Sage Sohier’s new exhibition explores the beauty in aging
Photographer Sage Sohier’s “Witness to Beauty” has officially opened as a solo exhibition at Foley Gallery.
The images span 25 years and star Sohier’s mother Wendy Morgan, a fashion model who, in the 1940s, was the subject of photographic legends like Irving Penn, Richard Avedon and Louise Dahl-Wolf.
Through her daughter’s lens, Morgan is depicted with stunning vulnerability as she checks her own reflection or hangs in an enzyme bath behatted in a shower cap.
Like the title suggests, Sohier is bearing witness to her mother’s beauty—how it evolves with age, how she presents herself in different environments. Morgan is rarely looking at the camera, creating an intimacy between artist and subject and a simultaneously careful distance, where a daughter watches her mother from afar, as if trying to crack the mystery of the woman she was once part of.
While Sohier’s primary photographic focus has been on subjects in their natural, honest spaces, the relationship at the center of “Witness to Beauty” makes this series poignantly sentimental.
And, just in time for the holidays, Sohier’s photos exploring the personal lives of same-sex couples will be featured in an exhibit at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston titled “(Un)expected Families.” It opens December 9.
“WITNESS TO BEAUTY” RUNS THROUGH JANUARY 7, 2018 AT THE FOLEY GALLERY IN NEW YORK CITY.
