Marcia Resnick : As It Is or Could Be

Illuminating the photographer’s contributions to New York’s Downtown art scene and her acute feminist work

Photographer Marcia Resnick (b. 1950) earned recognition as part of the legendary Downtown New York art scene of the 1970s and 1980s. Her portraits of the era’s major cultural figures, such as Jean-Michel Basquiat, John Belushi, and Susan Sontag, have contributed to the scene’s mythic status. Against this backdrop, Resnick also produced a significant body of work that engaged with the history of art, took a humorous approach to conceptual art and feminism, and proposed new ideas for what photography could be.

Spanning the artist’s career, this richly illustrated volume explores Resnick’s early influences and education at Cooper Union and CalArts; discusses her series and photobooks such as See and Re-visions; and situates the artist’s work within the history of contemporary art. An afterword by Laurie Anderson speaks to the very personal vision of Resnick’s photography.


Published in association with the Bowdoin College Museum of Art, George Eastman Museum, and Minneapolis Institute of Art

Exhibition Schedule:

Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick, ME
(February 24–June 5, 2022)

Minneapolis Institute of Art
(August 13–December 11, 2022)

George Eastman Museum, Rochester, NY
(February 10–June 18, 2023)

Frank H. Goodyear III is codirector of the Bowdoin College Museum of Art. Lisa Hostetler is an art historian and curator who specializes in photography. Casey Riley is chair, global contemporary art, and curator of photography and new media at the Minneapolis Institute of Art.