Zine
Steven Cuffie: Women
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Published concurrently with Steven Cuffie's exhibition, Women, at New York Life Gallery, 2022.
Edition of 300
44 pages
Design by Ben Kelway Studio
© The Estate of Steven Cuffie
In collaboration with Marcus Cuffie and New York Life Gallery
Steven Cuffie (1949, North Carolina – 2014, Baltimore, MD) began taking photos as a teenager, and after studying photography for three years at the University of Maryland, he dropped out to pursue a career in the field. Cuffie connected with a small group of Baltimore-based photographers, exhibiting around the city and working on commission. His personal practice was rooted in portraiture, documenting children he encountered on the street and more intimate images of women at home or in the studio. The nature of Cuffie’s relationship with these women, romantic or artistic, is often ambiguous, and invites the viewer to imagine the biographical gaps in his archive. For the majority of his life, he was a photographer for the City of Baltimore, taking pictures of public events, crime scenes, infrastructure damages – everything mundane and extraordinary required for public record. By the time Cuffie became a father in 1982, his practice had shifted away from portraits of women, though he continued taking pictures, processing film, and making prints throughout his life. In 2022, New York Life Gallery held a solo show of Cuffie's work, his first exhibition since the 1980s and outside of Baltimore.