Obscura Gallery - Santa Fe Photography Gallery

08/27/2026

We are very excited to offer select, one-of-a-kind gelatin silver prints that Lynn Stern made in 2002 before she settled on large archival pigment ink prints for the Passage series. The gelatin silver prints are smaller, on 16 x 20" paper, and served as earlier studies for the series. When the gelatin silver paper and developer were discontinued and she could not complete the series to her satisfaction, she decided to print them as large archival inkjet prints, which afforded wider options than the increasingly limited number of photographic papers. These rare gelatin silver prints are subtle, luminous, and incredible examples of Lynn's inherent ability to focus on the highlights through abstraction in the darkroom.

📷 Please inquire for further information on the one-of-a-kind prints available.

The primary focus of Lynn Stern’s black-and-white film photography is luminosity, a fascination unchanged throughout a 47-year photographic career. Stern uses exclusively natural, indirect light, making it the subject of her images rather than the means by which to illuminate things. Since 1985, Stern has been using translucent scrims to create a quality of light that is immaterial and filled with energy.

As the daughter of the late David M. Solinger (art collector and former Whitney Museum president), Stern grew up surrounded by an extensive collection of Abstract Expressionist paintings and sculptures. Her later influences would include photographers Edward Weston and Paul Caponigro and painters of the 19th-century Luminist movement.

Lynn Stern has exhibited throughout the United States and Europe, and her photographs are included in numerous public and private collections, including the Brooklyn Museum of Art; the Herbert F. Johnson Museum, Cornell University (Ithaca); the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; the Portland Art Museum; the Victoria and Albert Museum (London); the Whitney Museum of American Art (New York); and the Yale University Art Gallery (New Haven, CT), among others. The Lynn Stern archive is located at the Center for Creative Photography, Tucson, AZ.

08/21/2026

Available in the gallery!

📷 EDWARD STEICHEN
Joan Crawford, 1932
13.25 x 9.75″
Gelatin silver print
From the portfolio, ‘Twenty-five Photographs, 1932″
Estate print, printed by master printer George Tice 1981-2, and authenticated with a copyright label signed in ink by both Joanna Steichen and George Tice on print verso.

Edward Steichen photographed Joan Crawford in 1932, capturing her rising Hollywood stardom and defining the sleek, modern aesthetic of 1930s celebrity culture. He took this image as part of his work as the chief portrait and fashion photographer for Condé Nast's Vanity Fair magazine, during the time when silent films gave way to talking pictures.

"In 1928, Joan Crawford became a star by embodying the carefree life of a flapper in the silent film 'Our Dancing Daughters'. In 1932, Steichen captured Crawford at the peak of her sensuality and allure. Enrobed in a black Elsa Schiaparelli dress, a white rose affixed to the lapel at her breast, Crawford stands in stark contrast to the white wall behind her. Her pose with one hip cocked to the side hints at her years as a Broadway chorus girl." - Rob Maitner

Edward Steichen (1879-1973) was a pioneer of 20th-century photography, shifting from painterly Pictorialism to sharp-focus commercial, fashion, and war photography. He co-founded the Photo-Secession in 1902 with Alfred Stieglitz, promoting photography as a fine art. In addition to serving as chief photographer for Vogue and Vanity Fair, he later became the director of the photography department at the Museum of Modern Art where he curated the iconic "The Family of Man" exhibition.

08/17/2026

Tracing generations of Indigenous image-making, “In Light and Shadow: A Photographic History from Indigenous America” brings historical and contemporary photography into conversation at Obscura Gallery [Obscura Gallery].

Curated by Obscura Gallery with co-authors Brian Adams [Brian Adams] and Sarah Stacke [Sarah Stacke], the exhibition presents work by 20 contemporary Indigenous American photographers alongside historical photographs, revealing visual lineages shaped across generations.

Together, the works explore sovereignty, identity, land, and community while illuminating a photographic history authored from within Indigenous experience.

On view through September 26 at Obscura Gallery [Obscura Gallery] | Santa Fe, NM!

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Brian Adams, Marie Rexford preparing maktak for a Thanksgiving Day feast, Kaktovik, Alaska, 2015
Rosalie Favell, Forever in our Hearts, 2021, 2026
© The Artists, Courtesy of Obscura Gallery

08/15/2026

TODAY!!

In conjunction with Santa Fe Indian Market this weekend, we are thrilled to host an exhibition and book signing celebrating the groundbreaking publication, In Light and Shadow: A Photographic History from Indigenous America (Black Dog & Leventhal, 2025), co-authored by Iñupiaq photographer Brian Adams and photographer/author Sarah Stacke.

Today, August 15, the book signing begins at 3pm and the artists’ reception will follow from 4–6pm at Obscura Gallery with many of the artists present.

The exhibition is on view through September 26, 2026.

📷 From L to R:

HERBERT RANDALL. (Shinnecock, Black). Three teenagers and Addie Ruth at a fish fry hosted by Vernon Dahmer at his home in the Kelly Settlement outside of Hattiesburg, Mississippi, July 4, 1964. 11 x 14", archival pigment ink print. Courtesy of M351 Herbert Randall Freedom Summer Photographs, Historical Manuscripts, The University Southern Mississippi.

CITLALI FABIÁN (Yalalteca), Melina Monserrat, Yalaltec descendant in Oaxaca City, Oaxaca City, México, 2018. 16 x 16", archival pigment ink print, edition of 10

TOM FIELDS (Cherokee, Muscogee Creek), A Chickasaw pastor and a U.S. Marine Corps veteran, places his American flag on the sign outside the Oak Grove Baptist Church building in Roff, Oklahoma, 2010. 16 x 20", Archival pigment ink print, edition of 10

08/13/2026

We can not WAIT to share this incredible exhibition with you!

'In Light and Shadow: A Photographic History from Indigenous America' opens this Saturday, August 15, with a book signing and reception from 3 - 6pm.

The exhibition is curated by the authors, Iñupiaq photographer Brian Adams and photographer/author Sarah Stacke, and features a selection of work from the book by contemporary and historical Indigenous photographers dating back to the 19th century.

📷 L to R:
Jeremy Dennis. Shinnecock. I Could Stand Here All Night (from the Rise series), 2021. 16 x 20", archival pigment ink print, edition of 10

Shelley Niro. Turtle Clan, Bay of Quinte Kanyen’kehà:ka (Mohawk) Nation. Dressing Warrior, 2012, from the Sleeping Warrior series. 30 x 40", archival pigment ink print. Edition of 5. Courtesy Andrew Smith Gallery, Tucson.

Henry S. Kaiser Jr. Athabascan. "Cher'chez Lafemme, Ward 4," Seward Sanatorium, Seward, Alaska, c. 1950–53. The caption, written on the slide frame, also shows an arrow pointing to the man on the right with "Tanana," and an arrow pointing to the man on the left, with "Copper Center," indicating the towns the men are from. Photograph by Henry S. Kaiser Jr. Henry S. Kaiser Jr. papers, Archives and Special Collections, Consortium Library, University of Alaska Anchorage. Do not reproduce without the permission of the Archives at the University of Alaska Anchorage.

08/10/2026

Thank you to The Guardian for this fantastic spread on our upcoming Exhibition and Book Signing for 'In Light and Shadow: A Photographic History from Indigenous America', co-authored by Iñupiaq photographer Brian Adams and photographer/author Sarah Stacke, opening this Saturday from 3-6pm!

Indigenous photography: identity, land and community

08/07/2026

Today we are so excited that Pasatiempo Magazine published a cover article on our exhibition and book signing for, 'In Light and Shadow: A Photographic History From Indigenous America' which opens during Santa Fe's Indian Market next weekend, August 15, 3-6pm.

This is an exhibition that has been a year in the making, and Obscura is so honored to be presenting this groundbreaking book and exhibition with the authors - Iñupiaq photographer Brian Adams and photographer/author Sarah Stacke. Both will be here, along with a selection of the artists next week and we welcome you to come see this important exhibition.

Click the link here, or in our bio to view the article.
https://tinyurl.com/inlightandshadow

The exhibition, curated by Obscura Gallery, Brian Adams, and Sarah Stacke, presents work by 20 contemporary Indigenous American photographers featured in the book who explore themes of sovereignty, identity, land, and community. Historical photographs are displayed alongside the contemporary work to reveal visual lineages spanning generations.

The book presents over 250 photographs by 80 individuals and collectives, from fine artists to family chroniclers to yearbook staff to political groups, alongside text exploring the relationships between the images and their makers, bringing to light a canon of Indigenous American photography that has been shaping visual culture since the dawn of the medium.

📷 Image on the Cover Article:
SARA ALIAGA TICONA. Water, presence and absence, 2022. 16x20", archival pigment ink print, edition of 15

08/05/2026

This is the last week to view our current exhibition, "Nevada Wier: Veiled Reveries"!

2026 marks the 100th anniversary of Route 66, where this image was taken by Nevada at the Twin Arrows Trading Post along Route 66 in 2022.

Come see this incredible exhibition of infrared color photography by the master herself! The exhibition is on view through this Sunday.

07/29/2026

Yesterday's long-awaited monsoon in Santa Fe brought back memories of our photographic exhibition, 'Byways' with Cinematographer Roger Deakins and James Ellis Deakins which we hosted a couple of years ago, along with a book signing. This was a favorite from the exhibit and is the image that keeps giving!

📷 Roger Deakins, Lightning Strikes, New Mexico, 2014

07/24/2026

Brazilian artist Vik Muniz is best known for his complex photographic works, sourcing a wide variety of eclectic and found materials and recreating iconic art historical works and scenes from popular culture. By displaying the final piece as a photograph, he explores memory, perception, and the nature of images as represented in arts and communication.

We're thrilled to have this Vik Muniz print in the gallery available from the limited-edition portfolio Photobox 01 published in 2001 by the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York for its 24th Annual Gala Benefit with an edition of 40 plus 12 artist's proofs. The portfolio consisted of 5 chromogenic prints, 2 Cibachrome prints, one R-type print and one Vibrachrome print by CATHERINE OPIE, VIK MUNIZ, NIKKI S. LEE, CANDIDA HÖFER, and others.

📷 Vik Muniz, Lee Harvey Oswald, after Sigmar Polke (from Pictures of Ink), 2001, 24 x 20", Vibachrome, edition of 40, Signed and editioned print verso.