Curator Pauline Vermare on the groundbreaking exhibition ‘Catch the Spirit’ and Kanaga’s enduring impact on photography and social justice.
Installation view, ‘Consuelo Kanaga: Catch the Spirit’, March 14, 2025 – August 3, 2025. Brooklyn Museum. Photo: Paula Abreu Pita
Consuelo Kanaga’s name may not be as widely recognised as those of her contemporaries, but her radical photographic vision places her among the most significant American photographers of the 20th century. ‘Consuelo Kanaga: Catch the Spirit,’ which opened at the Brooklyn Museum on 14 March 2025, is a landmark exhibition that reintroduces audiences to her six-decade career, spanning photojournalism, modernism, and social documentary. Curated by Drew Sawyer, Sondra Gilman Curator of Photography at the Whitney Museum of American Art (formerly Phillip and Edith Leonian Curator of Photography at the Brooklyn Museum), the exhibition traces Kanaga’s unwavering commitment to capturing social injustice, racial inequality, and the dignity of everyday life through 180 photographs, ephemera, and film.
In this conversation, Pauline Vermare, the Brooklyn Museum’s Phillip and Edith Leonian Curator of Photography, reflects on Kanaga’s pioneering role as a mentor, her deeply personal approach to photography, and why her work remains as urgent and resonant today as it was in her time.
Consuelo Kanaga, Kenneth Spencer, 1933. Gelatin silver print. Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Wallace B. Putnam from the Estate of Consuelo Kanaga, 82.65.368. Photo: Brooklyn Museum. © Brooklyn Museum
ART AFRICA: Consuelo Kanaga’s work spans six decades and engages with urgent social issues, from labour rights to racial inequality. What is the most radical aspect of her photographic vision, and how does the exhibition emphasise this?
Pauline Vermare: An exceptional collaborative spirit drove Consuelo Kanaga. She was known as an unwavering friend, confidant, and supporter to her peers—especially to the many women she worked with or mentored, such as Berenice Abbott, Imogen Cunningham, Louise Dahl-Wolfe, Dorothea Lange, Alma Lavenson, Tina Modotti, and Yamazawa Eiko. The portraits she made over the decades are a testament to the warmth and trust that united her and the people she photographed, whether they were friends or strangers. This mutual respect—and Kanaga’s genuine interest in the beauty of human bonds—can be seen and felt across the exhibition.
Consuelo Kanaga, Hands, 1930. Gelatin silver print. Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Wallace B. Putnam from the Estate of Consuelo Kanaga, 82.65.2248. Photo: Brooklyn Museum. © Brooklyn Museum
Kanaga was deeply involved in both modernist photography and social documentary. How does the exhibition balance these seemingly different aspects of her practice, and what do you hope audiences take away from this intersection?
Drew Sawyer’s curation beautifully highlights Kanaga’s multiple talents and brilliant versatility. In the exhibition, her documentary work, portraits, still lives, and nature studies co-exist naturally. As Kanaga said, “The great alchemy is your attitude, who you are, what you are. When you make a photograph, it is very much a picture of your own self.” This show is a portrait of who Kanaga was and what she was interested in: human nature, social justice, and the beauty of our world.
Consuelo Kanaga, She Is a Tree of Life, 1950. Gelatin silver print. Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Wallace B. Putnam from the Estate of Consuelo Kanaga, 82.65.2250. Photo: Brooklyn Museum. © Brooklyn Museum
The Brooklyn Museum houses the most extensive collection of Kanaga’s works. How has this collection shaped the exhibition, and were there any discoveries in the Museum’s archives that particularly influenced the narrative of the show?
Sawyer very carefully selected the works in the show. He picked about 180 works amongst the thousands of prints in our collection. He made sure to showcase Kanaga’s talent, not just as a photographer but also as a master printer, by showing, in some instances, several different prints of images – different sizes, crops, tonalities, etc. This selection highlights her process in a very engaging way. Kanaga’s collection was received by our predecessor, Barbara Millstein, who was instrumental in building the Museum’s photography collection from the 1970s to the early 2000s. We are both very grateful to her for bringing Consuelo Kanaga’s work to the Brooklyn Museum.
Consuelo Kanaga, Untitled, 1936, printed 2023. Pigmented inkjet print. Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Wallace B. Putnam from the Estate of Consuelo Kanaga, 82.65.974. Photo: Brooklyn Museum. © Brooklyn Museum
Kanaga was often overlooked compared to her contemporaries despite her contributions to photography and engagement with important social movements. Why do you think her work has been underrecognised, and how does this exhibition challenge that historical oversight?
Kanaga was not interested in self-promotion. There is also a generational factor: Kanaga was born in 1894 and died in 1978 when a woman artist or photojournalist struggled to be seen. Kanaga supported the work of her male partner instead of her own. But she was very well respected in her own time, especially as a portrait artist. She was then, and still very much is, a photographer’s photographer. This show establishes her not only as a very important artist of her time but as a timely figure in the world we currently inhabit: what she was looking at and fighting for in her days is still very relevant today.
Consuelo Kanaga, Young Girl in Profile, 1948. Toned gelatin silver print. Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Wallace B. Putnam from the Estate of Consuelo Kanaga, 82.65.11. Photo: Brooklyn Museum. © Brooklyn Museum
The exhibition’s title, “Catch the Spirit,” comes from a quotation by Kanaga herself. How does this phrase encapsulate her artistic approach, and do you see it as a defining thread across the different sections of the show?
Kanaga beautifully captured the spirit of her time in an impressively modern and dynamic way that still resonates today. This show will inspire many people of various backgrounds and generations to look at our world from her perspective: with kindness and hope.
The retrospective has travelled to Fundación MAPFRE and SFMOMA. How has the exhibition been received at the various locations? Was there a shift in interpretation based on the audience?
The show was very well received and attended. Beyond the joy of rediscovering or discovering, in many cases, Kanaga’s extraordinary oeuvre, visitors in Spain and San Francisco alike were struck by the timeliness and modernity of her photographs.
The exhibition will be on view until 3 August 2025. For more information, please visit the Brooklyn Museum.
