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“Judith Joy Ross has, as an artist, no formula. She starts over again each time – the riskiest way to do it. She has a style, of course, but it is austere. […] Ross’s work is beautiful in its transparency.“ (– Robert Adams in: Why People Photograph?, 1994)
Since the early 1980s, the American photographer Judith Joy Ross has dedicated her work to the medium of portraiture. She is best known for her sensitive, deeply personal, yet authentic portraits of various groups of people at the center of American society: school children and teachers, soldiers, visitors to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington D.C. and U.S. Congress members of the Republican and Democratic parties. The photographs, which Ross contextualizes by arranging them in series, offer both an aesthetic and a humanitarian approach to photography.
Judith Joy Ross’s work shows references to photographers like August Sander, Eugène Atget, Walker Evans or Diane Arbus in her documentary style and her use of technical equipment. She photographs with an 8×10 inch view camera, which due to long exposure times and the need to set up a tripod forces her to concentrate on her subjects and does not allow for snapshots. The subjects are usually strangers to the photographer and so the photograph itself becomes an intense encounter.
August Sander is often mentioned as a major influence. Both, Ross and Sander focus on facial expressions, gestures and posture of their subjects. However, while Sander’s famous photographs from the series People of the 20th Century is staged and aims at categorizing certain social groups, Ross does not give directions to her subjects and thus achieves an immediacy that characterizes her approach and style. It makes the viewer think about the inner reality of the person by using their own social experience in order to relate to the people she portraits, thus stressing the individuality of each subject over their association with a specific group. Judith Joy Ross describes her intention as follows: “The world outside oneself is bigger than ones idea of it. One tries to align oneself with that bigger world in making a picture”.
Born in 1946 in Hazleton, Pennsylvania, USA.
Lives and works in New York, USA.
Bachelor degree in Art education, Moore College of Art, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Master degree in Photography, Institute of Design, Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, Illinois
Lucie Awards for Achievement in Portraiture, New York
Anonymous Was A Woman Award
Andrea Frank Foundation Award
Fellowship, Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, Pennsylvania
Charles Pratt Memorial Award, The George Fund Foundation, Cleveland, Ohio
Felloship, City of Easton / Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, Pennsylvania
Fellowship, National Endowment for the Arts, Washington, D.C.
Fellowship, John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, New York
Judith Joy Ross, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Pennsylvania, USA
Judith Joy Ros – Portraits of America, Fotomuseum Den Haag, The Hague, The Netherlands
Judith Joy Ross. Photographs 1978-2015, Le Bal, Paris, France
Judith Joy Ross. Portraits, Galerie Thomas Zander, Cologne, Germany
Judith Joy Ross. Photographs 1978-2015, MAPFRE Fundación, Madrid, Spain
Judith Joy Ross. Some Americans, Galerie Thomas Zander, Cologne, Germany
Judith Joy Ross. The Devil Today and Reading to Dogs, Fondation Stichting A, Brussels, Belgium
Judith Joy Ross. Photographien seit 1982, Die Photographische Sammlung / SK Stiftung Kultur, Cologne, Germany; Kunstmuseum Kloster unserer lieben Frauen, Magdeburg, Germany and Fondation Stichting A, Brussels, Belgium
Judith Joy Ross. Living with War, Martin Art Gallery, Muhlenberg College, Allentown, Pennsylvania
and Museum für Photographie, Braunschweig, Germany
Judith Joy Ross. Photographs, Davison Art Center, Middletown, Connecticut
Judith Joy Ross. Living with War, C/O Berlin, Berlin; Quadrat Bottrop, Josef Albers Museum, Bottrop
and Galerie der Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst, Leipzig, Germany
Judith Joy Ross, The Art Museum at the University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky
Judith Joy Ross: Stories, Pace/MacGill Gallery, New York
Judith Joy Ross, Quadrat Bottrop, Josef Albers Museum, Bottrop, Germany
Judith Joy Ross. Retrospective, Allentown Art Museum, Allentown, Pennsylvania
Judith Joy Ross. Portraits, Sprengel Museum, Hanover, Germany
Portraits from the Hazleton Public Schools: 1992-1994, Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, Massachusetts
and James Danziger Gallery, New York
New Work. Photographies by Judith Joy Ross, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, California
Judith Joy Ross. Easton Portrait, Young Women’s Christian Association, Easton, Pennsylvania
Judith Joy Ross. Portrait of the United States Congress, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia
and Lehigh University Art Galleries, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania
Photographs by Judith Joy Ross. Eurana Park Series, Allentown Art Museum, Allentown, Pennsylvania
Diane Arbus and Judith Joy Ross: Portraits, Zander Galerie, Cologne, Germany
Regards de Femme. Fondation Stichting A, Brussels, Belgium
Waiting for Tear Gas, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, USA
Menschen auf der Straße, Märkisches Museum, Witten, Germany
Emotion and Structure, Galerie Thomas Zander, Cologne, Germany
Uniform: Into the Work / Out of the Work, Fondazione MAST, Bologna, Italy
Re-Visions, Pinakothek der Moderne, Sammlung Moderne Kunst, Munich, Germany
The American Dream – American Realism 1945-2017, Kunsthalle Emden, Germany and Drents Museum, Assen, Netherlands
Blick in die Sammlung, Die Photographische Sammlung / SK Stiftung Kultur, Cologne, Germany
Walker Evans & The American Social Landscape Photographers, Allentown Art Museum, Allentown, Pennsylvania
Der Mensch und seine Objekte, Museum Folkwang, Essen, Germany
Portraits in Serie. Fotografien eines Jahrhunderts, Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg, Germany
American Documents, FotoMuseum Provincie Antwerpen, Antwerp, Belgium
Pictures by Women, Museum of Modern Art, New York
Süsser Vogel Jugend, Neue Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich, Germany
Das Porträt. Fotografie als Bühne, Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna, Austria
Face of Our Time, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, California
day by day, Kunstmuseum Dieselkraftwerk, Cottbus, Germany
Standort Alltag. Everyday Ideologies, Kunstmuseum Kloster unserer lieben Frauen, Magdeburg, Germany
Girls on the Verge: Portraits of Adolescence, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois
Art for Yale: Collecting for a New Century, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut
SECOND VIEW – Amerikanische Fotografie, Kunstmuseum Kloster unserer lieben Frauen, Magdeburg, Germany
Click Double Click, Haus der Kunst, Munich, Germany
Portrait und Menschenbild, SK Stiftung Kultur, Cologne, Germany
Poetic Dialogue Project 2005, ARC Gallery, Chicago, Illinois
Bilanz in zwei Akten – Sammlung Niedersächsische Sparkassenstiftung, Kunstverein Hannover, Hanover, Germany
Portrait / Photography: Lee Friedlander, Nicholas Nixon, Judith Joy Ross & Thomas Ruff, Sammlung Niedersächsische Sparkassenstiftung, Berlin, Germany
best of – Blick in die Sammlung ‘Die Photographische Sammlung’, SK Stiftung Kultur, Cologne, Germany
Je t’envisage – La disparition du portrait, Musée de l’Elysée, Lausanne, Switzerland and Hayward Gallery, London, UK
Affinities… Now and Then, H&R Block Artspace at Kansas City Art Institute, Kansas City, MO
A City Seen, The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio
Erwerbungen seit 1995, Museum Folkwang, Essen, Germany
How you look at it, Sprengel Museum, Hanover, Germany
The Persistence of Photography in American Portraiture, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut
Open Ends: Innocence and Experience, Museum of Modern Art, New York
Modern Starts: Warm, Museum of Modern Art, New York
Walker Evans & Company, Museum of Modern Art, New York
War Works: Women, Photography and the Art of Way, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK
American Politicians: Photographs from 1843-1993, Museum of Modern Art, New York; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francicso, California and Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
The American Portrait, The Art Compley Museum, Duxbury, Massachusetts
Photographs form the Real World, Lillehammer Art Museum, Lillehammer, Norway
Representatives: Women Photography from the Permament Collection, Center for Creative Photography, Tuscon, Arizona
Photography Until Now, Museum of Modern Art, New York
The Indomitable Spirit: Photographers And Artists Respond In The Time of Aids, International Center of Photography, New York
Real Faces, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
Twelve Photographers Look at US, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Recent Acquisitions, Museum of Modern Art, New York
New Photography: Zeke Bermann, Tony Mendoza, Judith Joy Ross, Michael Spano, The Museum of Modern Art, New York
Pennsyvlania Photographers III, Allentown Art Museum, Allentown, Pennsylvania
Pennsyvlania Photographers II, Allentown Art Museum, Allentown, Pennsylvania
Intentions & Techniques 1979, Photographs from the Lehigh University Collection, Lehigh University Art Gallery, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania
Judith Joy Ross, exhibition catalogue, with essays by Joshua Chuang and Svetlana Alpers, Fundación MAPFRE, Madrid-Spain.
Conrath-Scholl, Gabriele / Schubert, Claudia: Judith Joy Ross. Photographien seit 1982, Die Photographische Sammlung/SK Stiftung Kultur, Schirmer/Mosel Verlag, Munich, Germany
Judith Joy Ross. Photographs, Davison Art Center, Wesleyan University, MIddleton, Wisconsin
Liesbrock, Heinz: Judith Joy Ross. Living with War – Portraits, Josef Albers Museum Quadrat, Bottrop and Steidl Publishers, Göttingen, Germany
Szegedy-Masak, Andrew: Judith Joy Ross. Protest the War, Steidl Publishers, Göttingen, Germany and Pace/MacGill Gallery, New York
Reynolds, Jack: Judith Joy Ross. Portraits of the Hazleton Public Schools, Hazleton, Pennsylvania, 1992-1994, Yale University Art Gallery, Yale University Press, New Haven, Connecticut & London, UK
Weski, Thomas: Judith Joy Ross, In: Portraits. Sprengel Museum, Hanover, Germany
Kismaric, Susan: Judith Joy Ross, In: Harry N. Abrams: Contemporaries. A Photography Series, The Museum of Modern Art, New York
New Work, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, California
Judith Joy Ross. Annual Report 1992, The George Gund Foundation, West Cleveland, Ohio
J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Australia
Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Germany
Die Photographische Sammlung/SK Stiftung Kultur, Cologne, Germany
Museum Folkwang, Essen, Germany
Sprengel Museum, Hanover, Germany
Niedersächsische Sparkassenstiftung, Hanover, Germany
Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK
Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, Massachusetts
Birmingham Museum of Fine Arts, Birmingham, Alabama
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Museum of Modern Art, New York
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, California
Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut
Zander Galerie
Schönhauser Straße 8
50968 Cologne
Germany
Zander Galerie
6 Rue Jacob
75006 Paris
France
