About
The Salzmann Photography Center is envisioned as a regional center for the visual arts, located in West Philadelphia. Its purpose is to promote photography and the visual arts through a series of programs and fellowships that will be housed at the Salzmann Photography Center gallery space at 3810 Lancaster Avenue.
The Salzmann Photography Center will feature three inter-related functions:
1. Galleries: The 3810 space comprises two galleries that will support exhibitions by photographers and artists. A third gallery space located at 3625 Lancaster Avenue, (the former PhotoWestGallery), will serve as an ongoing and continuous exhibition space for Salzmann's photographs, films and books. To be opened for scheduled visits.
2. The Salzmann Photography Center has plans to support invited residencies for photographers and artists living outside of Philadelphia. Resident fellows will receive a living space seperate from the Salzmann Photography Center. The Center will help to promote the work of exhibitors in its space through social media and networking and with support from artists whose works are on exhibit.
3. The Salzmann Photography Center plans to hold ongoing programs where photographers and artist will be invited to talk about their work to the public. This will play an important role for photographers and artists having show in the Center’s galleries.
LaurnenceSalzman Photography Trust will support the programs envisioned for The Salzmann Photography Center. The gift represents a major legacy gift of photographer Laurence Salzmann, whose work over sixty years, will be featured in rotating exhibitions in his former studio and home to his archive at 3625 Lancaster Avenue.
Salzmann (born 1944) is a documentary artist from Philadelphia. With an extraordinary career spanning six decades, he is one of the city’s most renowned artists working in lens-based media. An internationalist and a humanist, Salzmann has worked in over a dozen countries, learning half a dozen languages along the way. In creating his studies of little known communities around the world, he has adopted a method of full immersion, living and working with local communities for months and years. His photo works and film works defy easy categorization. Part historical record, part ethical chronicle, part visual poetry, Salzmann’s works chart new pathways in the exploration of the folkways and values of communities, demonstrating the dignity of lives very different from American mainstream culture. In 2018, the University of Pennsylvania’s Kislak Center for Special Collections acquired the entirety of Salzmann’s archive, for use by future generations. For information about Salzmann’s work, see www.laurencesalzmann.com.
Salzmann Photography Center
@ Photo West Gallery
3810 Lancaster Avenue
Philadephia, Pa.19104
