‘In Good Time’: Aperture’s Doug DuBois survey rewards a patient viewer

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After Dinner, December, Far Hills, New Jersey, 1985
For the latest collaboration between the Aperture Foundation and the Hermès Foundation, Aperture’s New York gallery space presents ‘In Good Time: Pictured: After Dinner, December, Far Hills, New Jersey, 1985
(Image credit: Doug DuBois)

For the latest collaboration between the Aperture Foundation and the Hermès Foundation, Aperture’s New York gallery space presents ‘In Good Time: Photographs by Doug DuBois’. The first mid-career survey of the American photographer’s work, the exhibition includes an impressive collection of over 50 prints.

In one early series dating from 1984, when DuBois first began pursuing photography, he includes handwritten text on a white border. ‘I was trying to figure out how portraits could narrate,’ he explains on a gallery walk-through. ‘It helped me figure out how portraits could set up a story.’

It wasn’t long before DuBois had figured out how portraits narrate stories – without having to add text. Many of these portraits are included in the exhibition. They come from three distinct bodies of work: All the Days and Nights, Avella and My Last Days at Seventeen. The show’s curator, Cory Jacobs, credits All the Days and Nights as a particularly definitive project – a project that took over 20 years, and that Aperture published as a monograph back in 2009. For Avella, DuBois photographed residents of a Pennsylvania coal-mining town, and for My Last Day at Seventeen, his most recent project, DuBois spent five years in Ireland, focusing principally on teenagers in Cobh.

Hermès has made a considerable investment in supporting photography, most notably by sponsoring the Henri Cartier-Bresson award and with exhibitions like ‘In Good Time’.

Referring to Dubois’ famously slow process (the reason for the show’s title), Jacobs says, ‘something becomes revealed if you’re patient’. In her opinion, those people who engage with his work get the same benefit. ‘We can’t stop time, but Doug slows it down for us.’

My Father in the Dining Room, Bridgeville, Pennsylvania, 2005. Right: Eirn on the Eve of her 18th Birthday, Cobh, Ireland, 2009

The first mid-career survey of the American photographer’s work, the exhibition includes an impressive collection of over 50 prints. Pictured left: My Father in the Dining Room, Bridgeville, Pennsylvania, 2005. Right: Eirn on the Eve of her 18th Birthday, Cobh, Ireland, 2009

(Image credit: Doug DuBois)

My Mother In The Bedroom, Far Hills, New Jersey, 1985

My Mother In The Bedroom, Far Hills, New Jersey, 1985

(Image credit: Doug DuBois)

Main Street 2

Main Street 2, Avella, Pennsylvania, 1992

(Image credit: Doug DuBois)

Company House, Avella, Pennsylvania, 1991

Pictured left: Donna and Devon, Main Street, Avella, Pennsylvania, 1992. Right: Company House, Avella, Pennsylvania, 1991

(Image credit: Doug DuBois)

A boy with closed eyes

Luke In Lizgaos Car, San Francisco, 1987

(Image credit: Doug DuBois)

My Father in the Backyard

My Father in the Backyard, Far Hills, New Jersey, 1985

(Image credit: Doug DuBois)

My Mother and Father at the Bar,

My Mother and Father at the Bar, London, 1990

(Image credit: Doug DuBois)

'In Good Time’: Aperture’s Doug DuBois survey rewards a patient viewer

Pictured left: Lise and Spencer, Ithaca, New York, 2004. Right: Lise in the Morning, Ithaca, New York, 2004

(Image credit: Doug DuBois)

INFORMATION

‘In Good Time: Photographs by Doug DuBois’ is on view until 19 May. For more information, visit Aperture’s website

ADDRESS

Aperture Foundation
547 West 27th Street, 4th Floor
New York
NY 10001 

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