Jessica Craig-Martin
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Sometimes a Cigar (Is Just a Cigar), 2023
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All that Glitters, 2017
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Cold Snap, 2017
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Coming and Going, 2017
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Standard Oil / Freedom Series 3B, 2017
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Cougar Friends, 2008
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Sweating Salmon, 2008
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American Summer, 2007
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Real Wasps, Wrong Party, 2007
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Southampton Hospital Benefit Gala (The Answer Is White), 2007
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The General, 2007
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Air Kiss (Cancer Benefit, Southampton), 2006
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Bush Fundraiser, 2004
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Parrish Museum Benefit, Southampton, 2001
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Amfar Benefit, Cannes, 2000
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Golden Showers, 2000
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Harry Cipriani, Valentines Day, New York, 2000
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Dia Benefit Party, New York( Sliding Salmon), 1999
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Fran Waiting, 1999
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If You Knew Suzy, 1999
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New Year's Eve, Southhampton, 1999
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Oysters, Caviar On Snow: New Years Eve, Southhampton, 1999
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Rita Hayworth Alzheimers Benefit, Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, New York, 1999
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Jackson Pollock Opening, Museum of Modern Art, NY, 1998
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Victory Ventures Christmas Party, NY, Dec. 1998, 1998
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No Money, New Money, Amfar Benefit, Cannes, 1997
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Planet Hollywood, Cannes, 1997
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Tricycle Magazine Benefit, New York, 1997
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US Open, New York, August 1997, 1997
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The Grope, 1996
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Let's Party
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Lullaby of Broadway
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Untitled (Sharon Stone)
As an event photographer for publications like The New Yorker, Vanity Fair and Vogue, Jessica Craig-Martin has covered some of the world’s most extravagant parties but she has done well to carve out her own style.
Craig-Martin’s intentionally framed and obliquely angled photographs work to obscure many of her subject’s faces. In this way, her practice expertly subverts the very genre she occupies; her photographs do not romanticize, in fact they work hard to reveal, not only what the subjects don’t see, but what they probably don’t want shown. As the artifice cracks open, Craig-Martin allows her viewer a unique behind the scenes insight into the glittery imperfections of high society parties.
Amidst the glitz and the glamor, Craig-Martin focuses on sequins, toothy smiles and frown lines to offer a nuanced commentary about society’s obsession with appearance and image. She says, ”The photographs occur in the place between desire and disappointment. Perhaps this highlights a slightly surreal or isolated quality which I do feel when I am in these situations. I often automatically crop out eyes. They tell too much. I am not interested in the identity of individuals or in celebrities or in lampooning anyone. I see the guests as framed within a larger cultural phenomenon, in which I am also complicit as its documentarian. The on-camera flash declares my presence. I am part of the problem.”
Craig-Martin has exhibited her work widely and her work is in the collections of The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; The New Museum, New York, and The Guggenheim Museum, New York, among other public and private collections. Craig-Martin lives in New York and works wherever the party is. She is currently working on a book of anecdotes drawn from her adventures in the field and other observations on modern life.
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Artists Past and Present
Nina Childress, Jessica Craig-Martin, Jim Drain, Jennifer Guidi, Paul Hosking, Vera Iliatova, Simon Ko, Jesse Mockrin, Sarah Peters, Nathlie Provosty, Elsa Sahal 26 Jun - 9 Aug 2024 -
Won't You Be My Neighbor
P. BARRICKMAN, S. CAMERON, A. CATALA, A. CONDO, J. CRAIG-MARTIN, J. DICKSON, J. DRAIN, J. FYFE, D. GAUDIN, H. HAHN, P. HOSKING, S. KO, R. KUNOY, J. LEE, J. MOCKRIN, B. MULLEN, N. PROVOSTY, G. RODRIGUEZ 28 Oct - 31 Dec 2020 -
Public Relations
JESSICA CRAIG MARTIN 3 Mar - 16 Apr 2017
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The Guardian: The big picture: a wild night out by Jessica Craig Martin
Tim Adams December 31, 2023J essica Craig-Martin has been taking her distinctive, definitive party pictures for the New Yorker and Vanity Fair and Vogue for three decades. She took...Read more -
W Magazine: Photographer Jessica Craig-Martin Shares Her Life in Parties
By Alex Hawgood September 26, 2022With her trusty Canon SLR camera in hand, the artist and upper-crust photographer Jessica Craig-Martin documented some of the glitziest benefits, film premieres, and high-society...Read more -
SVA NYC: New York Spring Exhibition Highlights: Jessica Craig-Martin and Brian Rutenberg
by Emma Drew April 13, 2017Two shows on-view right now—one uptown, one down—highlight the ongoing work of BFA Photography and Video faculty member Jessica Craig-Martin and Brian Rutenberg (MFA 1989...Read more -
i-D: jessica craig-martin captures the glittering imperfection of high society parties
by Hannah Ongley March 9, 2017Who hasn't felt like an outsider amongst well-heeled guests at an over-elaborate party? Jessica Craig-Martin captures this feeling with a mixture of curiosity, humor, and...Read more
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W: The Perks of Being a High-Society Wallflower Like Jessica Craig-Martin
by Steph Eckardt March 4, 2017For years now, Jessica Craig-Martin has been steadily plowing through the high-society party circuit across the world with two purposes: to photograph the A-listers and...Read more -
ELLE: Jessica Craig-Martin for 20×200
By Misty Sidelle October 24, 2014'No image I create for fashion can ever be as satisfying as finding a real moment that encapsulates my ideas of what makes a good...Read more -
The Cut: Jessica Craig-Martin on Her Big Show for Charity
by Erica Schwiegershausen October 22, 2014Fifteen years ago, the photographer Jessica Craig-Martin — best known for her hyper-realistic photographs of the lifestyles of the wealthy — was on assignment photographing...Read more -
Artsy: Glamor and Excess, Under the Lens
Artsy Editorial March 5, 2014Shiny, tan skin, gem-encrusted necklines, bleach-white teeth, and studded stilettos are the surfaces that Jessica Craig-Martin is drawn to, and delves into in her photographic...Read more
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BOMB Magazine: Jessica Craig-Martin
By Bob Holman April 1, 2007The surface is gorgeous, simply gorgeous, darling! Brilliantly cibachromed, oozing color and pain, blood-glazed. Yes, the faces are cut off or the bosoms are soli...Read more -
The New York Times: POSSESSED; Letting Fate Take the Picture
By David Colman June 29, 2003''WHEN I look around today, the biggest anachronism I see is pregnancy,'' Andy Warhol wrote in ''The Philosophy of Andy Warhol (From A to B...Read more