We Were Five: Chicago Institute of Design Photography at Musée Réattu

The exhibition "We Were Five" at Musée Réattu in Arles (June 29–September 29, 2019) revisits the 1961 issue of Aperture dedicated to photography education at Chicago's Institute of Design. Curated around five students—Joseph Jachna, Kenneth Josephson, Ray K. Metzker, Joseph Sterling, and Charles Swedlund—the show explores whether the school formed a coherent "Chicago School." It traces the Institute's roots from the New Bauhaus founded by László Moholy-Nagy in 1937, through its renaming in 1944, to the influential teaching of Aaron Siskind and Harry Callahan. The exhibition includes works by teachers (Moholy-Nagy, Arthur Siegel, Siskind, Callahan) and later works by the five students, plus Yasuhiro Ishimoto, who were reunited in 1996 at Galerie 312. It questions the commercial construction of the "Chicago School" label, noting dealer Stephen Deiter's role. The show closes with Barbara Crane, a female photographer from the early 1960s, whose work exemplifies the Institute's spirit of experimentation and subjective expression.