CLARK WINTER IN CONVERSATION WITH JOSHUA CHUANG
THURSDAY, MAY 14TH, 7PM | RSVP
Join Penumbra Foundation for Clark Winter in conversation with Joshua Chuang, after which Winter will be signing his three latest books.
Clark Winter’s photographs articulate a form of visual storytelling, seeing things as they are at first glance and then once again after human observation contributes our own imagination.
Photographing since age 6, Winter has lived and worked a variety jobs in the US, Europe, Latin America and Asia, primarily as a global strategist. Wrestling to understand and survive our world in the midst of unprecedented metamorphosis, his photographs bear witness to our world's evolving complications over decades.
In the past year, Winter published three books- Here to There with Damiani, and two books by Stiedl: Free Air. Robert Frank - Hands at Work, exploring Frank as a sculptor rather than a photographer, and Birds, a book about the joy of looking at books. In 2008, he published Either Or (Random House), a book looking at global business decision-making.
Free Air. Robert Frank - Hands at Work
Clark Winter and Robert Frank
Published by Steidl
ISBN: 978-3-96999-350-7
Extent: 128 pages
Binding: Hardbound
Publication Date: 2025
From 1973, Robert Frank’s Bleecker Street studio and home was the crucible of his creativity. Yet just as important was the weather-beaten fisherman’s cottage he bought in 1969 with his wife, artist June Leaf, in Mabou, Nova Scotia. Here they spent much of the year working for the following half-century. Frank the photographer is revered for his ability to explore and record the world with unprecedented understanding. Less known are his remarkable sculptures, which he made using found objects, old photographs and the camera itself.
Clark Winter captures the energy of the Cape Breton landscape and documents Frank amid his creative process. Seen throughout are talismans and mementos: faded postcards, trinkets and bric-a-brac, a photo of a younger Leaf and Frank laughing at us from a joyful day. Seen together, Winter’s photographs reveal yet unknown facets of a creative mind ever fearlessly at work.
steidl.de
Free Air. Robert Frank - Hands at Work
Clark Winter
Published by Steidl
ISBN: 978-3-96999-358-3
Extent: 160 pages
Binding: Hardbound
Publication Date: 2025
Consisting of images photographed from the pages of antique ornithological volumes, this book is Clark Winter’s tribute to the glorious world of exotic birds. In the 18th and 19th centuries, explorers wandered the planet in search of the unknown, sometimes traveling for years with little communication and guidance. When they returned home with specimens of hitherto unknown species of flora and fauna, people were astounded by such visual extravagance. Of birds in particular, their shapes, intricate color patterns and feathers were overwhelming―alternatively described as divinely inspired or the result of evolution and the battle for survival: a debate that continues to this day. With documentation of their intricate hand-colored illustrations, Birds is a testament to this lost sense of awe, one difficult yet not impossible to access in today’s connected world.
steidl.de
Here to There
Clark Winter
Published by Damiani
ISBN: 9788862088398
Extent: 128 pages
Binding: Hardbound
Publication Date: Spring 2025
Clark Winter’s perceptive photographs of cars across the decades—and around the world—revel in nostalgia while revealing the subtleties of our relationship with automobiles, drivers and the things we see along the way. Since their invention, cars have been one of the driving forces behind America’s constantly changing culture. Not only have they helped shape the country’s sprawling cities and suburban society, but they’ve inspired films (from ‘American Graffiti’ to ‘The Fast and the Furious’) and songs (from the Beach Boys’ zippy ‘Fun, Fun, Fun’ to Bruce Springsteen’s anthemic ‘Thunder Road’ ) and an endless parade of road-trip books. Over the course of half a century, Clark Winter captured images of the car as a symbol of Americana, yes, but more intriguingly, he also found a global spirit in this form of transportation in countries such as Spain, Italy and China. Winter’s photographs, made in both color and black-and-white, are not simply focused on the vehicles but rather on the way people physically relate to cars, turning each image into a stage upon which a drama quietly (and sometimes comically) unfolds between owner, passenger, and passerby. And because these dramas are universal—eating ice cream in the backseat, waiting for a pump at the gas station, stuck in traffic, busted for speeding—Winter’s wide-eyed, often lighthearted pictures invite us to recall and relive our own days of adventure, romance and speed.
damianibooks.com
About the Artist:
Born in 1951, Clark Winter has exhibited his work in the United States and Europe. His photographs are published in From Here to There (Damiani, 2025). Further publications include Robert Frank in Conversation with Clark Winter: 10 Films (Steidl, 2025), Birds (Steidl, 2025), and Free Air: Robert Frank — Hands at Work (Steidl, 2025). In addition to his artistic practice, Winter serves as a trustee of the Robert Frank Foundation, New York.
Zander Galerie, Cologne, will present Untold Stories, the first solo exhibition of photographs by Clark Winter in Germany, opening May 30, 2026.
About the Moderator:
Joshua Chuang is a director of photography at Gagosian. He was formerly Miriam & Ira D. Wallach Associate Director for Art, Prints, and Photographs and Robert B. Menschel Senior Curator of Photography at the New York Public Library.
For all questions regarding the program, please contact our Associate Director Lisa di Donato: lisa@penumbrafoundation.org
Any changes to the program will be announced online. All lectures and other events are held at Penumbra Foundation at 7pm. This event is Free to the public.
36 E. 30th St. New York, NY, 10016 (between Madison Ave. & Park Ave. South
(917) 288-0343 | rsvp@penumbrafoundation.org | penumbrafoundation.org