perspective-shifting. He describes the trips to India as among the most important experiences in his life.
Epstein was previously a visiting artist and professor in the photography program at Bard College.
== Films ==
India Cabaret (1985) – Director of photography
Salaam Bombay! (1988) – production designer
Mississippi Masala (1992) – production designer
Dad (2003) – producer and director
== Solo exhibitions ==
Mitch Epstein: American Power, Henri Cartier-Bresson Foundation, Paris, May–July 2011
Kunstmuseum Bonn, 2011
Musée de l'Élysée, Lausanne, 2011
Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool, November–December 2011
== Collections ==
Epstein's work is held in the following permanent collections:
Museum of Modern Art, New York
Whitney Museum of American Art
J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
Tate Modern, London,
== Publications ==
In Pursuit of India. New York: Aperture, 1987. ISBN 0-89381-214-5.
Fire, Water, Wind: Photographs from Tenri. Tenri-shi, Japan: Tenrikyō Dōyūsha, 1996. ISBN 4-8073-0370-8.
Vietnam: A Book of Changes. New York: Center for Documentary Studies in association with W.W. Norton & Co., 1997. ISBN 0-393-04027-5.
The City. New York: powerHouse, 2002. ISBN 1-57687-101-0.
Family Business. Göttingen, Germany: Steidl, 2003. ISBN 3-88243-913-0.
Recreation: American photographs 1973–1988. Göttingen, Germany: Steidl, 2005. ISBN 3-86521-084-8.
Work. Göttingen, Germany: Steidl, 2006. ISBN 3-86521-281-6.
American Power. Göttingen, Germany: Steidl, 2009. ISBN 978-3-86521-924-4.
Berlin. Göttingen, Germany: Steidl & The American Academy in Berlin, 2011. ISBN 978-3-86930-224-9.
New York Arbor. Göttingen, Germany: Steidl, 2013. ISBN 978-3-86930-581-3
Rocks and Clouds. Göttingen, Germany: Steidl, 2018. ISBN 978-3-95829-160-7
Sunshine Hotel. Göttingen, Germany: Steidl/PPP 2019. ISBN 978-3-95829-609-1
Property Rights. Göttingen, Germany: Steidl 2021. ISBN 978-3-95829-901-6
In India. Göttingen, Germany: Steidl 2021. ISBN 978-395829-967-2
== References ==
== External links ==
Official website
Mitch Epstein at IMDb
Mitch Epstein on Artnet.com
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