David Hill Gallery is proud to present the first UK solo exhibition of acclaimed American photographer Mark Steinmetz, opening this September.

Internationally celebrated for his quietly powerful black-and-white images, Steinmetz seeks the poetry in everyday life. His work, particularly the evocative depictions of life in Georgia, Tennessee and Connecticut, reveals the gentle humanity in the ordinary, with fleeting, unexpected moments transformed into images of timeless beauty. This is the first time many of these remarkable photographs have been reproduced beyond 11×14 in. test prints.

With an innate ability to observe without intruding, Steinmetz’s photographs transcend documentary and art. His eye for subtle emotion and detail allows his work to serve both as deeply personal reflections and significant cultural records. “Everything in the photo needs to be in the photo. If it is not helping the photo, it is hurting the photo,” he told Vogue Italia—a philosophy evident throughout his career.

Top to bottom, left to right: Girl on Rock, Connecticut, 1986, Montrose Pier, Chicago, April 1989,
Elberton, Georgia, October 1997, Athens, Georgia, 1996

Born in Manhattan to European parents and raised in Boston and then Iowa, Mark Steinmetz received his first camera at age six and had already set up a home darkroom by the time he was twelve. A lifelong devotee of analogue film photography, he still prints all his work by hand.

He studied at Yale before leaving its prestigious MFA program at 22 to move to Los Angeles, where he hoped to work in film—and meet one of his photographic heroes, Garry Winogrand. He succeeded. During the final year of Winogrand’s life, Steinmetz photographed alongside him, absorbing the legendary street photographer’s intuitive and observational approach.

Now living in Athens, Georgia, where he and his wife, the photographer Irina Rozovsky, run The Humid, an educational photography workshop. In addition to his artistic practice, Steinmetz also teaches at the university level.

Steinmetz is best known for his influential South Trilogy—a series of books and projects that examine youth, transience, and the quiet complexities of American life. “I want to show something of people’s inner lives,” he says. With echoes of Dave Heath’s Washington Square series, his portraits often reflect isolation and detachment yet convey a profound intimacy. Time Magazine described his work as having “a connection to the lives of strangers.”

Working within the traditions of street photography, but with a lyrical sensibility all his own, Steinmetz’s work is included in major museum collections across the United States. Over twenty critically acclaimed monographs of his work have been published to date, many of which are now out of print and highly sought after by collectors.

“I prefer the structure of black and white,” Steinmetz explains. “It allows the imagination to enter the frame. Colour tells you everything. Black and white leaves room for poetry.”

MARK STEINMETZ lives in Athens, Georgia, with his wife, renowned photographer Irina Rozovsky, and their daughter. Together they run The Humid, an educational space committed to the practice of ambitious photography that provides workshops, artist lectures, and portfolio reviews. The stated goal of The Humid is to, “to share our love for the medium with a global community and create a forum for intersecting visions, generations, cultures, and geographies.”

Over twenty books of Steinmetz’s photographs have published, mostly by Nazraeli Press and STANLEY/BARKER, and his work has been presented in museums and galleries throughout the United States and mainland Europe. In 1994 Steinmetz was the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and participated in Light Work’s Artist-in-Residence Program. Steinmetz has taught photography at several prestigious institutions, including Harvard, Sarah Lawrence College, Emory University and Yale School of Art, where he is currently a critic.

Steinmetz’s work can be found in the collections of The Museum of Modern Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Whitney Museum of American Art, The Art Institute of Chicago, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Hunter Museum of American Art and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

A house surrounded by bushes

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