Yid Photography Gallery
Cora Synder
At first, using the Stieglitz Collection as both a model and touchstone for the quality and significance of each work, the museum began to acquire in great depth the art of important American photographers including Ansel Adams, Harry Callahan, Walker Evans, Robert Frank, Andr Kertsz, Frederick Sommer, and Paul Strand. In 1995 the acquisition of 165 superb photographs made between 1839 and the mid-20th century allowed the Gallery to begin building a truly comprehensive collection surveying the art of photography in Europe and America from the origins of the medium to the present. Since then, the Gallery has greatly expanded its holdings of photographs, which now include more than 20,000 by nearly 800 photographers representing the finest examples of the art of photography over the past 175 years.
The core of the Ansel Adams collection is the Museum Set, a selection of 75 photographs that Adams believed represented his finest landscape photographs from the early 1920s through the 1960s, such as The Tetons and the Snake River (1942), which captures the monumentality of the American West.
The Walker Evans holdings include significant examples of his work from his earliest studies of New York City made in the late 1930s to some of his late color work, and are distinguished by a large and important group of his photographs made in New York subways between 1938 and 1941.
Other major holdings include outstanding collections of the American photographers Andr Kertsz and Ilse Bing, both Europeans who established significant careers in Paris in the 1920s and 1930s before emigrating to the United States. Postwar photography is represented in great depth, with superb holdings of work by Harry Callahan and Lee Friedlander, as well as more than 300 photographs by the Beat Generation poet Allen Ginsberg.
In recent years, the collection has greatly expanded its holdings of photographs made since the 1960s. The acquisition in 2008 of 93 works by conceptual, Arte Povera, land, and performance artists from the 1960s through the 1980s, including Vito Acconci, Mel Bochner, Dan Graham, Ana Mendieta, and Giuseppe Penone, allows the museum to represent an immense terrain of avant-garde production.
With the opening in 2004 of five new galleries in the West Building for the permanent display of photographs, these works, as well as others from the rapidly growing collection, are frequently on view in temporary exhibitions at the Gallery. However, because photographs are fragile and subject to deterioration if exposed to light for extended periods, they are stored at intervals.
We are now offering punch cards for 6 Hours of Digital or Darkroom Lab Time. Perfect for the darkroom aficionado without a darkroom, or someone looking for a place to print their own work. Save a few bucks off the hourly rate for non-members by buying several hours at a time.
CEPA is supported by dedicated patrons, artists, collectors, and community members. We would not exist without your generosity. We invite you to join us by visiting our gallery, becoming a member, taking a class, making a monetary donation, or donating your time by joining our Board of Directors or Committees.
Your tax-deductible gift of any amount is deeply appreciated. Unrestricted donations allow us to use the funds where they are most needed, but you may designate your gift towards Arts Education, the Contemporary Photography and Visual Arts program, the Photography and the Holocaust, Then and Now exhibit, or our ongoing Blues: A 5/14 Community Memorial Project.
Originally incorporated as the Center for Exploratory and Perceptual Arts to serve as a community darkroom and exhibition space, CEPA Gallery was founded during the Alternative Space Movement in May 1974 by recent graduates of the University of Buffalo.
Visions of Greater Buffalo is a CEPA fundraiser that invites 50 individuals with unique community perspectives to take up single-use film cameras and share their personal vision of the region. Started in 2005, the resulting collection of Buffalo photography has over 350 images taken by visionaries who are representative of the arts, business, sports, community service, and faith-based organizations of the Queen City.
How It Began
I am a 34-year-old adventure seeker, born and raised in Romania, who eventually ended up settling in the United Kingdom and becoming an investment banker. Throughout my professional life, I have been fortunate enough to travel to over 70 countries, always on the lookout for the unique and remote destinations. It was my escape.
With all my business trips, I took a lot of photos with increasingly more complex and expensive equipment. However, until very recently, no one had really seen my images. In some ways, they were taken for my own fulfillment, but deep down I never thought they were good enough.
After having already amassed a huge collection of images from my travels, I made an abrupt U-turn and decided to consult with some of my photography colleagues on what I could do to showcase it. On their advice, I moved to Los Angeles and decided to apply for some open curator events at larger galleries in the city. My work was met with unexpected acclaim. With a perplexed, anxiety-ridden confidence, I concluded that my photos were potentially varied and strong enough to possibly make the idea of opening my own gallery a success.
I laid out a rough plan of what I thought the steps would be to at least get the project going: find a lawyer, find a location, and then find an architect. I needed help, as I was still working a full-time job in finance. One of my very good friends and fellow photographer, Wendy Hudnall, came on board to ease the burden of the planning and build-out schematics.
Location, Location, Location
One of the biggest issues was finding the right location and many hours were spent driving around Los Angeles looking at not only main street locations but also existing and soon-to-be constructed high-end shopping malls. I was more drawn to the idea of being in a luxury mall as that would naturally bring the foot traffic to me rather than me having to rely on the flow of people on the street, which depending on the location could be very hit or miss.
It was by pure chance that the space I currently occupy came to me. It was presented to me that Westfield Development was in advanced construction to expand the Topanga Mall in Woodland Hills, by building an outdoor mall called The Village. It was to be the family-friendly shopping location with over 15 restaurants and many other boutique stores, greatly complimenting the more high-end Topanga Mall that houses Tiffany, Ferragamo, and Gucci. There were not many spaces available. However, by luck, Westfield decided to split one of the larger stores located by the main square into two separate lots. Many lawyer meetings later, the location was mine, a 1,500-square-foot rectangle of potential gallery space. It was to be my great experiment.
A Unique Design
It was crucial to have the interior look and feel of the space visualized in order to pitch it to Westfield. By pure chance the architect (Relativity Architects) I found shared the same vision to help make the gallery a reality. They were very supportive of the gallery idea and after many discussions were able to present four separate designs that supported my creative plan. I always wanted the space to be kept modern, with little to distract from the images themselves, and I believe their designs achieved that brilliantly.
It was during a meeting on Sunset Boulevard that the entire course of the project changed. One of the proposed designs was so unique and captivating that it was impossible to turn down. Their design revolved around using casted trees and having the branches strategically placed so that the prints themselves hang at different heights. Each branch would have a steel core wrapped in wood that would be painted white to sharply contrast the dark gray walls.
This design would also end up providing cover for the main supporting beam of the store as the branches are springing upward and essentially engulfing it, further adding to the continuity of the tree design. It was to be a design like no other. The artwork is suspended from the branches using metallic cables, which clasp custom-made Plexiglas that has built-in cleats, allowing for the images to easily attach. The advantage is that the Plexiglas and cables are strong enough to hang one print on either side, thus eliminating the worry of the back of the pieces being exposed. They also provide the sense of the pieces floating in midair.
Not only is this a unique way to showcase the works but it also allowed me to more than double the number of images that I can display at one time. Given the relatively small space of the gallery, the design has given me the freedom to eliminate the need to place fake dividing walls which would have drastically reduced the open space and modern feel of the interior. It is unlike anything that has ever been achieved before and was quite an architectural struggle to say the least.
It was a horrible, demoralizing process, and many times I did question what I was doing and why. I felt guilty dragging my wife into this project and I was a nervous wreck. I felt that all I was doing was depleting our savings. I recall thinking of all the negative things and how it felt as though this project would never get done.
What if this is a disaster? What if people hate my work? What if I have to close the store within a few months as I am not selling anything? Coupled with the fact that I was still working a full-time job, I would have to sneak out to check on construction or to get on a conference call to put out a fire. It felt like I was on a roller coaster that was not stopping and that we were in build-out mode for many months when it was only about eight weeks.
The Opening
Somehow we miraculously opened on time. The gallery was not fully complete; some items were missing such as the main desk that was not cut in time, the back wall did not have the wood faade in place, and the display walls were not painted completely. Most crucially, the day before officially opening, two separate cables supporting the Plexiglas snapped and the plates fell and smashed. Because of this, the flooring was also damaged and needed immediate replacing at an additional high cost. Three prints were damaged, so I had to open without a full showing and had to buy a thicker cable and sturdier clasp system.