© Jaime Permuth, 2025
I spent last week with a group of fifteen talented and precocious teenagers at NYFA Photography.
We had an amazing workshop in and out of the studio. Participants had a chance to try their hand at street portraiture, street photography, urban landscapes and studio lighting.
Here’s a portrait of Briana by Marygrace using a single, continuous light source. I’ll definitely be missing these young men and women.
Last week I had the great pleasure of welcoming Yana Nosenko, a young photographer from Moscow for an intensive one-on-one photography workshop. We focused mainly on street and documentary practice, including one really fun, experimental day using off-camera flash and wireless triggers.
📷 Yana Nosenko
“Immigrants practicing their tightrope skills on the 4th of July”.
That’s how I might caption this photograph.
Life providing comment on the state of the nation.
I swear, you could never script the stuff you see in the real world.
Day 1 / Private Workshop
Yana, a young photographer from Moscow arrived yesterday in New York to pursue a week-long intensive workshop under my guidance. After corresponding for the past month, this morning we met over coffee at La Colombe to discuss her specific goals and objectives in greater depth and together determine how best to achieve them.
Despite her jet lag and the grueling heat wave, Yana and I had a blast shooting in the East Village. We crashed a picnic or two and met some fascinating New Yorkers along the way. To get some of our strength back, we wrapped things up with a late lunch of roast chicken, rice and beans at "El Rinconcito" on 10th St and Ave C.
Feel free to DM me if you’d like more information on how to study privately with me in New York City.
Aside from serving as a Faculty member at the School of Visual Arts and at New York Film Academy, starting this summer I'll be offering private workshops and one-on-one mentoring.
New York City is an unforgettable destination to experience through the lens. It is also fascinating and endlessly stimulating as a cultural mecca.
The workshops are specifically tailored to the individual needs of each student and the goals they wish to accomplish. Instruction includes hands-on shooting sessions, critique of images, developing editing skills, conceptualizing personal projects and visits to galleries and museums.
I have a student coming in from Moscow for a week-long workshop in July and I will also be teaching at Antidote Photo Retreat in Taos, New Mexico the second week in August.
Other than that, drop me a line and we can discuss in more detail.
Save the date!
I’m giving an Artist Talk this coming Sunday 2PM at Faction Art Projects.
A second talk follows mine, by the always fascinating and provocative Renee Cox.
Free and open to the public.
A great night in Harlem: extraordinary art, stimulating conversations, and four works from my series The Street Becomes on view as part of "Harlem Perspectives" at Faction Art Projects.
How I felt on my first day shooting with a Leica M10. Life is beautiful -
How I felt on my first day shooting with a Leica M10? Like this bro -
When exactly did I become an absent-minded professor? Not sure any more... but just standing next to this other daydreamer made me feel less alone in my labyrinth.
Another blustery day in New York.
My students and I sought refuge and inspiration at the Metropolitan Museum. But before heading out, we spent some time studying and discussing the works of Elliott Erwitt, Matthew Pillsbury and Mitchell Hartman.
This is one of my favorite moments from our visit, at the Michelangelo exhibition, which by the way, is breathtaking -
In the Summer of 2014, I spent two months in residence as a Smithsonian Artist Fellow. During my time in DC, I researched, gathered and secured permissions for all the source materials I required for creating a new book and exhibition project entitled The Street Becomes. The project is interested in the changing character of the urban street in times of war and peace.
The Street Becomes is entirely based on archival images by other photographers. One part of the images come from the private archives of local Washington DC photographers who documented the Latino Festival during the 70s and 80s. The second part comes from the US Marine Corps archives and documents the American military occupation of Central America and the Caribbean in the early 20th Century. My artistic intervention and repurposing of these source images suggests new meanings for the street and examines the kind of contests that are predicated on overtaking and controlling public spaces. The Street Becomes is a metaphorical construct whose extension maps the interrelation of war; displacement; immigration; assimilation and cultural resistance.
Twelve works from The Street Becomes are featured at El Museo del Barrio as part of an exhibition titled "nasty women / bad hombres", which opens June 13th at 7PM.
Today I had a chance to view Pieter Hugo's "1994" exhibition at Yossi Milo Gallery. The title references the year of the Rwandan genocide. Hugo photographed children born after that year. In many cases they are posed directly seated or reclining on the ground. Overall, the portraits come across as tender and hopeful, and yet there is an ominous quality to them as well. The clothing worn by the children can have a jarring and surreal effect; the ground enshrouds them like an open grave.
As I viewed these incredible portraits I couldn't help superimposing them onto another set of images: Gilles Peress' iconic document of the tragic events of 1994, which I printed repeatedly for his exhibitions when I worked for him in 1996/7.
I hope the future has better things in store for these kids than the past did for the previous generation.
One hundred and two years later...
Last Sunday, when I took the photograph on the left, I had an uncanny feeling. Later the realization hit me: I had wandered into the same vantage point as Paul Strand did in 1915 when he gazed out on a group of pedestrians raked by morning light.
When I left the house that morning, my wife said to me: think of Saul Leiter when you shoot today.
is life playing for an audience of one.
Yesterday at AIPAD: New York has its share of thrills and surprises. Leafing through a gorgeous monograph by Flor Garduño, I turned to her gallerist, Spencer Throckmorton, and asked if he knew where Flor was living nowadays. He smiled and with a gesture of his arm indicated Flor was seated in a chair right next to where I was standing. 25 years of admiration became emobdied in her smile. What a moment.
photo by Hye Ryoung Min
Had a chance to catch up with Vince Cianni -who took this photograph(s)- over lunch in NYC. Over the years Vince has been a mentor and a very good friend to me and I was glad to break bread together. Midway through our meal we were joined by Graham Mcindoe. We were introduced and as we started talking it dawned on me that Graham and I had actually met about 15 years ago when he used to work for Howard Greenberg Gallery and I was printing for Gilles Peress. Man, did that bring back some memories.
