The expanded reissue of the famous 1976 photo book by Neal Slavin, a pioneer of full-color group portraiture, shedding a striking light on hierarchies and social dynamics in the United States.
Neal Slavin began taking group portraits in the early 1970s, intrigued by the social dynamics of groups and the motivations behind their formation. While the pictures themselves were most often posed, Slavin instructed his subjects to arrange themselves, allowing natural hierarchies and indications of status to emerge. When the series was first published in 1974, it was recognized as an instant landmark in the emerging field of color photography, a field that included photographers such as
Stephen Shore and William Eggleston. Regarded as something of a deadpan stunt, yet framed as a serious social experiment, When Two or More Are Gathered Together was appreciated for its surprising insights into American social life. Fifty years later, the United States grapples with profound social division and political unrest.
This expanded fifty-year anniversary edition of When Two or More Are Gathered Together revisits the question of social unity in the United States and includes new subjects—dogs, fencers and chambermaids—some photographed as recently as 2023. An essay by art historian Kevin Moore offers historical context for this timely and relevant body of early color photography.
Neal Slavin (born 1941) graduated from the Cooper Union School of Art and Architecture. He has published three photobooks:
Portugal (1971),
When Two or More Are Gathered Together (1976) and
Britons (1986). He directed and produced the 2001 film
Focus, based off of
Arthur Miller's novel of the same name.
