STEPHEN BERKMAN, Predicting the Past, Zohar Studios: The Lost Year
Predicting the Past, Zohar Studios: The Lost Years takes us on a discursive journey through the nineteenth century into the world of Shimmel Zohar, a Jewish immigrant from Eastern Europe who came to America in the 1850s. Already an accomplished silhouette artist, he became the proprietor of eponymous Zohar Studios, a storied photographic establishment located on Pearl Street in the predominately Jewish Lower East Side of New York. Traveling through the portal of this enigmatic studio into the past, we encounter a Balzacian cavalcade of characters, both winsome and whimsical. This immersive panorama of personages includes phrenologists, ventriloquists, painters, poets, spiritualists, artists, bon vivants, merchants, luddites, and many more, each tableau composed like a single cinematic frame from a long forgotten nitrate film.
Berkman resurrects this vanished world in a tribute to Zohar Studios, working with the archaic glass plate process and photographing through period lenses, still coated with dust of the nineteenth century. He seeks to reclaim the lost world of the mid-nineteenth century even as our own world seems to be disappearing all around us.
STEPHEN BERKMAN - CV
Born in Syracuse, New York
Lives and Works in Pasadena, California
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2021 Predicting the Past, Zohar Studios: The Lost Years, The Contemporary Jewish Museum,
San Francisco, California (2020-2021)
2008 Chamber Pieces, Laband Gallery, Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, California
Predicting the Past, Blue Sky Gallery, Portland, Oregon
2007 Quadrascope, University Art Museum, California State University,
Long Beach, California
Between Two Worlds, Armory Center for the Arts, Pasadena, California
2005 A Wandering Eye and Other Tales, Armory Center for the Arts, Pasadena, California
2004 Cold Mountain and Other Journeys, MoPA (Museum of Photographic Arts)
San Diego, California
2003 Projections, Armory Center for the Arts, Pasadena, California
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2016 A New and Mysterious Art: Ancient Photographic Methods in Contemporary Art,
Howard Greenberg Gallery, New York, New York
2014 Affect/Effect, Chaffey Museum of Art, Ontario, California
Transformational Imagemaking: Handmade Photography Since 1960, (Traveling Exhibit)
CEPA Gallery, Buffalo, New York
Unbound 3, Candela Gallery, Richmond Virginia
2013 Hearsay: Contemporary Artists Reveal Urban Legends, Cal State Fullerton,
Begovich Gallery, Los Angeles, California
Passing Time: 50 Years of Exhibitions at Los Angeles Valley College Art Gallery,
Los Angeles, California
2011 Sunstruck: Expressionism in Southern California Photography, Wall Space Gallery,
Santa Barbara, California
2010 State of Mind: A California Invitational, MoPA (Museum of Photographic Arts)
San Diego, California
STEPHEN BERKMAN
Born in Syracuse, New York
Lives and Works in Pasadena, California
No Laughing Matter, Art Gallery, Los Angeles Valley College, Los Angeles, California
You Can’t Get There from Here, The Camera Club of New York, New York, New York
Exposed: Today’s Photography/Yesterday’s Technology,
San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art, San Jose, California
Edges of Light: Explorations of the Photographic Process, Arts Benicia,
Benicia, California
2009 Tools, Williamson Gallery, Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, California
Lishui International Photo Festival, Lishui, China
2008 Mineral, Hous Projects, New York, New York
2007 Twixt Two Worlds, Richard L. Nelson Gallery, University of California, Davis, California
Osseus Labyrinth, Trace Evidence, Bert Green Fine Art, Los Angeles, California
2006 Immaterial World, Stephen Cohen Gallery, Los Angeles, California
It’s Very Difficult to Keep the Line Between the Past and the Present. You Know What I
Mean ? Clamp Art-Gallery, New York, New York
2005 Contemporary Obscurists, Alan Klotz Gallery, New York, New York
Twixt Two Worlds, Christine Burgin Gallery, New York, New York
2001 Poured on a Plate: Contemporary Collodion Imagery, George Eastman House,
Rochester, New York
Lost and Found: Rediscovering Early Photographic Processes,
USC Fisher Gallery Museum, Los Angeles, California
Re-Thought and Re-Seen: 21st Century Photographers Using 19th Century Processes,
University of Missouri, Kansas City Gallery of Art, Kansas City, Missouri
2000 Time in A Tumbler, Robert Mann Gallery, New York, New York
The New and the Old Made New Again, Long Beach City College Art Gallery,
Long Beach, California
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS/ BIBLIOGRAPHY
2021 Eddy Portnoy, “An Artist of the Yiddish Never–World,” Tablet Magazine, June 9,2021
Jean Jacque Naudet, “Stephen Berkman, Predicting the Past: Zohar Studios, The Lost
Years,” L’oeil de la Photographie (The Eye of Photography), Three installments,
April-June 2021
Susan Burnstine, “American Connection,” Black and White Photography Magazine
(U.K.) P.P. 20-21, issue 249, February 2021
Jörg M. Colberg, “Photography Table Top Joe’s,” Conscientious Photography Magazine,
January 18,2021
Antoinette LaFarge, “Sting in the Tale, Art Hoax, and Provocation,” P.P. 60-61,
DoppelHouse Press Books, 2021
2020 Predicting the Past, Zohar Studios: The Lost Years, 11x14 in. 368 pages,
artist monograph (short listed, Aperture Photobook Awards) Hat & Beard Press, 2020
J. Hoberman, “Zohar Studios: An Invented Artist’s Lively Inventions,” September 10.
The New York Review of Books, September 10, 2020
Lawrence Weschler, “The Uncanny Tale of Shimmel Zohar – How the Search for an
Unknown Master Photographer Led to a Ghostly Trove of Images and Down a Hall of
Mirrors,” The Atlantic, September 7, 2020
Sarah Meister, “Predicting the Past, Zohar Studios: The Lost Years,”
The Photobook Review, (Aperture) Fall 2020
Sarah Rose Sharp, “Step Into a Mysterious Photography Studio From the 1850’s,”
Hyperallergic, July 27, 2020
Bill Smith, “Stephen Berkman,19th-Century Renaissance Man,” Artillery Magazine,
(Cover Photograph), P.P. 32-33, November 2020
Steven Heller, “Uncovering a Lost Photographic Genius,” Design Observer,
September 9, 2020
Chris Nichols, “Chris’s Pick, Artist Creates Surreal 19th Century Images,” P. 84
Los Angeles Magazine, June 2020
Gloria Crespo Maclennan, Simon Bainbridge, “Best Books of Photography 2020,
Predicting the Past, Zohar Studios: The Lost Years,” El País, December 18, 2020
Samuel Stone, “Predicting the Past,Zohar Studios: The Lost Years,” Musée Magazine,
Vanguard of Photography Culture, December 18, 2020
Pat Padua, “Predicting the Past: Edited and Designed by Stephen Berkman,”
Spectrum Culture, December 9, 2020
Elin Spring & Suzanne Revy, “Our Favorite Photobooks of 2020, Predicting the Past,
Zohar Studios: The Lost Years,” What Will You Remember, December 2020
Douglas Stockdale, “Interesting Artist and Photobooks for 2020, Predicting the Past,
Zohar Studios: The Lost Years,” Photobook Journal, December 2020
Stephen Berkman, “Visiting Babylon Boulevard, New York’s 19th–Century Bohemian
Underworld,” Literary Hub, December 2, 2020
Jean Schiffman, “Contemporary Jewish Museum Reopens With Sly Mysterious Zohar
Photographs,” San Francisco Examiner, October 19, 2020
Aline Smithson, “Stephen Berkman: Predicting the Past, Zohar Studios: The Lost Years,”
Lenscratch, December 15, 2020
2019 William Kalush, “Ricky Jay Selected Memories,” Gibeciere 28, Conjuring Arts Research
Center, Summer 2019
2016 Galleries-Uptown, “A New and Mysterious Art” The New Yorker, P.24 October 10, 2016
Randy Battaglia, “Revisiting Photography’s Earliest Technologies,”
The Wall street Journal, P. A17, October 17, 2016
Lauren Palmer, “Ancient Photographic Techniques Make a Comeback,”
Popular Photography, September 19, 2016
2015 Penny Wollin, “Descendants of Light, American Photographers of Jewish
Ancestry,” Crazy Woman Creek Press, P.171, 2015
Wendy Sherman, “Hearsay: Artists Reveal Urban Legends,” Cal State Fullerton/GC
Press. P. P. 44.45, 2015
2014 Robert Hirsch, “Transformational Image-making, Handmade Photography Since 1960,”
Focal Press, P.P. 180-183, 2014
Tom Pressinger, “Photography Beyond Technique,” Focal Press, P.P. 74-80, 2015
2013 Jill Enfield, “Jill Enfield’s Guide to Alternative Photographic Processes,”
Focal Press, P. 165, 2013
Michael Singer, “Jerry Bruckheimer, When Lighting Strikes, Four Decades of
Filmmaking” P.P. 290-291, Disney Editions, 2013
2012 Robert Hirsch, “Stephen Berkman, Documentary Photographer of the Mind,”
Photo Technique Magazine, P.P. 3-6, July/August, 2012
Wayne White (guest editor) Zoetrope All Story Magazine, (glass plate photograph) P.3,
Published by Francis Coppola, Spring 2012,
Michael Singer, “The Lone Ranger, Behind the Mask,” Insight Editions P.P. 56,57 & front
and back end papers, 2012
2011 Ricky Jay, “Celebrations of Curious Characters,” McSweeney’s, P. 34, 2011
IDN Magazine, Extra 05 P.P. 116-119, 2012
Carol McCusker, “Sunstruck: Expressionism in Southern California Photography,” P. 100,
B&W & Color Magazine, Volume 13 Issue 85, September 2011
2010 Conjunctions Literary Magazine, “Shadow Selves,” (cover photograph),
Published by Bard College/Distributed Art Publishers, Issue 54, Spring 2010
Greg Gold, “El Bandido del Tiempo,” Standart Magazine (Spain) P.P. 88-94,
December, 2010
Chinese Photographers Magazine, Portfolio of my “First Prize” photographs exhibited at
Lishui International Photo Festival
2009 Revolutions in Sound: “Warner Bros. Records The First fifty Years,” (photograph) P.228
Chronicle Books
2008 Liesel Brander, “Pastmodern Art,” Los Angeles Times, p. F2, September 14, 2008
Leah Ollman, “Critic’s Choice, Chamber Pieces,” Los Angeles Times,
November 2, 2008
Leah Ollman, “Across Time Zones,” Los Angeles Times, P. E3, November 10th, 2008
Jana Monji, “Looking Back,” Pasadena Weekly, (cover photograph), October 23, 2008
Michelle Mills, “Arresting Visions,” P. B, Pasadena Star News, December 14, 2008
John Rabbe, “Off-Ramps,” (Interview, NPR radio show, KPCC) 2008
Lynn Labate, “Stephen Berkman: Quadrascope, Opticus Naturalis,”
University Art Museum, California State University, Long Beach, 2008
Carolyn Peter, “Chamber Pieces,” Laband Gallery, Loyola Marymount University, 2008
Robert Hirsch, “Light and Lens - Photography in the Digital Age,”
Focal Press, P.P. 2,4, 2008
Austin Scaggs, Rolling Stone Magazine, (photograph) P.P. 26, June 12th, 2008
2007 Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, (book cover) Owl Books, Henry Holt & Co. 2007
The New Yorker, (Back cover page photograph, from HBO film Bury My Heart at
Wounded Knee), May 28, 2007
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, (book cover)
Harper, 2007
Christopher Rauschenberg, “Blue Sky 07/08,” catalog P.P. 7-11, Blue Sky Gallery. 2007
Gomma Magazine, (U.K.) Spring/Summer 2007
2006 Nacy Princenthal, “Willing Spirits: Art of the Paranormal,” Art in America, P.P. 109,144,
February
The Fall, book of the film published by Googly Films, 2006
Leah Ollman, “Do Their Lenses Deceive You,” Los Angeles Times, P. E28,
September 22, 2006
Vanity Fair, (Six page portfolio of photographs created for the HBO film Bury My Heart
at Wounded Knee), June 2006
James Doorne, “Shot in the Dark,” Bizarre Magazine, P.P 64 -68, August, 2006
Douglas Singleton, “It’s Very Difficult To Keep the Line Between the Past and the
Present. You Know What I Mean?” Focus Magazine, P.P 166,167, 2006
Don Norris, “Stephen Berkman, Through a Glass Strangely,” Photo Review Australia,
P.P. 51-53, Winter 2006
Bridget Schinner, “Artist Profile” Pasadena Star News, February 5, 2006
Suicide Girls, (artist interview) 2006
2005 i-D Magazine, (artist profile) P.P 66, 67, issue 256, July 2005
2004 “Fanfair,” Vanity Fair, (tintype photograph) p.184, March 2004
Walter Murch, “Behind the Seen,” P. 122 (tintype photograph)
2003 Tintype photographs featured, front page of section 2, The New York Times,
December 21,2003
Tintype photographs featured, Interview Magazine, P.P. 123,124,127,128,
December/January, 2003
Tintype photographs featured, Time Magazine, P.111 December 1, 2003
Charles Frazier, Anthony Minghella, “Cold Mountain: The Journey from Book to Film” P.P,
17, 76,136, Newmarket Press, 2003
Laura Myers, “Reborn Victorians,” Art Business News, P.P 56-58, October 1, 2003
Cold Mountain soundtrack, (tintype photograph for album) 2003
2002 Lyle Rexer, “Photography’s Antiquarian Avant-Garde: The New Wave In Old Processes,”
P.P. 7, 26, 74, 84, 85, 149, & back cover, Published by Harry N. Abrams, 2002
Paul LaRosa, “The Aura of Relic; The Ambrotypes-of Stephen Berkman,” 21st The
Journal of Contemporary Photography: Volume 5: Strange Genius, John Wood - editor,
Published by Leo Wolfe & Co, P.P. 143-145,165-169, 2002
2001 David Pagel, “The Pre-Digital Photographic Image Lost and Found,” Los Angeles
Times, P. F5, March 12, 2001
Elizabeth Kirsch, “Re-Thought and Re-Seen,” Exhibit Catalog p.p. 3,10,18
UMKC Gallery of ART
Alice Thorson, “Re-Newed Art,” The Kansas City Star, P.29, November 30, 2000
Kim Zorn, editor, (portfolio) Issue 16 Blind Spot Magazine
Lyle Rexer “Adopting the Itinerant Life of an Old-Time Tintypist,” The New York Times,
referenced on P.34, August 22, 2001
Shirle Gottlieb, “New look at a Vintage World,” Long Beach Press Telegram, P.P. C1, C3,
December 6, 2001
This Month at the Getty, featured profile, May issue, J. Paul Getty Museum,2001
1997 Holly Willis, “Shifting Stories, Shifting Ground,” Filmmaker Magazine. 1997
Holly Willis, “The Trials of Room 103,” American Cinematographer Magazine, P.P. 20,
22, 24, September 1997
VISITING ARTIST
2000 J. Paul Getty Museum, “Visiting Artist Series” (May-June) 8 week series,
Los Angeles, California
COMMISSIONED PROJECTS
2017 Warner Bros, Wonder Woman, glass plate photograph featured in the film.
Directed by Patty Jenkins
2016 Warner Bros, Batman V. Superman, glass plate photograph featured in the film.
Directed by Zack Snyder
2014 Disney, The Lone Ranger, tintype photographs of the cast for promotion.
Directed by Gore Verbinski
2012 Fox Studios, Sleepy Hollow, glass plate photographs of the cast for promotion
Relativity Media, Mirror Mirror, glass plate photographs for end credit sequence.
Directed by Tarsem Singh
Kino Lorber, Deceptive Practice: The Mysteries and Mentors of Ricky Jay, photograph
of Ricky Jay. Directed by Molly Bernstein
PBS International, Beauty is Embarrassing, glass plate photograph of artist
Wayne White. Directed by Neil Berkeley
2008 Warner Bros Music, tintype photograph featured on fold out LP, album cover,
for Jack White’s The Raconteurs record, Consolers of the Lonely
2007 Sony/BMG, CONversations with Ricky Jay, glass plate photographs and guest
appearance. Directed by Jesse Dylan
2006 HBO Films, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, glass plate photographs for title
sequence and promotional advertising. Directed by Yves Simoneau
2005 Warner Bros, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, tintypes of
the cast for promotion. Directed by Andrew Dominik
The History Channel, Unraveling the Shroud, recreating the Shroud of Turin
photographically, and guest speaker for the program, Actuality productions
2004 Sony Pictures Studio, The Fall, photographs shot on location in India and South Africa
for the film. Directed by Tarsem Singh
2002 Miramax Films, Cold Mountain, tintype photographs shot on location in Romania featured
throughout the film. Directed by Anthony Minghella
2001 J. Paul Getty Museum, How to make a Wet-Collodion, video for the museum’s website
and art information room.
ARTIST LECTURES
2021 Los Angeles County Museum of Art, artist talk with photography curator Britt Salvesen,
Los Angeles, California
The Contemporary Jewish Museum, artist talk with AGO chief curator Julian Cox,
San Francisco, California
Photographic Arts Council LA, artist lecture, Los Angeles, California
2020 The Contemporary Jewish Museum, artist talk with author Lawrence Weschler,
San Francisco, California
The Victorian Society, New York, artist lecture, New York, New York
School of Visual Arts, artist talk, with designer and author Steven Heller,
New York, New York
2014 E.G. Conference, artist lecture, Monterey, California
2013 F. 295 Photographic Symposium, artist lecture, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Southern Utah University, artist lecture, Cedar City, Utah
2012 Medium Festival of Photography, artist lecture, San Diego, California 2012
2009 Hammer Museum, artist lecture to accompany the exhibit, “The Darker Side of Light,”
Los Angeles, California
University of Arkansas, artist lecture, Little Rock, Arkansas.
2008 Museum of Photographic Arts (MoPA), artist lecture,
San Diego, California
Maryland Institute of College Art (MICA), artist lecture, Baltimore, Maryland
Laband Gallery, artist talk with David Wilson, founder of the Museum of Jurassic
Technology, Los Angeles, California
2007 J. Paul Getty Museum, “Point of View Artist Talk” for the exhibit, The Old Order and the
New: P.H. Emerson and Photography 1885-1895, Los Angeles, California
University Art Museum, California State University, Long Beach, artist lecture,
Long Beach, California
2005 Artist Talks on Artists (ATOA) Panelist and lecture on the Camera Obscura –
held at The School of Visual Arts, New York City, New York
2004 Museum of Photographic Arts (MoPA), artist lecture, San Diego, California
J. Paul Getty Museum, “Point of View Artist Talk” for the exhibit: Julia Margaret Cameron
Photographer, Los Angeles, California
J. Paul Getty Museum, audio commentary for Roger Fenton, All the Mighty World,
Los Angeles California
J. Paul Getty Museum, audio commentary for Julia Margaret Cameron, Photographer,
Los Angeles California
National Public Radio, artist interview, San Diego, California
2003 Museum of Photographic Arts, San Diego, California
Summer Photographic Workshop “Re-Discovering the Wet- Collodion Process”
2001 USC Fisher Gallery Museum, “Artist + Process Series” Los Angeles, California
UMKC Gallery of Art, University of Missouri, Kansas City, “Visiting Artist Lecture,”
Kansas City, Missouri
2000 J. Paul Getty Museum, “Point-of View: Artist Talk” for the exhibit: Voyages and Visions,
Los Angeles, California
Society for Photographic Education, artist lecture, fall conference, San Diego, California
1999 Autry Museum of Western Heritage, lecture on photographic history,
Los Angeles, California
AWARDS and GRANTS
2020 Shortlisted, Aperture Photobook Awards,
(for artist monograph Predicting the Past, Zohar Studios: The Lost Years)
2014 Nominee, Baum Award, San Francisco Cameraworks
Faculty Enrichment Grant, Art Center College of Design
2010 Nominee, John Gutmann Photography Fellowship
“First Prize,” Lishui International Photo Festival, Lishui, China
2009 Peter S. Reed Foundation Grant
2006 Individual Artist Grant, City of Pasadena Cultural Affairs Department
2004 Individual Artist Grant, City of Pasadena Cultural Affairs Department
Faculty Enrichment Grant, Art Center College of Design
2003 Great Teacher Award, Art Center College of Design
2002 Individual Artist Grant Award, City of Pasadena Cultural Affairs Department
2001 Individual Artist Grant Award, City of Pasadena Cultural Affairs Department
1999 Faculty Enrichment Grant, Art Center College of Design
1996 Great Teacher Award, Art Center College of Design
1995 Artist Fellowship Grant, Pasadena Arts Council
PERMANENT COLLECTIONS
Museum of Photographic Arts (MoPA) San Diego, California
Portland Art Museum, Portland, Oregon
Numerous Private Collections
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
1995–Present: Film faculty, Art Center College of Design
2008 MoPA Workshop on the Wet-Collodion Process
2003 MoPA Workshop on the Wet-Collodion Process
SELECTED FILM FESTIVALS/SCREENINGS
1997 ROOM 103, 35mm (Distributed by Big Film Shorts)
American Cinematheque (Inspired by Series)
Seattle International Film Festival Taos Talking Pictures Film Festival
Santa Barbara International Film Festival Sao Paulo Brazil
Athens International Film Festival (Greece), Mill Valley Film Festival
Los Angeles Short Film Festival
Cinequest - San Jose Film Festival
1995 A HUNGER ARTIST 35mm 4 min. Screened at the American Cinematheque
1993 SHAPE WITHOUT FORM Released (1997) by Short Cinema Journal
1989 -1997 Commercial, music video director with Limelight Productions,
The End and Believe Media
EDUCATION
1988 B.F.A. film, Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, California