Midtown Y Photography Gallery


Midtown Y Photography Gallery was a pioneering nonprofit organisation in New York that offered photographers an opportunity to publicly exhibit their work. The Gallery ran from 1972 until 1996 directed in turn by photographers Larry Siegel, Sy Rubin and Michael Spano.

Establishment

Larry Siegel, with the help of Robert Menschel and NYSCA, founded the Midtown Y Photography Gallery in 1972 as a corridor gallery at the Emanu-El Midtown YM-YWHA on 14th Street. Larry Siegel had previously established the Image Gallery, which along with Helen Gee’s Limelight Gallery was one of the few venues in New York City, apart from the Museum of Modern Art, that held photography exhibitions in the 1950s and early 1960s.

Purpose

Though it occasionally showed historical photographs, and established contemporary practitioners such as David Attie and Robert Giard during its first decade, the Midtown Y Photography Gallery concentrated on promoting the work of emerging artists. It issued open calls for participation in large thematic exhibitions but most often selected exhibitors by conducting portfolio reviews, the work being shown alongside that of one or two other photographers. For most, this was their first “solo” exposure in New York or their first public display of work. Some returned subsequently to show later work.

Exhibitions 1973–1993

The Midtown Y Photography Gallery Archive, bequeathed to The New York Public Library in 1998, is housed in the Photography Collection of The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs, and in the Manuscripts and Archives Division.