Steven Cuffie: Karen 1979

Published by New York Life Gallery, 2024.

Edition of 300

28 pages

© The Estate of Steven Cuffie

 

Shot over the course of a year in Baltimore, the previously unpublished 26 black and white portraits that make up the zine capture Karen in a variety of states: in bed, on the street, dressing up, undressing. What unites these images is Steven Cuffie's intimate and playful depiction of Karen and the glimpses of her personality. Laid out in spreads that imply narrativity and seriality, the sequence of images suggests a character sketch of a subject whose biographical information is otherwise unknown. This zine is edited by the photographer's youngest, Marcus Cuffie, who notes that the nature of Steven and Karen's relationship, romantic or artistic, is ambiguous, and invites the viewer to imagine the gaps in the archive of their father's work.

 

Steven Cuffie (1949 - 2014, Baltimore, MD) was an American photographer who lived and worked in Baltimore. He began taking photographs as a teenager and studied at the University of Maryland before leaving to pursue his career, exhibiting locally and working on commission. His personal practice was rooted in portraiture, documenting children he encountered on the street and making intimate images of women at home or in the studio. For most of his life, he was employed by the City of Baltimore, photographing public events, crime scenes, and infrastructure for the public record. After his death in 2014, his family uncovered an extensive private archive including hundreds of portraits that had never been publicly shown. In 2022, New York Life Gallery presented Women, the first exhibition of Cuffie's work outside of Baltimore.