Penumbra Foundation is pleased to present, More than I could ask, Dawn Kim’s first solo exhibition in New York City. Sequestered in their everyday lives,  Kim’s subjects are encountered in their in-between moments at work and rest. 

Systems of belief, power, labor, and language are common themes that thread through all of Kim’s work. These photographs explore the visual language of portraiture across a broad range of people and places, employing different approaches in form, tone, and genre. Using her large format 4 x 5 inch field camera to make these images over the last three years, the artist writes about her process: 

I started by photographing people I know, but I found my companions too accommodating.  I think they tried to present themselves to my camera in the ways that they thought that I wanted. I turned to the vagaries of strangers to see what it looks like to closely observe another person unburdened with familiarity. 

I want to understand what portraiture can and cannot be. What’s the difference between a portrait and a picture of a person? Do portraits need to picture a person? How far back can I walk before a portrait becomes something else?

When I stop a person or group of people to ask if I can photograph them, they often want to know why. I could respond with something about the beauty of the light, or their gait across the street, their matching polos, their job that should be recorded, or the most accurate—that I’d like to try to describe the way I saw them. 

Portraiture holds a unique power to depict the inner tension between who one is and who they project to the world. The in-between of the setting up process and making of the portrait creates a state suspension in which the subject’s outward character begins to loosen. For Kim, good portraiture captures this subtle yet profound shift that occurs during the brief few minutes given in her encounters. She acknowledges that what she can ask for in that space is limited but that the endeavor of working in portraiture transcends where ordinary language fails.