The Albin O. Kuhn Library & Gallery at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County has recently opened an important exhibition featuring a selection of objects from Archive 192 an independent archive, founded by Louie Palu and Chloe Coleman, dedicated to preserving and celebrating abstractionist works by women photographers. The exhibition will run through May 31st, 2025. The prints on view survey the array of photographic processes and diverse techniques of abstraction employed by photographers over the past century. Related ephemera, including publications, artist books, and posters document the evolution of abstractionism in photography and political movements that impact women working within the medium.
Archive 192 is an independent archive dedicated to preserving and celebrating abstractionist works by women photographers established in 2015 by photographer Louie Palu and photo editor Chloe Coleman. The archive, which now holds over 200 prints, books and ephemera, challenges conventional narratives of the history of photography that center documentary realism and aims to counter underrepresentation of work by women in institutional collections.
This exhibition presents a selection of photographs from Archive 192 that explore the diverse techniques of abstraction, including framing, cropping magnification, and altering chemical processes. These visual strategies present unfamiliar views of real-world objects and change the appearance of photographic prints to create non-representational images. The photographs on view also represent the array of photographic processes employed by photographers in pursuit of abstraction over more than a century, including cyanotypes, C-prints, tintypes, and Polaroid color instant prints. Related ephemera including publications, artist books, and posters document the evolution of abstractionism in photography and the political contexts, such as the feminist movement, that impact women working within the medium.
Aline Smithson: Congratulations on the fantastic exhibition and collection you have created. How did Archive 192 get started?
Louie Palu: The idea for this archive came from curator Rebecca Senf, a brilliant curator and very strong influence on how I think as a photographer. This all started in 2012 when I was at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston for the War Photography Exhibition curated by Anne Tucker along with Will Michels, and Natalie Zelt. They had amazing stories on how they collected photographs to build the exhibition, and it rekindled my interest in archives. My first internship was in 1987 at Gallery 44 in Toronto when I worked on Verant Richard’s archive when I was in college. This was followed in 1991 when I worked for Mary Ellen Mark in New York City scanning her archive. I really enjoyed organizing objects of art, prints, contact sheets, and negatives. The most rewarding part of the process was slowly forming a view of what the artist’s intention was.
After Houston, I wanted to make creating an archive a part of my practice. For a few years I had a lot of failed ideas of what an archive I would create could be. In 2015 I had a research fellowship at the Center For Creative Photography at the University of Arizona to study Milton Rogovin. This became an important turning point in my photo career because I met curator Rebecca Senf. I can listen to her talk about photography forever, she is a unique thinker who understands big ideas. I kept going to her office with boxes of prints to have conversations. We formed a friendship, I mentioned wanting to start an archive. It’s true you can love archival boxes of prints and find friends who like them as much as you! She sent me a link to an auction to support the Phoenix Art Museum and she asked what work I liked. I responded with a list of works I found most interesting, without realizing I had selected work only by women that was all abstract. In a much longer conversation than I can repeat here, she suggested that an archive of abstractionist work by women would be a unique undertaking with purpose, I knew immediately that this fit well into how I was thinking politically. The first piece I acquired was by Claire A. Warden. In the last few years photo editor Chloe Coleman has joined me in helping manage the archive.
AS: How did you come up with the name Archive 192?
LP: Archive 192 employs the number 291 in reverse referencing Gallery 291 started by Alfred Stieglitz. It was a key space and moment in the growth of photography. It’s not a criticism of Alfred Stieglitz, just a reordering and challenge to how we might have learned about the history of photography.
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Read interview with Louie Palu on Lenscratch: HERE
ARCHIVE 192 – UMBC Exhibition Information
The Exhibition includes works created between 1910-2024 in nearly every decade except the 1920’s. Artists were born as early as 1863, 1869, 1893, 1896, 1899, 1900, and in every decade through to the 1990’s.
Work made by artists were born or reside in Australia, Belgium, Bermuda, Canada, China, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Iran, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Switzerland, United Kingdom, and United States.
