Architecture Photography Put Into Focus At Parrish Art Museum During April 20 Conversation

Architectural photography is the subject of “Flattened Space,” a talk planned Friday, April 20, at 6 p.m. at the Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill in conjunction with the exhibition “Image Building: How Photography Transforms Architecture.”

Part of the Parrish series “Inter-Sections: The Architect in Conversation,” this talk will include photographer Ralph Gibson, architect Lee H. Skolnick and guest curator Therese Lichtenstein, Ph.D.

“The group will bring the architect’s and the artist’s perspectives into the conversation and provoke different interpretations of how architectural photography relates to those dimensions,” said Corinne Erni, the Parrish’s senior curator of ArtsReach and special projects, in a statement.

Mr. Gibson is an American artist with more than four decades of photography experience and more than 40 photography books. He studied photography while in the U.S. Navy before attending the San Francisco Art Institute. His photographs, shot exclusively with a Leica camera, have been featured in more than 150 museum collections worldwide including the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art and the International Center of Photography in New York; the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art in Kansas; Museum Ludwig in Cologne, Germany; and Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, among others.

Mr. Skolnick is the founder and principal of Lee H. Skolnick Architecture + Design Partnership, an architecture and exhibit design firm based in New York City. In addition to designing museums—including the Children’s Museum of the East End in Bridgehampton—schools, residences, exhibits and a wide range of other architectural projects, he has created numerous museum education programs, teaching kits, and curriculum materials for use nationwide, according to the Parrish. He is the author of scholarly papers and books, including “What Is Exhibition Design?” and has served as an adjunct faculty member at The Cooper Union, New York University and the Bank Street College of Education.

In addition to organizing “Image Building,” Ms. Lichtenstein was the curator of “Twilight Visions: Surrealism, Photography, and Paris” and the curator and author of “Behind Closed Doors: The Art of Hans Bellmer,” which was awarded Best Photography Exhibition of 2001 by the International Association of Art Critics, and “Andromeda Hotel: The Art of Joseph Cornell.” She received her Ph.D. in art history from The Graduate Center, CUNY, and has written articles and reviews for Art in America, Artforum, and Arts Magazine. She taught at Rice University, Mt. Holyoke College, New York University, and the International Center of Photography; and currently teaches art history at the Ross School in East Hampton.

“Image Building,” on view through June 17, explores the dynamic relationship between architecture, photography, and the viewer, according to the Parrish, seen through the lens of historical and architectural photographers from the 1930s to the present.

“Flattened Space” is free with museum admission. Visit parrishart.org for more information or to order tickets.