Gregory Halpern grew up in Buffalo, New York. When he was fourteen, he had a transformative experience looking at Triptychs, a book of photographs by the local photographer Milton Rogovin. Since then, the photobook has remained a point of fascination for Halpern, and has been the central medium of Halpern’s creative output.
For the last fifteen years, Halpern has been photographing in Omaha, Nebraska, steadily compiling a lyrical response to the American Heartland. Omaha Sketchbook is a meditation on America, on the men and boys who inhabit it, and on the mechanics of aggression, inadequacy, and power.
Copies of Omaha Sketchbook will be available for purchase at the signing after the talk.
Omaha Sketchbook is published by MACK.
Biography
Gregory Halpern
Gregory Halpern has published four books of photographs, in addition to East of the Sun, West of the Moon, a collaboration with Ahndraya Parlato. He is also the editor, along with Jason Fulford, of The Photographer’s Playbook: Over 250 Assignments and Ideas. He holds a BA in History and Literature from Harvard University and an MFA from California College of the Arts. In 2016, his book ZZYZX was awarded Photobook of the Year at Paris Photo, and in 2014, he was the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship. He teaches photography at the Rochester Institute of Technology.
Olivia Arthur
Olivia Arthur is a photographer who is known for her in-depth work examining people and their personal and cultural identities. Her first book Jeddah Diary is about the lives of young women in Saudi Arabia. Her second book, Stranger is a journey into Dubai seen through the eyes of the survivor of a shipwreck. She is co-founder of Fishbar, a publisher and space for photography in London. She is a member of Magnum Photos.