King, Queen, Knave

King, Queen, Knave – For more than twenty years, Gregory Halpern has been photographing his hometown of Buffalo, New York, and its environs, meticulously crafting the series of photographs that comprise his latest monograph. “King, Queen, Knave” is an idiosyncratic vision of a city in the grip of its contradictions, defying familiar narratives of post-industrial decline and embracing an enigmatic strain of reality that borders on the surreal. Halpern’s spellbinding sequence unfolds like a stage on which distinct, unpredictable characters appear in and among lonely buildings, snowdrifts and sun-bleached scenes of everyday transcendence. The images often situate their subjects within the specificities of the season, balancing a historical project with the immediacy of a moment in its individual brilliance. Embracing themes of reversal and ascension, Halpern confronts the complexities of his birthplace and contemporary America as a whole, seeing beauty intertwined with ugliness and redemption with despair. This lyrical new work bears witness to the infinite complexity of a place both familiar and unfamiliar.