The 19 digital C-prints by Neal Slavin at PDNB Gallery, group portraits of Americans ranging from bodybuilders to gravediggers, celebrate the publication of a new, 50th-anniversary edition of When Two or More Are Gathered Together, his landmark book documenting his travel around the country while observing such groups in their natural habitat.
As part of Slavin’s process, his subjects, whether hot dog vendors, Miss USA contestants or members of the Lloyd Rod and Gun Club, arrange themselves for the camera, revealing something of their group dynamics. Most of them display some mix of pride and happiness, as if people become more fully themselves when surrounded by others of their ilk, and find a sense of belonging and community while doing so.
The remarkable American capacity for self-organizing into like-minded groups has been noted as a distinctive strength of our country’s civic culture by sociologists from Alexis de Tocqueville to Robert Putnam, the decline of which has made America in recent decades a more lonely and alienated place. But the new edition of Slavin’s book, which adds some new subjects from recent years (through 2023), is an encouragement despite the downward trend.
Slavin’s use of color is also a strength. Until the early 1970s, in fine-art photography, tasteful, understated monochrome predominated over brash color, for both technical and aesthetic reasons. But Slavin, along with Stephen Shore and Joel Meyerowitz, belongs to a generation that saw the potential of color to capture the ebullience of American folk culture for the urban gallery-going audience. These three New Yorkers occasionally take a slightly anthropological perspective on the America between the coasts; it comes across, however, as more admiring than condescending.
These photographs are a kind of social media before social media, midway between the ceremonial formality of a 17th-century Dutch group portrait and the momentary inspiration of a spontaneous group selfie on Instagram. Ultimately, they show how groups can bring people together for shared connections.
Details
“Neal Slavin: When Two or More are Gathered” continues through Feb. 15 at PDNB Gallery, 150 Manufacturing St., Suite 203. Admission free. Open Tuesday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more information, call 214-969-1852 or visit pdnbgallery.com.
