The Early Work of Photographer Philip Trager to be on display in exhibition Echoes of Silence starting on October 12 at The New York Public Library’s Stephen A. Schwarzman Building

September 13, 2012— The early work of preeminent photographer, Philip Trager, will be on display in a new exhibition, Echoes of Silence: Philip Trager, Early Photographs, 1967-83 , opening October 12, 2012 in the Prints and Stokes Gallery on the third floor of The New York Public Library’s StephenA.SchwarzmanBuilding.  Admission is free. 

“The idea for this exhibition began with my deep appreciation of Philip Trager’s first book of photographs, Echoes of Silence,” said Stephen Pinson, the Assistant Director of Arts, Prints, and Photographs, and Robert B. Menschel Curator of Photography at The New York Public Library. “The twelve images in that book are sequenced so beautifully that they somehow seem inevitable. The images possess a quietly relentless formal beauty that informs Trager’s personal vision as a photographer and which, I think, is developed and perfected in his early work.”

Widely acknowledged as one of the foremost photographers of architecture and dance of the 20th century, Echoes of Silence focuses on Mr. Trager’s early work. Included in the exhibition are seldom seen landscape studies and photographs taken in San Francisco, Barcelona, and Paris; Mr. Trager’s celebrated architectural photographs of Connecticut and New York City from the 1970s; portraits of Mr. Trager’s wife, Ina; and several selections from an unfinished commission to document the architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright. These eighty-five photographs from the first phase of Mr. Trager’s career bear witness to the emergence of an artist with a fully realized vision, imbued with equal measures of technical skill and formal beauty.     

"I cannot imagine a more fitting place for this exhibition than the New York Public Library,” said Mr. Trager. “My photographic work has always been grounded in books, so it is very meaningful to me that it will now be exhibited in this illustrious library. I have admired and often visited the SchwarzmanBuilding, first photographing it in 1978. I am grateful for the keen eye, discerning intelligence (and intensive work) that Stephen Pinson, the library’s Curator of Photographs, brought to the making of this exhibition.”

Echoes of Silence: Philip Trager, Early Photographs, 1967-83, features more than 20 photographs by Mr. Trager that have never been published or exhibited previously. Many of the featured New York photographs have not been on display in New York City for the past 30 years. All works in the exhibition are from the Photography Collection of The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints, and Photographs.

Echoes of Silence: Philip Trager, Early Photographs, 1967-83, will be open from October 12, 2012 through February 17, 2013 in the Prints and Stokes Gallery located on the third floor of The New York Public Library’s StephenA.SchwarzmanBuilding on 42nd Street and 5th Avenue. Admission is free. For more information please visit us on the web at www.nypl.org

This exhibition has been made possible by the continuing generosity of Miriam and Ira D. Wallach.

Support for The New York Public Library’s Exhibitions Program has been provided by Celeste Bartos, Sue and Edgar Wachenheim III, Mahnaz Ispahani Bartos and Adam Bartos Exhibitions Fund, and Jonathan Altman.

About Philip Trager

Philip Trager is a fine art photographer who has received international critical acclaim for his photography, particularly within the genres of architectural and dance photography. His most recent books are Philip Trager, a major retrospective book, and Faces, both published by Steidl. His other books include Echoes of Silence, Photographs of Architecture, Philip Trager: New York, Wesleyan Photographs, The Villas of Palladio, Dancers, Persephone, and Changing Paris. Trager’s books have been awarded many honors, including three selected for the Annual Holiday Book issue of The New York Times Annual Review of Books and his books have also been selected as Best Books by Interview, Vanity Fair, The Times (London), New York Magazine and others. His work is included in numerous institutional collections including Bibliotheque Nationale, Canadian Centre for Architecture, Center for Creative Photography, Corcoran Gallery of Art, and the Metropolitan Museum Of Art. The Library of Congress is acquiring a complete collection of his published and unpublished photographs as well as his archives.

Contact: Jonathan Pace | JonathanPace@nypl.org | 212.592.7710