On Tuesday, November 6, 2018, the Half King Photo Series will present an exhibition opening, book party and lecture for two projects by Mary Frey. The evening will end with a broadcast of the midterm election results.

Images will be on display from two of Frey’s recent books, Reading Raymond Carver (Peperoni Books, 2017) and Real Life Dramas (Peperoni Books, 2018). The work, made over 25 years ago, is experiencing a sizable revival. “Photographed in large format on film, technically perfect, between snapshot and enactment, intimacy and distance…her pictures are too good to be overlooked. Mary Frey is the rediscovery of the moment.” writes Peperoni Books.

The black and white images from Reading Raymond Carver were made both inside Frey’s home in Massachusetts and not far from her doorstep. Shot between 1979-1983, the photographs are orchestrations of middle class Americans going about their daily routines. Her cast of characters reappear throughout the book, “creating a journey for the reader as they make choices or accept consequences,” writes the Half King Photo Series in a statement.

Similar to the images in Reading Raymond Carver, the photographs in Real Life Drama look like reportage but are entirely preconceived and set up. “Their appearance is meant to hover somewhere between reality and soap opera in order to question the ‘truth’ of the camera’s vision,” writes Frey in her artist statement. Shot in color between 1984-1987, the photographs portray ordinary moments of families and individuals living in suburban America.

Frey will sign copies of both books during the opening.

Mary Frey earned her MFA from the Yale University School of Art in 1979 and subsequently taught at the Hartford Art School, retiring from the undergraduate program in 2015. Her pictures are held in many public and private collections, including the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the Chicago Art Institute and the International Polaroid Collection.

Reading Raymond Carver & Real Life Dramas
By Mary Frey
Exhibition opening, book signing and lecture presented by the Half King Photo Series
November 6, 2018 at 7pm

Reading Raymond Carver
Published by Peperoni Books, 2017

Real Life Dramas
Published by Peperoni Books, 2018