Making the Scene: The Midtown Y Photography Gallery, 1972-1996

While photographs are exhibited widely today, their acceptance into the mainstream art world has been a long process, periodically fraught with controversy and debate. One of the more recent manifestations of this debate occurred in the late 1970s, when the rise of postmodern theory led to a reevaluation of the medium and a critical scrutiny of the museum's role in the promotion of photography's status. Until recently, less attention has been paid to the role of alternative spaces, particularly those devoted to the exhibition of photography. The Midtown Y Photography Gallery was the first nonprofit organization in New York City with a mission to provide a public space for the display of photographs, helping dozens of photographers make the scene that it helped to bring about over the 25 years of its existence, from 1972 to 1996. This publication, a companion to an exhibition at The New York Public Library, is drawn from the Midtown Y Photography Gallery Archive, bequeathed to the Library in 1998, and housed in the Photography Collection of The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs, and the Manuscripts and Archives Division. It includes an introduction by the exhibition curator, two dozen photographs reproduced in black and white and in color, a complete list of exhibitions presented at the Midtown Y Photography Gallery, and a chronology of significant happenings on the photography scene during the same time period.