Peter Kayafas (born 1971) is an American photographer, publisher, and educator based in New York City. He creates black and white photographs that are "simple and spare, yet quietly overpowering with their evocation of a history on a scale beyond that of individual human lives." Kayafas is the Director of the Eakins Press Foundation and is a

Guggenheim Fellow Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, endowed by the late Simon and Olga Hirsh Guggenheim. These awards are bestowed upon individuals who have demonstrated d ...

in photography. He is Co-Chair of the Board of Directors of the Corporation of

Yaddo Yaddo is an artists' community located on a estate in Saratoga Springs, New York. Its mission is "to nurture the creative process by providing an opportunity for artists to work without interruption in a supportive environment.". On March ...

and was an adjunct associate professor of photography at Pratt Institute for 21 years. Kayafas' photographs are in the collections of the

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues. MoMA's collection spans the late 19th century to the present, a ...

, the

Art Institute of Chicago The Art Institute of Chicago, founded in 1879, is one of the oldest and largest art museums in the United States. The museum is based in the Art Institute of Chicago Building in Chicago's Grant Park (Chicago), Grant Park. Its collection, stewa ...

, the

New York Public Library The New York Public Library (NYPL) is a public library system in New York City. With nearly 53 million items and 92 locations, the New York Public Library is the second-largest public library in the United States behind the Library of Congress a ...

New Orleans Museum of Art The New Orleans Museum of Art (or NOMA) is the oldest art museum, fine arts museum in the city of New Orleans, Louisiana, New Orleans. It is situated within City Park (New Orleans), City Park, a short distance from the intersection of Carrollton ...

, the

Brooklyn Museum of Art The Brooklyn Museum is an art museum in the New York City borough (New York City), borough of Brooklyn. At , the museum is New York City's second largest and contains an art collection with around 500,000 objects. Located near the Prospect Heig ...

, the

RISD Museum The Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design (RISD Museum) is an art museum integrated with the Rhode Island School of Design, in Providence, Rhode Island, US. The museum was co-founded with the school in 1877. It is the 20th-largest art m ...

, and

SFMOMA The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) is a modern and contemporary art museum and nonprofit organization located in San Francisco, California. SFMOMA was the first museum on the West Coast devoted solely to 20th-century art, and has b ...

, and there are five monographs of his photographs in print.

Life and work

Early work

Kayafas was born in

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

in 1971 and raised in

Concord, Massachusetts Concord () is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. In the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the town population was 18,491. The United States Census Bureau considers Concord part of Greater Boston. The town center is n ...

. His father, Gus Kayafas, founded the undergraduate photography program at

Massachusetts College of Art Massachusetts College of Art and Design, branded as MassArt, is a public college of visual and applied art in Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1873, it is one of the nation's oldest art schools, and the only publicly funded independent art sch ...

, and his mother Arlette Kayafas, is the founder and owner of Gallery Kayafas in Boston. He moved to New York City in 1989 to study photography at New York University's

Tisch School of the Arts The New York University Tisch School of the Arts (commonly referred to as Tisch) is the performing, cinematic, and media arts school of New York University. Founded on August 17, 1965, as the School of the Arts at New York University, Tisch ...

, from which he received a BFA in 1993. During his college years, he worked as a printer for

Rosalind Fox Solomon Rosalind Fox Solomon (April 2, 1930 – June 23, 2025) was an American photographer based in New York City. In 2007, the University of Arizona's Center for Creative Photography acquired Solomon's archive, which includes her photographic archive ...

and Sylvia Plachy, and studied with

Nan Goldin Nancy Goldin (born 1953) is an American photographer and activist. Her work explores in snapshot-style the emotions of the individual, in intimate relationships, and the Bohemian style, bohemian LGBT subcultural communities, especially dealing w ...

, Anthony Barboza, and A. D. Coleman. Kayafas spent the summer and fall of 1991 in

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

where he did an independent study with Henry Wessel, Jr. at the

San Francisco Art Institute San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI) was a Private college, private art school, college of contemporary art in San Francisco, California. Founded in 1871, SFAI was one of the oldest art schools in the United States and the oldest west of the Mis ...

, and worked for Andy Grundberg at the

Friends of Photography Friends of Photography was a nonprofit organization started by Ansel Adams and others in 1967 to promote photography as a fine art. During its existence the organization held at least 330 photography exhibitions at its galleries in Carmel and San ...

. In 1990, he met and began working for

Leslie George Katz Leslie George Katz (c. 1918 – April 18, 1997) was an author and publisher who founded Eakins Press, a specialty publisher of books of art and literature. Biography Born in Baltimore, Maryland, Katz attended Black Mountain College in North Ca ...

, founder and publisher of the

Eakins Press The Eakins Press Foundation is an American publishing house based in New York established by Leslie George Katz in 1966 and named after the painter Thomas Eakins. Since its founding in 1966, the Eakins Press Foundation has published some of the cl ...

. In 1993, Katz appointed Kayafas the Director of the press, a position he has continued for three decades.

Professional life

Kayafas' photographs have been published in five monographs: Peter Kayafas: ''Coney Island Waterdance (2021),'' Peter Kayafas: ''The Way West'' (2020), ''Totems'' (2012), ''O Public Road! Photographs of America'' (2009), and ''The Merry Cemetery of Sapanta'' (2007). His photographs have also been published in various magazines and journals—including DoubleTake Magazine and

The Southern Review ''The Southern Review'' is a quarterly literary magazine that was established by Robert Penn Warren in 1935 at the behest of Charles W. Pipkin and funded by Huey Long as a part of his investment in Louisiana State University. It publishes ficti ...

—as well as in photography books, including '' Bystander: A History of Street Photography'' (2001 and 2017), and ''The Spirit of Family'' by

Al Gore Albert Arnold Gore Jr. (born March 31, 1948) is an American former politician, businessman, and environmentalist who served as the 45th vice president of the United States from 1993 to 2001 under President Bill Clinton. He previously served as ...

and

Tipper Gore Mary Elizabeth "Tipper" Gore (née Aitcheson; born August 19, 1948) is an American social issues advocate. She was the second lady of the United States from 1993 to 2001 through her marriage to the 45th vice president, Al Gore in 1970, from who ...

(2002). Kayafas has had numerous solo exhibitions in New York City and Boston. In 2018 he became Co-Chair of the Board of Directors of the Corporation of

. In 2019, Kayafas was awarded a

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are Grant (money), grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, endowed by the late Simon Guggenheim, Simon and Olga Hirsh Guggenheim. These awards are bestowed upon indiv ...

for photography. As a publisher and editor running the Eakins Press Foundation for three decades, Kayafas has produced books by photographers. He has been teaching photography at

Pratt Institute Pratt Institute is a private university with its main campus in Brooklyn, New York. It has an additional campus in Manhattan and an extension campus in Utica, New York at the Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute. The institute was founded in 18 ...

since 2000, and has been represented by Sasha Wolf Projects since 2003.

''Coney Island Waterdance''

''Coney Island Waterdance'' is a collection of photographs by Kayafas taken between the years of 1991 and 2002, which depicts swimmers in the summertime as well as the

Polar Bear Club Polar Bear Club was an American post-hardcore band from Rochester and Syracuse in upstate New York. Formed in 2005, the band underwent multiple line-up changes, with vocalist Jimmy Stadt and lead guitarist Chris Browne as the only consistent m ...

in the winter. A book featuring this work was published in 2021 by Purple Martin.

''Cuba''

Kayafas travelled to

Cuba Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is an island country, comprising the island of Cuba (largest island), Isla de la Juventud, and List of islands of Cuba, 4,195 islands, islets and cays surrounding the main island. It is located where the ...

in 2000 and 2001. ''The New Yorker'' called his Cuba photographs "crisp and direct, and the best of them vibrate with understated graphic tension." Kayafas' pictures from Cuba were exhibited in ''Two Views of Cuba'' with photographer Lou Jones, at the

DeCordova Museum The deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum is a sculpture park and contemporary art museum on the southern shore of Flint's Pond in Lincoln, Massachusetts, 20 miles northwest of Boston. It was established in 1950, and is the largest park of its k ...

in Lincoln, Massachusetts in 2002.

''Romania''

''Romania'' is a collection of photographs that was made during several trips to

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

by Kayafas from 2003 to 2005. The collection was created by driving more than 10,000 kilometers and photographing the Romanian countryside and many Romanian cities. These photographs were exhibited at the

Romanian Cultural Institute The Romanian Cultural Institute (, ICR), headquartered in Bucharest, was established in 2004 on the older institutional framework provided by the Romanian Cultural Foundation and before 1989 by the Institute for the Cultural Relations Abroad. ...

in New York City (2005) and the Romanian Embassy in Washington, DC (2006).

''The Merry Cemetery of Sapanta''

Designed by the Dutch designer Tessa van der Waals and produced in Holland in 2007, ''The Merry Cemetery of Sapanta'' is a book about the carved graves in the remote Merry Cemetery. There are photographs of the colorful tombstones and their respective epitaphs, with translations by Adrian Sahlean. The book also includes an essay by the Romanian scholar Sanda Golopentia. These photographs were exhibited at the Romanian Cultural Institute in New York City (2005) and the Romanian Embassy in Washington, DC (2006).

''People In New York''

Published in coordination with the Sasha Wolf Gallery in 2004, ''People In New York'' is an exhibition catalogue that includes a selection of 13 photographs by Kayafas of people on the streets and in the parks of

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

. The book includes a short essay on that common occurrence in the city: the familiar glance from a stranger.

''O Public Road!''

''O Public Road! Photographs of America'' is a 2009 book of photographs published by Purple Martin. It features 160 pages of black and white photographs of landscapes, road signs, and people made by Kayafas during two decades of road trips across America. The book includes an essay by

Allan Gurganus Allan Gurganus is an American novelist, short story writer, and essayist whose work, which includes ''Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All'' and '' Local Souls'', is often influenced by and set in his native North Carolina. Biography Gurgan ...

and a song by

Eef Barzelay Ifar "Eef" Barzelay (; born May 12, 1970) is an Israeli-American musician. He is the principal songwriter and singer of alternative country band Clem Snide, but has also toured as a solo act, both as a headliner and in support of various artis ...

''Totems''

''Totems'' is an exhibition and publication project by Kayafas that consists of photographs of abandoned buildings in the west that ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. It was founded on February 21, 1925, by Harold Ross and his wife Jane Grant, a reporter for ''The New York T ...

'' said "have both sculptural presence and a symbolic weight." The book ''Totems'' is a 2012 monograph by Kayafas, with an essay by art critic,

Jed Perl Jed Perl (born 1951) is an American art critic and author in New York City. He was a longtime staff of ''The New Republic''. Career Jed Perl initially trained as a painter. He holds a Bachelor of Arts from Columbia College and also studied at the ...

. Of the Totems photographs, Perl writes: "Kayafas's explorations of an endangered vernacular architecture are at once straightforward records and unabashedly poetic meditations, a matter of the photographer testing the quality of his attentiveness against the facts on the ground. The lyric impulse is sharpened by the documentary convention."

''Mexico City''

''Mexico City'' is a collection of photographs that were made by Kayafas between 2012 and 2016. Since more than half of Mexico City's 21 million people are under twenty-five, Kayafas chose to focus on various rituals of the youth sub-culture that are prevalent in many parts of the city.

''The Way West''

''The Way West'' is a photographic project by Kayafas that includes exhibitions and a monograph. The book, ''Peter Kayafas: The Way West'', is the third monograph of Kayafas' work photographing along the roads of the United States, released in 2020. It includes an essay by writer

Rick Bass Rick Bass (born March 7, 1958) is an American writer and an environmental activist. He has a Bachelor of Science in Geology with a focus in Wildlife from Utah State University. Right after he graduated, he interned for one year as a Wildlife Bio ...

, as well as images from ten years and thousands of miles of travel in the Plains States of Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Colorado. According to a review of the book in ''

Hyperallergic ''Hyperallergic'' is an online arts magazine, based in Brooklyn, New York. Founded by the art critic Hrag Vartanian and his husband Veken Gueyikian in October 2009, the site describes itself as a "forum for serious, playful, and radical thinki ...

'' from April 14, 2020: "Kayafas has come back with what surely constitutes one of the most exhaustive, vivid photographic studies of a region to be produced anywhere in recent decades."

Publications

Books

* * * * * * * Kayafas, Peter; (2021) ''Coney Island Waterdance'' New York, NY: Purple Martin ISBN 978-0-97977-684-7

Other publications

* ''The Spirit of Family'', Albert and Tipper Gore. Holt, 2002 * ''Lincoln Kirstein: A Bibliography of Published Writings'', edited by Kayafas.

Foundation, New York, 2007 * ''CIRCUS: The Photographs of Frederick W. Glasier'', edited by Kayafas and Deborah W. Walk. Eakins, New York, 2009 * ''THE AMERICANS LIST: By the Glow of the Jukebox (contributor)'', Red Hook, Brooklyn, 2012 * ''LEE FRIEDLANDER: THE PRINTED PICTURE.'' Edited by Stephen Hilger and Kayafas, The Pratt Photography Department and Libraries and Eakins, Brooklyn and New York, 2014 * O, Write My Name': American Portraits, Harlem Heroes, Photographs by Carl Van Vecthen'', Edited by

and Kayafas, Eakins, New York, 2015. * ''PETER KAYAFAS: ECOS (exhibition catalogue)'', Universidad del Claustro de Sor Juana, Mexico City, 2016. * ''Pilgrimage: Photographs by Mary Frank. Edited and sequenced by Mary Frank and Peter Kayafas'', Eakins, New York, 2017. * '' Bystander: A History of Street Photography'',

Joel Meyerowitz Joel Meyerowitz (born March 6, 1938) is an American street, portrait and landscape photographer. He began photographing in color in 1962 and was an early advocate of the use of color during a time when there was significant resistance to the ide ...

and

Colin Westerbeck Colin Leslie Westerbeck Jr. is a curator, writer, and teacher of the history of photography. Before moving to Los Angeles, where he has taught at UCLA and USC, he was curator of photography at the Art Institute of Chicago. He is a regular contri ...

. Laurence King. London, 2017. * ''Stephen Shore: Elements'', Edited and sequenced by

Stephen Shore Stephen Shore (born October 8, 1947) is an American photographer known for his images of scenes and objects of the banal, and for his pioneering use of color in art photography. His books include ''Uncommon Places'' (1982) and ''American Surfaces ...

and Kayafas, Eakins, New York, 2019. * ''PhotoWork: Forty Photographers on Process and Practice'', Edited by Sasha Wolf. Aperture, New York, 2019. * ''Object Lesson: On the Influence of Richard Benson.'' (Contributor) Aperture, New York, NY 2022

Exhibitions

Solo exhibitions

* ''‘O Public Road’: Photographs by Peter Kayafas'', Public Policy Research Center, University of Missouri, Saint Louis, 2001 * ''Two Views of Cuba: Photographs by Lou Jones & Peter Kayafas'', the Decordova Museum and Sculpture Park, Lincoln, MA, 2002 * ''The Merry Cemetery of Sapanta and Selected Photographs of Romania'', the Romanian Cultural Institute, New York, 2005 * ''An American in Romania: Photographs by Peter Kayafas'', the Romanian Embassy, Washington, Dc, May 4-June 4, 2006 * ''Peter Kayafas: Recent Photographs of America'', Sasha Wolf Gallery, New York, January–March 2008 * ''Peter Kayafas: Totems'', Sasha Wolf Gallery, New York, May–July 2011 * ''Peter Kayafas: Totems'', Gallery Kayafas, Boston, January–February 2012 * ''The Way West: Photographs by Peter Kayafas'', Sasha Wolf Gallery, New York, April–June 2014 * ''Peter Kayafas: Ecos, Universidad Del Claustro De Sor Juana'',

Mexico City Mexico City is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Mexico, largest city of Mexico, as well as the List of North American cities by population, most populous city in North America. It is one of the most important cultural and finan ...

, March–May 2016 * ''Coming of Age in the West, Photographs by Peter Kayafas'', the Century Association, New York, March–April 2017

Group exhibitions

* ''Straight Arrows (Group Show)'', Ariel Meyerowitz Gallery, New York, 2001 * ''The Sidewalk Never Ends (Group Show)'', Art Institute of Chicago, 2002 * ''Alone: Images of Isolation from the Permanent Collection (Group Show)'', the

DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park The deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum is a sculpture park and contemporary art museum on the southern shore of Flint's Pond in Lincoln, Massachusetts, 20 miles northwest of Boston. It was established in 1950, and is the largest park of its k ...

, Lincoln, MA, 2002 * ''Gotham: Photographs of New York (Group Show)'',

Fitchburg Art Museum The Fitchburg Art Museum (FAM) is a regional art museum based in Fitchburg, Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. Description The Fitchburg Art Museum serves the cities of Fitchburg and Leominster, as well as the surrounding communi ...

, Fitchburg, MA, 2002 * ''Vernacular Territory: Photographs by George Tice, Kate Schermerhorn & Peter Kayafas'', Ariel Meyerowitz Gallery, New York, 2005 * ''Moving Through New England (Group Show)'', the Decordova Museum, Lincoln, Massachusetts, October–September 2007 * ''Photographs of Children from the Permanent Collection (Group Show)'', the

, Lincoln, Massachusetts February–April 2008 * ''In Our Dreams (Group Show)'', Sasha Wolf Gallery, New York, June–August 2008 * ''Signs: Wordplay in Photography (Group Show)'', De Young Museum, San Francisco, Ca., January–June, 2009 * ''Residents & Visitors: 20th Century Photographs of Louisiana (Group Show)'', New Orleans Museum of Art, November, 2011 * ''AIPAD Photography Show (Sasha Wolf Gallery) (Group Show)'', the Armory, New York, March–April 2012 * ''AIPAD Photography Show (Sasha Wolf Gallery) (Group Show)'', the Armory, New York, April 3-April 6, 2013 * ''Group Exhibition: The Drinking Show'', Sasha Wolf Gallery, New York, July 10-August 16, 2013 * ''Romeo & Juliet in Pictures: A Group Show'', Sasha Wolf Gallery, New York, June–August 2014 * ''The Collected Image: Photography Portfolios'',

, Fitchburg, Massachusetts, October 2018 – August 2019 * ''Unlimited: Recent Gifts from the William Goodman and Victoria Belco Photography Collection (Group Show Curated by Sandra Phillips)'', UC Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Rim Archive, Berkeley, California, March–September 2019

Collections

Kayafas' work is held in the following public collections: *

, Chicago, IL *

, Brooklyn, NY *

, Lincoln, MA *

Fidelity Fidelity is the quality of faithfulness or loyalty. Its original meaning regarded duty in a broader sense than the related concept of '' fealty''. Both derive from the Latin word , meaning "faithful or loyal". In the City of London financial m ...

, Boston, MA *Joy of Giving Something (Dreyfus) Collection *Museum of the City of New York, NY *

, New York, NY *

Nevada Museum of Art The Nevada Museum of Art, is an art museum in Reno, Nevada. Located at 160 West Liberty Street in Reno, it is the only American Alliance of Museums (AAM) accredited art museum in the state of Nevada. The museum has chosen a thematic approach, pl ...

, Reno, NV *

, New Orleans, LA *

, New York, NY *

Rhode Island School of Design Museum The Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design (RISD Museum) is an art museum integrated with the Rhode Island School of Design, in Providence, Rhode Island, US. The museum was co-founded with the school in 1877. It is the 20th-largest art m ...

, Providence, RI *

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) is a modern art, modern and contemporary art museum and nonprofit organization located in San Francisco, California. SFMOMA was the first museum on the West Coast devoted solely to 20th-century art ...

, San Francisco, CA * UC Berkeley Art Museum, Berkeley, CA

References

External links

*
Kayafas on Sasha Wolf Projects
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kayafas, Peter 21st-century American photographers American street photographers Photographers from New York City 1971 births Living people 21st-century American male artists