"Daddy Tattoo, Philadelphia," 2004 © Zoe Strauss/Courtesy of Philadelphia Museum of Art

Photographer Zoe Strauss, who from 2001 to 2010 installed her work on pillars below an I-95 overpass in South Philadelphia and hosted an annual day-long exhibition, is getting a mid-career retrospective at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The survey includes 150 images and extends beyond the museum with the Billboard Project, a series of 54 billboards throughout the Philadelphia area that will each display one of Strauss’s photos, blown up to 12 x 25 feet, without any text, logos, etc. A self-taught photographer who focuses on the “the beauty and struggle of everyday life,” Strauss is a true testament to DIY ingenuity. The exhibit runs through April 22, 2012.

"South Philly (Mattress Flip Front)," 2001 © Zoe Strauss/Courtesy of Philadelphia Museum of Art

"Vanessa, Philadelphia," 2006 © Zoe Strauss/Courtesy of Philadelphia Museum of Art

"Girl reading comic book in newsstand" by Teenie Harris (c. 1940-1945) © 2006 Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh

For over 40 years Charles “Teenie” Harris documented life in and around Pittsburgh’s Hill District for the influential black newspaper the Pittsburgh Courier. Affectionately called “One Shot” due to the brisk manner in which he photographed his subjects, Harris spent as much time shooting the everyday people of the neighborhood as he did the famous people who visited it. With close to 80,000 negatives in his archive, he is said to have best captured the urban African-American experience during the 20th century.

The Carnegie Museum of Art acquired Harris’s archive in 2001 and set out preserving, cataloguing and digitizing the images. The museum is currently exhibiting the first major retrospective of his work, “Teenie Harris, Photographer: An American Story.” The exhibit includes a life-size projection of close to 1,000 of Harris’s images set to an original jazz score; a chronological display featuring small prints of those same images; and a mini-exhibit of 12 16 x 20-inch prints selected by various experts. The exhibit will stay in Pittsburgh through April 7 and then move on to the Harold Washington Library Center in Chicago, the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute and the Atlanta University Center Robert W. Woodruff Library.

"Duke Ellington at piano, with dancer Honey Coles and Billy Strayhorn looking on, in the Stanley Theatre" by Teenie Harris (c. 1942-1943) © 2006 Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh

"Woman outside Kay’s Valet Shoppe" by Teenie Harris (c. 1938–1945) © 2006 Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh

"Soldiers from the 372nd Infantry marching in parade, Fifth Avenue, Downtown" by Teenie Harris (c. July 1942) © 2006 Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh

"Three men and a woman at a restaurant counter" by Teenie Harris (c. 1948–1960) © 2006 Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh

"Protesters with UNPC signs outside United Mine Safety Appliance Company, Braddock Avenue, Homewood" by Teenie Harris (c. October 1963) © 2006 Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh

"Lena Horne reflected in mirror in dressing room at Stanley Theatre" by Teenie Harris (c. 1944) © 2006 Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh

"Roland M. Sawyer and Aileen Eckstein Sawyer posed on their wedding day on steps of The Thimble Shop, 5913 Bryant Street, Highland Park" by Teenie Harris (c. August 1938) © 2006 Carnegie Museum of Art

Photographer Ellen Susan makes portraits of active-duty soldiers in the US Army using the wet plate collodion process, the primary photographic method used during the Civil War. Her portraits are included in “surFACE: Contemporary Wet Plate Collodion Portraiture,” now on view at Photo Center NW in Seattle. The show features tintypes and ambrotypes by five contemporary photographers who use the nineteenth-century wet plate technique:  Ellen Susan, Daniel Carrillo, Robb Kendrick, Jenny Sampson and Joni Sternbach.

Susan, who lives near two major Army installations, uses the deliberative, careful process to show members of the military in a way that invites a second look. The slow process requires her subjects to remain still for up to 60 seconds, gazing intently at the camera. Each detailed, grainless ambrotype she produces,  PCNW notes, “engages viewers in a manner that is distinct from the casually made, ephemeral images that have become so familiar.”

The exhibition is on view at PCNW through February 12.

Ryan McGinley’s premier retrospective monograph, You and I recently released by Twin Palms Publishers creates a portrait of a generation that is savvy about visual culture and acutely aware of how identity can be communicated through photography.

-courtesy Twin Palms Publishers.

BMX, 2000

Ann (Slingshot), 2007

Tim (Black Eye), 2005

Jake (Shining Rock), 2008

Brandee (Driftwood), 2011

Nick (Blood Falls), 2009

Jake (Fall Foliage), 2011

Coco’s Cliff, 2008

“The Europeans: Photographs by Tina Barney” opens today at The Haggerty Museum of Art at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. This exhibition provides an intimate look at wealthy Europeans at home through the eyes of American photographer Tina Barney (b. 1945). Known for her large, lush and colorful photographs, Barney began capturing images of friends and family in 1975 and quickly gained art-world attention for her often candid, tableau-like images. To produce the works in this exhibition, Barney embarked on her own modern version of the Grand Tour of Europe between 1996 and 2004. She traveled to Austria, Italy, England, Spain, France and Germany, photographing people of means who earlier would have commissioned painted portraits of themselves. The exhibition presents 20 works from the series including a 2010 Haggerty acquisition, “The Daughters.” The Haggerty exhibition of “The Europeans“ is the first time a large selection from the series has been seen in an American museum. – Courtesy The Haggerty Museum of Art

Learn more about Tina Barney’s beginnings from her conversation with Gillian Laub for PDN’s Heroes & Mentors issue.

“The Tapestry, 1996″ from “The Europeans.” Courtesy of Janet Borden, Inc.

“The Brocade Walls, 2003″ from “The Europeans.” Courtesy of Janet Borden, Inc.

“The Daughters, 2002″ from “The Europeans.” Collection of the Haggerty Museum of Art.

“Young Man with Dog, 2003″ from “The Europeans.” Courtesy of Janet Borden, Inc.

“The Foyer, 1996″ from “The Europeans.” Courtesy of Janet Borden, Inc.

“The Matador, 2003″ from “The Europeans.” Courtesy of Janet Borden, Inc.

“Father and Sons, 1996″ from “The Europeans.” Courtesy of Janet Borden, Inc.

“The Two Friends, 2002″ from “The Europeans.” Courtesy of Janet Borden, Inc.

“The Orange Room, 1996″ from “The Europeans.” Courtesy of Janet Borden, Inc.

All photos © Rod Morata.

Most photographers bring their cameras with them everywhere they go, so a unique moment or interesting discovery doesn’t go undocumented. Rod Morata, a Brooklyn-based editorial photographer, decided to take this idea one step further and commit to taking at least one photo each day of the year. Morata says, “In 2011, I started a 365/photo-a-day project for the first time in years and brought a camera with me everywhere I went to document everyday [life].  I’ve seen a lot of 365 projects in the past and thought it would be a great photo exercise to start one of my own. I was curious to see what I would come up with and what a year of my life would look like in pictures. Generally, I take portraits and photograph in a more controlled environment. This was a good opportunity to work outside of my comfort zone and record interesting things I see but usually don’t photograph.”

All photos © Joao Canziani.

Joao Canziani, a New York City-based editorial and commercial photographer, is usually on the hunt for personal projects when not shooting assignments. He says, “I’ve always been fascinated by people who are a little different, or think differently, from the rest.” Canziani was intrigued by his friend’s mom, Duston Spear, an art teacher who started teaching classes at a female maximum security prison. He was impressed by how she was unfazed by the intensity of the setting and focused on the therapeutic knowledge she was imparting to aid in the rehabilitation of the women.

Opening December 1 at the 25CPW gallery, is the exhibition “Russian Visionaries. Into the Light,” featuring portraits of contemporary Russian thought leaders alongside their written reflections on the country’s future, in anticipation of the December 4 Duma elections and next year’s presidential elections.

“Russian Visionaries. Into the Light” introduces to the American public, the nascent but growing Russian opposition movement in a stark and intimate way. Austere black and white portraits taken by renowned photographer Kirill Nikitenko show the gripping gaze of prominent writers, actors, politicians and activists, brought together for this unique exhibit by Elena Khodorkovskaya, curator and former wife of political prisoner Mikhail Khodorkovsky. Until she created this project, there was no single platform that united oppositional thinkers of so many different backgrounds and professions. This exhibition, on view until December 12th, is brought to the American public by Institute of Modern Russia President Pavel Khodorkovsky, Photographer Kirill Nikitenko, Curator Elena Khodorkovskaya, and 25CPW Founder and Director Bess Greenberg.

Lyudmila Alekseeva – Human Rights Activist, Chairperson of Moscow Helsinki Group

Lyudmila Ulitskaya, Writer

Multiple world chess champion, politician and public figure