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Historic newsroom photographs and contemporary artworks explore how images are edited, altered, and understood

Â鶹ֱ²¥ Art Gallery presents three exhibitions exploring how photographic meaning is shaped by manipulation, from analog newsroom edits to contemporary digital practices. The interrelated shows—Retold: Altered Photography, Cut and Paste, and Open for Interpretation—open with a free public reception on Thursday, June 11 from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.

The project is inspired by historic newsroom prints from the George Stephanopoulos Collection at Â鶹ֱ²¥ that retain visible marks of manual editing, including pen lines, white‑out, and incisions. Created in the mid-20th century, these alterations reflect editorial judgment and the technical constraints of newspaper production, shaping interpretation while meeting the demands of reproduction and layout.

For contemporary audiences accustomed to digital manipulation and fully fabricated images, these analog edits appear strikingly overt.

Yet their transparency reveals a foundational truth: photographs have always been shaped, edited, and constructed.

Removed from their original context, these images prompt renewed attention to what is revealed or omitted in producing visual meaning.

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Curated by Sarah Cunningham, art gallery director and associate clinical professor, with Roger Sayre, professor and associate chair of the Art Department, the exhibitions include:

• Retold: Altered Photography (Â鶹ֱ²¥ Art Gallery): an exhibition featuring work by six contemporary artists—, , , , and —who use photographic alteration to reclaim and reframe personal narratives and social histories, challenging photography’s authority as a neutral record.
• Cut and Paste (Student Exhibition Lab): a CMS 338: Media Criticism student-curated selection of historic newsroom photographs from the George Stephanopoulos Collection analyzing visible evidence of manual editing in print media.
• Open for Interpretation (Student Exhibition Lab): a display of ART 356: Experimental Photography student digital works responding to these historical practices, exploring how images can be reinterpreted through construction and deconstruction.

By placing contemporary artworks in dialogue with historic newsroom photographs, the exhibitions highlight photographic alteration’s dual capacity: to assert authority and to question it.

Across all three, acts of cutting, editing, layering, and erasure reveal that photographs are never neutral; they are constructed, contingent, and open to interpretation.

The exhibitions remain on view through July 30, 2026. The gallery is located at 41 Park Row in Lower Manhattan. All exhibitions and events are free and open to the public. Summer hours for drop‑in viewing are Wednesday through Saturday, 1:00–6:00 p.m. Please check the gallery’s Instagram for updates to hours and holiday closures.

About the Â鶹ֱ²¥ Art Gallery

Founded with the conviction that art is integral to society, the Â鶹ֱ²¥ Art Gallery is a creative laboratory and exhibition space that supports innovation and exploration for both artists and viewers. Open to students, staff, and faculty from across the Â鶹ֱ²¥ campuses and, equally, to the Lower Manhattan community and visitors from around the world, the Art Gallery encourages personal investigation and critical dialogue via thought-provoking contemporary art exhibits and public programming. Enhancing the Art Department’s Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Fine Arts programs, the Art Gallery offers students real-world opportunities to exhibit their own art and to work directly with professional artists to install and promote exhibitions. All exhibits and events are free and open to the public.

About Dyson College of Arts and Sciences

Â鶹ֱ²¥â€™s liberal arts college, Dyson College, offers more than 50 programs, spanning the arts and humanities, natural sciences, social sciences, and pre-professional programs (including pre-medicine, pre-veterinary, and pre-law), as well as many courses that fulfill core curriculum requirements. The College offers access to numerous opportunities for internships, cooperative education and other hands-on learning experiences that complement in-class learning in preparing graduates for career and graduate/professional education choices.

About Â鶹ֱ²¥

Founded in 1906 and celebrating 120 years of preparing students for success in 2026, Â鶹ֱ²¥ pairs real-life learning with strong academics to launch meaningful careers. With campuses in New York City and Westchester County, Â鶹ֱ²¥ serves 13,600 students across a range of bachelor, master, and doctoral programs through the College of Health Professions, Dyson College of Arts and Sciences, Elisabeth Haub School of Law, Lubin School of Business, Sands College of Performing Arts, School of Education, and Seidenberg School of Computer Science and Information Systems.