Taking Place

Drawn from the Prentice and Paul Sack Photographic Trust at SFMOMA and the Sacks’ newly promised gift to the Trust, this extraordinary photography exhibition is one of the largest ever mounted at SFMOMA. The collection is loosely united around the theme of architecture. Paul Sack, a real estate developer, specifies that each work in his collection must depict a building that could be bought or leased. However, what seems a simple pretext immediately proves much more complex in Taking Place. On its own, each photograph reflects a powerful and distinctive sense of place. As a group, the pictures add to our understanding of photography’s complex role in articulating how the human hand has shaped the natural landscape, as well as how the built environment has shaped our perception of ourselves. The exhibition includes 285 vintage prints that span the history of the medium from 1840 to the mid-1970s.

Taking Place: Photographs from the Prentice and Paul Sack Collection is organized by SFMOMA. This exhibition is sponsored by Deutsche Bank and RREEF.

Additional support is provided by Elaine McKeon, Nancy and Steven Oliver, Jane and Jack Bogart, and the George Frederick Jewett Foundation.