live with it

Solas Gallery is honored to present pieces from the Steve and Caryl Baron Collection, selected by Michelle Dunn Marsh.

Beginning his creative life as a photographer, Stevan A. Baron (1938-2010) eventually spent forty years overseeing production at Aperture Foundation. He was responsible for printing issues of Aperture magazine, as well as monographs by masters including Paul Strand, Minor White, Robert Adams, Diane Arbus, Nan Goldin, Sally Mann, and many more. Baron was also instrumental to the development of Aperture’s limited-edition print program, which began over fifty years ago to provide stunning works of photographic art to a wider audience.

Multiple photographs by Paul Strand, and select prints featuring Minor White, Edward Weston, Dorothea Lange, Eikoh Hosoe, and Paul Caponigro will be on view. These are photographs Steve Baron was particularly fond of by photographers he respected, as well as prints (gelatin silver, platinum palladium, and gravure) he proudly facilitated.

Caryl Baron died in New York City in 2023, and left the responsibility of these photographs to Michelle Dunn Marsh, a student, employee, and friend of her husband. Unaware of this planned gift, Dunn Marsh was in the midst of a downsizing when she learned that over forty boxes and crates of photographs were arriving on her doorstep.

“Going through everything this last year stirred up joy, grief, anxiety, determination, and wonder,“ Dunn Marsh shared. “When I was his student, Steve gave me a book with a special binding, saying, ‘live with it for as long as you need.’ I’m holding onto those words now as I choose to keep some prints, and part with others. Sharing the work is the most important action I can take, and I’m grateful Solas invited me to do so.” This is the first public showcase drawn from the archive she received.

Michelle Dunn Marsh worked with Aperture for fifteen years, and led PCNW from 2013 to 2020. In 2013 she also founded Minor Matters with Steve McIntyre. Since then, they’ve published over thirty art books with a particular emphasis on photography.

Over the course of this show we will host a series of informal gatherings and Dunn Marsh will present other treasures from the collection, including Paul Strand’s White Fence in silver and gravure, artists’ proofs from two different printings of Dorothea Lange’s Migrant Mother, and vintage prints by Paul Strand and Minor White. Discussions will take place at 4pm on 29th June, 6th July, 13th July, and 20th July.