Henry Wessel: A Dark Thread @ Maison Européenne de la Photographie in Paris

For five decades, Henry Wessel documented intensifying elements of the uncanny present in scenes of everyday life. As an avid fan of film noir and detective fiction, Wessel arranged his images in sequences like storyboards for films so that viewers could try to make connections and imagine stories between pictures that may have been taken years apart. The prolific photographer worked primarily in black and white, developing his own prints with a characteristic soft silver tone. Henry Wessel created an interpretive, mysterious vision of the places he lived in and visited, with a “dark thread” connecting his photographs to one another.

Henry Wessel: A Dark Thread is on view through August 25 at Maison Européenne de la Photographie 5/7 Rue de Fourcy, Paris, France. photographs courtesy of Maison Européenne de la Photographie

Leon Borensztein "It's So Fucking Lonely Here' @ Little Big Man Gallery

In his current show at Little Big Man Gallery, Oakland photographer Leon Borensztein presents a series of images that document life with his disabled daughter over 30 years. Sharon, Borensztein's daughter, is legally blind, prone to seizures, and diagnosed with optic nerve hypoplasia. By the time Sharon turned 15, her mother was unable to care for her due to drugs and alcohol, tasking Borensztein with raising their severely-disabled daughter by himself. The series investigates life with chronic illness from a familial perspective, as well as the harsh realities faced by disabled women today. It's So Fucking Lonely Here is on view at Little Big Man Gallery through August 25th. 1427 E 4th St #2, Los Angeles. photographs by Oliver Kupper

Richard Avedon's Murals & Portraits @ Gagosian New York

Opening today at Gagosian New York, Richard Avedon's Murals & Portraits. Against the backdrop of America's social and political transformation, Avedon began to create four photographic murals between 1969 and 1971 which would be unprecedented in scale and pointed in subject. Between 20 to 35 feet wide and comprising up to five panels, the murals revealed a striking new format in which subjects were positioned frontally and aligned against a stark white background. This intensity of characterization and confrontational aspect typifies Avedon's portraits; his subjects exist larger than life, stripped of all artifice by an unflinching eye. His mural groupings featured emblematic figures: Andy Warhol with the players and stars of The Factory; The Chicago Seven, political radicals charged with and acquitted of conspiracy to incite a riot at the 1968 Democratic National Convention; the Beat poet Allen Ginsberg and his extended family; and the Mission Council, a group of military and government officials who governed the United States' participation in the Vietnam War. Murals and Portraits will be on view from May 4 to July 6 at Gagosian, 522 West 21, New York.