In Public Spaces, 2022

Review by Guggenheim Curator Nat Trotman

“Drawing on her own experiences of trauma and agoraphobia, Caroline Gray deploys strategies of documentary street photography to examine the power dynamics that infuse women’s daily experiences in urban, public spaces. Combining large-format photographs into diptychs, she offers multiple perspectives on singular environments that her unknowing subjects attempt to navigate, despite barriers that appear both literally and figuratively in the images. A strong sense of empathy bonds Gray, as a woman and an artist, to the subjects of her photographs; without ever having met, they work together to reclaim these spaces as their own.”

In Public Spaces is a collection of images made by Caroline Gray as a Master’s Thesis for the School of Visual Arts Photography, Video, and Related Media Masters Program. Gray worked under the guidance of artists such as Dina Litovsky, Penelope Umbrico, Steel Stillman, and Charles Traub. Gray received her Master’s degree in May of 2022.