Coming in Fall 2026, Hunter College and Hirmir Publishers will co-publish an exhibition catalogue to accompany Speaking in Pairs.Pre-order your copy now for discounted price. Catalogues will ship in late Fall 2026.

Can a portrait represent violence and healing at the same time? By juxtaposing iconic images created at points of conflict and growth in history, Speaking in Pairs examines how conflicting forces can be experienced in what initially appears to be a quiet photograph and how such evidence of being present, alive, can increase visibility or hasten our demise.

Portraits allow immortality. But who gets to be pictured and seen? Who may tell their story? Speaking in Pairs seeks to offer navigational references across time and geography, between works and the practitioners making, or pondering, them. It considers art's historical and contemporary response to oppression and crisis and offers representation to those impacted by extraordinary events. It unravels the dynamics between sitters, artists, and viewers.  complicate the image in ways that are not immediately discernible.

Reiner Leist is the author of South Africa: Blue Portraits, American Portraits, Window: Eleven Septembers, South Africa: Another Country. Leist taught in the Visual Arts Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and is currently a professor and Photography Area Head at Hunter College, The City University of New York.

List of included artists:
Wim Wenders, Tuli Mekondjo, Elinor Carucci, Susan Meiselas, Camilo Vergara, Hans Haacke, Dennis Adams, Hanna Schygulla, Candida Höfer, Dawoud Bey, Marco Breuer, Dorothea Lange, Sigridur Zoega, Albert Hien, Ken Ohara, Melissa Shook, Paul Fusco, Rein Jelle Terpstra, Carl van Fechten, Thomas Gilson, Meredith Davenport, Yoongme Yoon, Barbara Klemm, Michael Wesely, Judith Joy Ross, Sam Sherman, Omer Fast, Vie Darling, Juan Sanchez, Virginia Vergara, Alfred Stieglitz, August Sander, Hans Winkler, Nobu Aozaki, Reiner Leist, Andrea Frank, Sadaf Azadehfar, Carly Ries, Vera Lutter, Graciela Iturbide, Marc Ohrem-Leclef and others.

Contributions from:
Elisabeth Biondi, Noelle Théard, Michael Lobel, Elisabeth Sussman, Hanna Schygulla, Thomas Lang, Florian Feiner, Francesca Esmay, Olaf Peters, Tess Hamilton, Paul Messier, Stanley Burns, Liz Burns, Peter Cohen, Benjamin Hett, Marvin Heiferman and others.

Speaking in Pairs is on view at Bertha and Karl Leubsdorf Gallery from February 5 to April 19, 2026, and was curated by Reiner Leist, Professor of Art & Art History at Hunter College, with MA and MFA students enrolled in the Advanced Curatorial Certificate Seminar.

The exhibition is organized by Katie Hood Morgan, Chief Curator and Deputy Director, and Tara Ohanian, Assistant Curator and Exhibitions Manager. Exhibition design: Louisa Thompson and Reiner Leist in collaboration with the curatorial fellows Caitlin Anklam and Sofia Rivera. MA and MFA students: Adrienne Keller, Noa Raviv, Vivek Sebastian, and Ingrid Song.

Purchasing Details:
Pre-order: $40
Regular price: $50

Bulk order discounts available.

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15% student discount. Discount also available for members of Hunter community (students, staff, faculty). Contact aleeq.kroshian@hunter.cuny.edu for discount code.