GAIL ALBERT HALABAN: OUT MY WINDOW

GAIL ALBERT HALABAN

Gail Albert-Halaban, who lives and works in New York, began photographing when she was 6, when she made a camera for her first grade science fair. She holds an MFA from Yale University. Her art explores the tension between public and private life, what is seen by all, and what is hidden. The series Out My Window is a collection of images taken through and into windows in New York City, she acknowledges unspoken voyeurism and exhibitionism, tells us to admit we all do it, and then pushes us to confront the hope, isolation and other emotions that lie behind the gaze.

The pictures seem intrusive, but are nearly all posed. The residents are collaborators and their apartments are lit specifically to make these pictures, which explore a defining urban experience: becoming secretly familiar with the neighbors’ most intimate moments. In the end, the process of producing this series of images is a kind of performance that serves as a remedy for the symptoms that they portray: by ringing on doorbells, Albert-Halaban helps bring anonymous neighbors into each others’ lives. The set-up of the camera and the staging of the resultant photograph become an occasion for new friendships.

She has had several group and solo exhibitions both in the US and abroad, including at the Centre Culturel Calouste Gulbenkain, Paris, and the Center of Photography and the Moving Image, New York, and her photographs have been recently acquired by the Fondation Hermès, Paris. Previous series of works include Hopper Redux, the subject of her first exhibition at the gallery, Out My Window, This Stage of Motherhood and About Thirty. Her photographs have been published in numerous publications and online including New York Times Magazine, Huffington Post and Slate. Out My Window was Albert-Halaban’s first major publication, issued by powerHouse Books in 2012. Albert-Halaban holds an MFA from Yale University; she lives and works in New York City.

PRESS RELEASE

ISTANBUL’74 is pleased to present the first photography project, ‘Out My Window’ – Istanbul by Gail Albert Halaban in Istanbul, Turkey. After the international success of the series on NYC and Paris, Gail Albert Halaban shot around the city of Istanbul in September 2015 and will be showing her works at the ISTANBUL’74 Galatasaray Gallery from November 20th, 2015 to January 23rd, 2016.

Through Gail Albert Halaban’s photography project ‘Out My Window’ the artist brings together neighbors who have never met and invites them to stand in each other’s shoes the time of a photoshoot, transforming their relationships with each other and the local urban community. ‘Out My Window’ gives a role in the play of the stage of their communities.

Gail Albert Halaban focuses on the paradox of life in urban societies, where people go by their everyday life with no interaction with one another. The artist sheds a light on the unseen of city life and plays with the notion of collective voyeurism. The project creates an interaction between the participants by sharing their intimate and private life and encourages them to explore the distance among them.

After completing projects in New York City and Paris, which have been exhibited internationally and published as monographs, Gail Albert Halaban found inspiration in Istanbul for the new series. The ‘Out My Window – Istanbul’ series is showing from November 20th, 2015 to January 23rd, 2016 at ISTANBUL’74 Galatasaray Gallery. ISTANBUL’74 will publish a book of the project after the exhibition.