Loving couple serie North Carolina State Fair
Artist
Avery Danziger
Exhibition
In his Harlem Valley Project, Avery Danziger captures the paradoxical beauty of a place in ruin—where man-made order slowly gives way to organic decay. Far from romanticizing abandonment, Danziger’s photographs are precise visual studies that extract abstract and formal elegance from environments steeped in disorder. Donning a HazMat suit to access the hazardous interiors of the long-abandoned Harlem Valley psychiatric complex, the artist composes what he calls “portraits”—carefully edited images that reveal what is present yet often hidden. Here, emotional history is secondary to the quiet tension between entropy and structure, presence and erasure.
Main features
- Title: Loving couple serie North Carolina State Fair
- Technical: Photography
- Dimensions: 31,50x39,37 inches
- Year: 2011
- Price: 250 €
Description of the work
The artwork North Caroline State fair serie_Loving couple by the artist Avery Danziger
Technique: Photography.
Measures: 33 x 48 cm
Avery Danziger
North Carolina State Fair
In this series, Avery Danziger revisits a collection of photographs taken between the late 1960s and mid-1970s during her visits to the North Carolina State Fair — a place filled with personal memories and human observations.
Beyond nostalgia, these images bear witness to the origins of her artistic vision: an early search for connection and authenticity within everyday gestures. Using a Hasselblad camera —which allowed her to shoot discreetly from waist level while maintaining eye contact with her subjects— Danziger captured spontaneous and vibrant scenes of fair life.
Only about thirty negatives from those years have survived, making this series an intimate and valuable archive of her artistic beginnings. The images, scanned from the original 2¼ x 2¼ inch negatives, are now digitally printed and presented to the public for the first time, revealing an essential chapter in her creative journey.
More information about the artwork North Caroline State fair serie_Loving couple by the artist Avery Danziger at Galeria Espai Cavallers
Avery Danziger — Artist’s Statement
North Carolina State Fair
One of my oldest memories was the yearly outing of my family going to the State Fair in North Carolina... I didn't say "fondest" memories because any outing with my family was at best tedious, and at worst a fiasco.
As soon as I was a teenager I would use my camera as an excuse to ditch my parents, and go hunting for shots. I loved using an old Hasselblad camera, because I could hold the camera at chest height or lower, look down to focus on my subject, and then look up so that when the moment was right, I could trip the shutter while looking directly at my subject, and maintaining eye contact.
I have always been frustrated by modern SLR cameras which cut off the viewing of the image at the exact moment I want most to see it !
About 30 negatives survived from those days (late 60s to mid 70s).
This is the first time I have shown this work publically. I scanned the 2 1/4 x 2 1/4 inch negative and then printed this image digitally, like all the rest of my work.
More information about the artwork North Caroline State fair serie_Loving couple by the artist Avery Danziger at our Instagram@galeriaespaicavallers
Artist biography
Avery Danziger
The artist Avery Danziger (1953 Chapel Hill, NC)
Photographer Avery Danziger captures the beauty of industrial spaces and abandoned architecture with a poetic and timeless gaze.
COLLECTIONS, EXHIBITIONS, AWARDS, REPRESENTATION
Photographs In Museum Collections
Houston Museum of Fine Art
Museum of Modern Art, New York City
National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution
Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Chicago Center for Contemporary Photography
Daum Museum of Art, Sedalia, MO
Southeastern Center for Contemporary Arts (SECCA)
Ackland Art Museum, Chapel Hill, N.C.
Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, France
Stedelijk Museum of Modern Art, Amsterdam
Photographs In Private Collections
Agnes Gund
Melva Bucksbaum & Ray Learsy
Photographs In Corporate Collections
American Telephone and Telegraph
R.J. Reynolds Industries
Security Pacific National Bank
Shriner’s Children Hospital
Wachovia Bank
Wells Fargo Bank
World Savings Bank
Fellowships:
Martha Boschen Porter Fund – Artist Fellowship
awarded by the Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation. — 2013
National Endowment To The Arts – Visiting Artist Workshop stipend
awarded by the Light Factory Gallery in Charlotte, N.C. — 1978
National Endowment To the Arts – Photographers Fellowship — 1979
juried by: Leland Rice, Eve Sonnabend, Bart Parker, Evon Streetman and Carol Kismaric
Awards:
Px3 Prix de la Photographie, Paris
International Juried Group show – Honorable Mention — 2007
Missouri 50 State Fair Exhibition
Juried group show – Ist Place — $1,000 cash award — 2006
Spectra 04 National Photography Triennial –Silvermine Gallery
New Canaan, CT Group show – 2nd place – 2004
Juror – Barbara Hitchcock – Collection Committee – Harvard University Art Museum
5700 BARBEE CHAPEL RD. ,CHAPEL HILL, NC 27517 – Tel. (919) 935-9604
e-mail : info@averydanziger.com website : www.averydanziger.com
North Carolina Museum Of Art – 39th Annual Artist’s Exhibition
Juried group show – Purchase award ; curated by:
John Bullard, director, New Orleans Museum ;
Gudmond Vigtel, Director High Museum of Art ;
Tracy Atkinson, Director Milwaukee Art Center
Southeastern Center for Contemporary Arts (SECCA)
46th Annual Southeastern Artists Competition
Juried group show – Purchase Award ; curated by:
Gene Thornton, photographic editor, New York Times
R.J. Reynolds Industries, Photography Competition
Juried group show – Purchase Award – $1,000 cash award – curated by:
John Szarkowski, Director of Photography – MoMA- NYC
James Alinder, Director – Friends of Photography Gallery, Carmel, Ca.
Robert Doherty, Director – George Eastman House, Rochester, N.Y.
Gallery Representation:
Atrium Gallery — St Louis , MO
Sherry Leedy Fine Art — Kansas City, MO
Donna Rogers Fine Art – Houston, TX
Selected Exhibitions:
2019 Moonlight Requiem – Photographs from Jockey’s Ridge, NC and Cabo de Gata, Spain
Through This Lens Gallery, Durham, NC
One Person Show, May 2019
2015
“The Gate To Hell” Photographs from the Derweza Gas Crater in Turkmenistan
The Mattatuck Museum, Waterbury, CT
One Person Show – April.2015
“Seeking Permanence” selections from The Harlem Valley / Wingdale Project
Sherry Leedy Fine Arts – Kansas City, MO
One person show – June 2015
2014
“The Gate To Hell” Photographs from the Derweza Gas Crater in Turkmenistan
The White Gallery, Lakeville, CT
One Person Show – Nov.2014
More information on the Artist Avery Danziger at our Instagram @galeriaespaicavallers