Summer Heat
June 22 – August 10, 2023
Ted Starkowski, c. 1954
Gelatin silver photograph
9 x 5 3/4 inches
Paul Cadmus and Margaret French, Fire Island, c. 1940
Gelatin silver print
4 3/8 x 6 5/8 inches
Paul Cadmus and Margaret French, Provincetown, c. 1947
Gelatin silver print
4 7/8 x 7 inches
Paul Cadmus and Margaret French, Provincetown, c. 1947
Gelatin silver print
5 x 6 7/8 inches
Jared French, Clinton, New Jersey, 1941
Gelatin silver print
7 x 5 inches
Jared French, Clinton, New Jersey, 1941
Gelatin silver print
7 x 5 inches
(Paul Cadmus and Jared French), n.d.
Gelatin silver print
5 x 6 7/8 inches
(Margaret French and Jared French), n.d.
Gelatin silver print
6 5/8 x 4 3/8 inches
In 1937, the painters Jared French (1902-1989), Paul Cadmus (1904-1999) and Margaret French (1906-1998) began to experiment with a camera during summers on the beaches of Fire Island and Provincetown, and in the winters back at their New York City studios. Their subjects included friends and family, but primarily they studied each other through the camera’s eye over a period of twenty years. They collected these photographs, saved them in albums, and distributed them to lovers and friends. No great care was taken in their printing, or in their preservation until the 1980s. Taken anonymously, the acronym PAJAMA (PAul, JAred, MArgaret) signifies the works' collective authorship.