Derfner Judaica Museum explores American identity through portrait photography

Derfner Judaica Museum and Art Collection at Hebrew Home at Riverdale revealed its newest exhibition, “Taking a Broad View: Portrait Photography from the Collection,” an exploration of American identity through 30 distinct photographs.

The collection spans work from 13 artists between the late 19th century and the early 21st century. The subjects captured are diverse, and include New York City workers during the Victorian era, women rabbis, and musical icons Frank Sinatra and Ray Charles — all connected by the common thread of examining how people are represented, and who represents them in photography, said Derfner’s chief curator and museum director, Susan Chevlowe.

The idea for the exhibit was born from the museum’s own collection. Chevlowe was curating a separate show at Derfner, when she took notice of the amount of photography portraits. Realizing it was the United States’ 250th anniversary year, the theme started coming together in her mind.

“It’s really interesting to me how all the different photographers are coming into the worlds that they’re representing,” Chevlowe said. “Whether they’re already in that world, and of that world, or representing it as an outsider.”

One photo by GisMO, a team of two first-generation Cuban Americans, shows a staged scene with two women at a bar, adorned in glitzy dresses with drinks in hand. In “Club Culebra - Yanette Manolo y Herminia” — part of a 10-piece series called “Majestuosas Princesas” — the women featured are the artists themselves,  Jessica Gispert and Crystal Molinary, who are both based in Miami, Florida.

GisMO pokes fun at the flashiness of America, the museum said, touching on consumerism and looks. The duo is also known for diving into tropes within Latin American subcultures, and performing characters that “challenge conventional notions of femininity, beauty and taste through exaggeration, provocation and humor,” according to Derfner.

Work by another artist, James Kriegsmann, also features posed photos. But, his are black-and-white portraits of subjects who, at the time, were rising stars. He photographed Sinatra in 1940, before the singer launched his solo career, and is said to be the one who suggested Sinatra wear the bow tie that would go on to become a signature look.

Kriegsmann was from a Yiddish-speaking family and immigrated to Morrisania from Sadagora, modern-day Ukraine. At the time Kriegsmann was born in 1909, it was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Kriegsmann spent time earlier in his career photographing at the Cotton Club, a nightclub started in Harlem by a mobster where Black artists performed for white audiences. The same way the club launched the careers of now-famous performers such as Cab Calloway and Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, it gave Kriegsmann a start too. In his own studio, Kriegsmann is said to have welcomed Black clients in an era where many photographers refused, the museum said.

Other artists are more clearly intertwined in two worlds. Larry Fink is a Brooklyn-born photographer who settled in rural Pennsylvania, well-known for photographs of high society in New York City. But, his works featured in the exhibit are quieter and more intimate, such as “First Communion, Bronx, N.Y.” which shows a young girl in a white dress with an older woman doing her hair.

The piece is a part of Fink’s “Making Out,” a series shot between 1957 and 1980 that presents “quintessential American experiences” through “ordinary people seeking to connect,” according to Derfner.

Also an East Coast artist, Judy Gelles used portraits of herself, her kids and her husband to explore motherhood and feminism within suburban life. Photos featured are from her series “Family Portrait,” shot between 1977 and 1982 in Rhode Island, with captions handwritten underneath that reveal Gelle’s inner feelings.

Below a photo of her husband and young son, the boy gazing up at the man, she writes, “Jason is beginning to identify with Richard. In fact he thinks his dad knows everything. In fact he truly idolizes Richard. I find this all very strange since Richard is Never Home.”

Cedric Smith, a painter and photographer, also provides social commentary in his featured work, but instead on the “lack of Black representation among haute couture and in print and television advertisements,” the artist said, referring to his childhood through the 1970s and ‘80s in Georgia.

“Where were we among the beautiful people?” Smith asks. “Were we not worthy of luxury?”

Smith’s work shows vintage, black-and-white images of Black individuals, recontextualized into scenes of a luxury car, a brightly decorated cupcake and a bus stop bench.

“Taking a Broad View: Portrait Photography from the Collection” will be on view through Jan. 24, 2027. The museum is part of the RiverSpring Living campus at 5901 Palisade Ave. It’s open Sunday through Thursday, from 10:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.  Admission is free.