Obscura Gallery - Santa Fe Photography Gallery

10/14/2026

Opening this week at the New Mexico Museum of Art, with Obscura Gallery artist Joan Myers:

'Legacies on the Land: Photographs by Joan Myers and Patrick Nagatani'
Curated by the museum's former Curator of Photography Katherine Ware.

Oct. 17, 2026 – May 30, 2027

In the 1980s and 1990s, two American photographers based in New Mexico, Joan Myers (b. 1944) and Patrick Nagatani (1945-2017), traveled independently to photograph the remains of World War II detention camps where approximately 120,000 Japanese Americans and people of Japanese descent were incarcerated. The exhibition coincides with the exhibition 'Reclaiming the Future: The Legacy of Japanese American Incarceration', on view at the museum’s Vladem Contemporary.

Read more about the exhibition here:
https://www.nmartmuseum.org/exhitions/legacies-on-the-land/

📷 From L to R, all in the collection of the New Mexico Museum of Art:

Joan Myers, Spoon and China, 1984, platinum-palladium print

Joan Myers, Hospital Debris, Heart Mountain, Wyoming, 1984, platinum-palladium print

Joan Myers, Metal Objects, 1984, platinum-palladium print

10/01/2026

On View Now!

'Where do I Go', by Rania Matar, is a photographic exhibition from the book of the same name which is a collaboration with the young women of Lebanon, seeking collectively to commemorate and to reimagine the future of a country defined by half a century of conflict and catastrophe. The year 2025 marked fifty years since the outbreak of the Lebanese Civil War. Half a century later, Lebanon continues to endure the aftermath of the Civil War, compounded by economic collapse, the COVID-19 pandemic, the Beirut Port explosion of August 4, 2020, and yet other wars in 2024 and 2026. Amid this unraveling, Rania found hope and inspiration in the young generation of women. She collaborated with them to tell their stories and to focus on their strength, creativity, dignity, and resilience, as they considered their options. 'Where Do I Go?' became the title of this series and the book. Rania describes the images as her love letter to the women of Lebanon.

"Through it all, I found hope and inspiration in the young generation of women. I chose to focus on their majestic presence, creativity, strength, dignity, and resilience. I see my younger self in these women. I left Lebanon at age twenty to study in the United States in 1984. It was during the Civil War, in what had been the largest wave of emigration – until recently. Many find themselves at that same juncture, as they face the painful decision of whether to stay or leave. One road leads to separation from family, home, and life as they know it, the other means staying despite the fraught conditions in the country, always holding on to hope for better days." - Rania Matar

The book signing is at Obscura Gallery with Rania on Saturday, October 24 at 3:30pm and is followed by an artist reception from 4-6pm.

📷 L to R:
RANIA MATAR. Maya (Odalisque With Cat), Beirut, Lebanon, 2024, 19.2 x 24”, archival pigment ink print, edition of 8

RANIA MATAR Yasmina, قوة (strength), Beirut, Lebanon, 2021, 19.2 x 24”, archival pigment ink print, edition of 8

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09/24/2026

Santa Fe IS the Perfect Getaway! Read about it here and thank you to ArtDesk in the The New York Times this past weekend for including Obscura Gallery and all the other art and food feasts our city provides!

Here at Obscura Gallery we have an incredible inventory of Kurt Markus and Brigitte Carnochan prints and we are happy to share all of our photography with you on your next visit to the Visit Santa Fe

09/23/2026

Thank you to The Santa Fe New Mexican's Vida Magazine for this extremely wonderful and thorough article on the incredible Nevada Wier whose infrared color work we exhibited this Summer! Come visit the gallery anytime to view these gorgeous prints in person!

At 74, the Santa Fe photographer travels six to eight months of the year.

09/22/2026

This is the last week to see the exhibition, 'In Light and Shadow: A Photographic History from Indigenous America'.

Thanks to all the artists who participated in the exhibition, and to the authors of the book, Brian Adams and Sarah Stacke. Obscura was thrilled to be able to share your work with our audience.

The exhibition, curated by Obscura Gallery, Brian Adams, and Sarah Stacke, presents work by 20 contemporary Indigenous American photographers featured in the book, 'In Light and Shadow', who explore themes of sovereignty, identity, land, and community. Historical photographs are displayed alongside the contemporary work to reveal visual lineages spanning generations.

The exhibition is on view through September 26, 2026.

JOSUÉ RIVAS. Mexica, Otomi. The Last Stand, February 2017. 20 x 36", archival pigment ink print, edition of 3

NĪA MACKNIGHT. Lakota, Anishinaabe, Scottish. Great Grandfather, 2021. 13 x 20", archival pigment ink print, edition of 1

MARUCH SÁNTIZ GÓMEZ. Tsotsil Maya. CH’UCH’ | Hoja de Bejao | Bejao leaf, c. 1994–96. CH’UCH’ | Hoja de Bejao | Bejao leaf.
No mencionar el nombre de la hoja de Bejao al envolver
tamales.
Do not mention the name of the Bejao leaf when you
make tamales. K’alal chbat jk’okbetik tal spix pats’e mu la xtun
jbiiltastik, mi la jbiiltastike mu la xta’aj li pats’e;
sepkantik la tse sepkantik la tok’on. 11 x 14", archival pigment ink print, edition of 15

TÁHILA MOSS. Yaqui, Jewish. Deer Grove, 2016. 11 x 14", gelatin silver print, edition of 1

MARTÍN CHAMBI. Quechua. Stone wall, Machu Picchu, c. 1930. 9 x 6.75", gelatin silver print, stamped verso

09/10/2026

On view through September 26, the exhibition, 'In Light and Shadow: A Photographic History from Indigenous America.'

The book 'In Light and Shadow: A Photographic History from Indigenous America' is co-authored by Iñupiaq photographer Brian Adams and photographer/author Sarah Stacke. The exhibition, curated from the book, presents work by 20 contemporary Indigenous American photographers featured in the book who explore themes of sovereignty, identity, land, and community. Historical photographs are displayed alongside the contemporary work to reveal visual lineages spanning generations.

📷 From Left to Right:

LUVIA LAZO. Zapotec. Soledad Chavez, Teotitlán del Valle, México, 2022. 24 x 20", archival pigment ink print, edition of 9

KALI SPITZER. Kaska Dena, Jewish. Portrait of Larissa Grieves, Nisga’a, Gitxsan, Métis, Swedish, Irish, and Scottish. Made in 2021 on the unceded territory of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil- Waututh Nations. 25 x 20", archival pigment ink print, edition of 3

RUSSEL ALBERT DANIELS. Diné, Ho-Chunk. Maurice Archuleta in the Rio Chama River Valley, 2019. 20 x 16", archival pigment ink print, edition of 15

09/04/2026

Just in time for Santa Fe Autumn, we now have this impeccable Ansel Adams print newly available in the gallery. Taken in 1958 in the Sangre de Christo mountains north of Santa Fe, Adams captured the high-desert light on the mountain Aspens in the most iconic way. It's why we all take the iconic Fall drive up to the Ski Basin this time of year when the leaves are turning golden yellow.

Shot at a one-second exposure, Adams' account of the scene is quintessential Autumn in our mountains, "We were in the shadow of the mountains [north of Santa Fe], the light was cool and quiet and no wind was stirring. The aspen trunks were slightly greenish and the leaves were vibrant yellow. The forest floor was covered with a tangle of russet shrubs. It was very quiet." - quote courtesy of the Ansel Adams Gallery

If you have not seen this impeccable print in person, come visit us. Inquire for more information: [email protected]

📷 Ansel Adams, Aspens, Northern New Mexico, 1958, 15 x 18.75", gelatin silver print, printed 1973-77, signed in pencil ‘Ansel Adams’ on mount recto. Carmel credit stamp [BMFA stamp 11] in ink (mount verso)

09/01/2026

On view through September 26:
'In Light and Shadow: A Photographic History from Indigenous America.'

📷 DAKOTA MACE. Diné. The Way Things Are, 2021. 11 x 14", solarplate, chine-collé etching, edition of 5

08/27/2026

We are very excited to offer select, one-of-a-kind gelatin silver prints that Lynn Stern made in 2002 before she settled on large archival pigment ink prints for the Passage series. The gelatin silver prints are smaller, on 16 x 20" paper, and served as earlier studies for the series. When the gelatin silver paper and developer were discontinued and she could not complete the series to her satisfaction, she decided to print them as large archival inkjet prints, which afforded wider options than the increasingly limited number of photographic papers. These rare gelatin silver prints are subtle, luminous, and incredible examples of Lynn's inherent ability to focus on the highlights through abstraction in the darkroom.

📷 Please inquire for further information on the one-of-a-kind prints available.

The primary focus of Lynn Stern’s black-and-white film photography is luminosity, a fascination unchanged throughout a 47-year photographic career. Stern uses exclusively natural, indirect light, making it the subject of her images rather than the means by which to illuminate things. Since 1985, Stern has been using translucent scrims to create a quality of light that is immaterial and filled with energy.

As the daughter of the late David M. Solinger (art collector and former Whitney Museum president), Stern grew up surrounded by an extensive collection of Abstract Expressionist paintings and sculptures. Her later influences would include photographers Edward Weston and Paul Caponigro and painters of the 19th-century Luminist movement.

Lynn Stern has exhibited throughout the United States and Europe, and her photographs are included in numerous public and private collections, including the Brooklyn Museum of Art; the Herbert F. Johnson Museum, Cornell University (Ithaca); the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; the Portland Art Museum; the Victoria and Albert Museum (London); the Whitney Museum of American Art (New York); and the Yale University Art Gallery (New Haven, CT), among others. The Lynn Stern archive is located at the Center for Creative Photography, Tucson, AZ.

08/21/2026

Available in the gallery!

📷 EDWARD STEICHEN
Joan Crawford, 1932
13.25 x 9.75″
Gelatin silver print
From the portfolio, ‘Twenty-five Photographs, 1932″
Estate print, printed by master printer George Tice 1981-2, and authenticated with a copyright label signed in ink by both Joanna Steichen and George Tice on print verso.

Edward Steichen photographed Joan Crawford in 1932, capturing her rising Hollywood stardom and defining the sleek, modern aesthetic of 1930s celebrity culture. He took this image as part of his work as the chief portrait and fashion photographer for Condé Nast's Vanity Fair magazine, during the time when silent films gave way to talking pictures.

"In 1928, Joan Crawford became a star by embodying the carefree life of a flapper in the silent film 'Our Dancing Daughters'. In 1932, Steichen captured Crawford at the peak of her sensuality and allure. Enrobed in a black Elsa Schiaparelli dress, a white rose affixed to the lapel at her breast, Crawford stands in stark contrast to the white wall behind her. Her pose with one hip cocked to the side hints at her years as a Broadway chorus girl." - Rob Maitner

Edward Steichen (1879-1973) was a pioneer of 20th-century photography, shifting from painterly Pictorialism to sharp-focus commercial, fashion, and war photography. He co-founded the Photo-Secession in 1902 with Alfred Stieglitz, promoting photography as a fine art. In addition to serving as chief photographer for Vogue and Vanity Fair, he later became the director of the photography department at the Museum of Modern Art where he curated the iconic "The Family of Man" exhibition.