Steven Kasher Discusses Memoir of a Collection
For more than three decades, New York gallerist Steven Kasher has championed artists and photographic archives that reshaped how we understand visual culture—from Civil Rights–era photography to overlooked masters and unexpected vernacular images. In his new book, Memoir of a Collection: Finding Meaning through Art, Kasher turns his attention inward, reflecting on the artworks that shaped his life and career.
Part memoir, part art criticism, and part philosophical inquiry, the illustrated volume brings together a series of linked essays in which Kasher examines the images that left a lasting mark on him—works that illuminate not only the artists who created them but also the personal and historical experiences through which we encounter art.
Steven Kasher is a New York–based gallerist, curator, writer, and former artist. He founded Steven Kasher Gallery in 1995, where he organized more than two hundred exhibitions devoted to historic and contemporary photography. Earlier in his career he curated major exhibitions of Civil Rights photography that helped bring renewed attention to the visual history of the movement. Kasher has written extensively on photography and visual culture. He is the author of seven books including The Civil Rights Movement: A Photographic History, 1954-68; America and the Tintype; Max’s Kansas City: Art, Glamour, Rock and Roll; Least Wanted: A Century of American Mugshots.BPL Presents programs are made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.
