Rodney Smith
June 1-30
Rodney Smith (1947-2016) was a celebrated photographer based in New York who elevated fashion photography into the realm of fine art. Over a career spanning more than four decades, he cultivated distinctive visual language and a deep commitment to capturing the nobility of the human spirit.
Known for his striking black and white photographs, Smith had a rare gift for merging portraiture and landscape into images that feel suspended in time, where gentle contradictions and unexpected moments seem to emerge naturally. Shot entirely on film, never retouched, and lit only by natural light, his photographs carry a dreamlike quality that is only deepened by the exquisite craftmanship of the prints themselves. Smith remains one of the most distinctive and quietly radical figures in contemporary photography.
Jan C. Schlegel
This June, Gilman Contemporary is featuring three series from German photographer Jan C. Schlegel. Known for a diverse subject matter and meticulous platinum prints, Schlegel is as much attuned to process as subject. A traveler and researcher who fully immerses himself in his work, his portraits span from the microscopic to the monumental. Each series weaves scientific inquiry with intimate artistry.
In Life on Earth, Schlegel peers through dual lenses of camera and microscope, crafting portraits of microscopic phytoplankton. Phytoplankton are invisible to the naked eye as they drift throughout the world’s oceans and waterways, producing much of Earth’s oxygen. Rooted in personal scientific research, the series moves fluidly between the precision of biology and the intimacy of portraiture, balancing the microscope’s objective lens with the camera’s subjective eye.
Inspired by a field of 250 beautiful tulips encountered during his travels, In My Garden is the culmination of Schlegel nurturing a garden of his own. Through daily visits, careful watering, and patient tending, he cultivated not only the flowers but a genuine emotional investment in them. When they finally bloomed, the beauty they yielded carried a deeper resonance: a garden in which his heart, as much as his hands, had played a part.
Of Aliens, Mermaids, and Medusas features expressive, undulating jellyfish against an inky black abyss. Photographed at Schlegel’s home in Germany and at the Two Oceans Aquarium in Cape Town, South Africa, the series reveals jellyfish in a state of quiet, meditative drift. Schlegel followed their rhythm, waiting for form and light to converge into images that are detailed and deeply personal.
Image captions
Woman Stepping Through Doorway, Snedens Landing, NY
by Rodney Smith
Archival pigment print
20 x 20 inches
Additional sizes available
Shared edition of 25
Caroline Seated at Edge of Pool, Long Island, NY
by Rodney Smith
Archival pigment print
20 x 20 inches
Additional sizes available
Shared edition of 25
Life on Earth Plate 16
by Jan C. Schlegel
Handmade platinum print
15 x 11 inches
Edition of 4 (+2AP)
Additional sizes available
Tulip Plate 4
by Jan C. Schlegel
19.5 x 15.75 inches
Edition of 6 (+ 2 AP)
Cassiopea Xamachana, 2022
Jan C. Schlegel
Handmade platinum print
19 x 15.75 inches
20.75 x 16.75 inches (framed)
Edition of 5 (+ 2AP)
661 Sun Valley Road | Ketchum
208.726.7585
gilmancontemporary.com
