Power of Mystery: 100 Years @ Robert Koch Gallery
The Robert Koch Gallery is pleased to announce Power of Mystery: 100 Years, an exhibition drawn from the gallery’s inventory that explores photography’s longstanding relationship with the mystery in the image. Spanning the past century, the exhibition brings together works ranging from Surrealism and modernism to street photography, landscape, and contemporary practice. Across these varied approaches, the photographs present moments that are not immediately explained, inspiring a sense of wonder and inviting the viewer to look more closely, consider what might be taking place within the image, and develop their own interpretation.
Throughout the exhibition, photographers approach mystery in different ways. Some transform familiar subjects through experimentation with perspective, abstraction, light, shadow, and composition, while others find ambiguity in fleeting moments, unusual encounters, or carefully constructed scenes. The resulting images range from the unexpected to the enigmatic, inviting viewers to look beyond the immediately recognizable.
Spanning generations and bringing together photographers working in different cultural and geographic contexts, the exhibition suggests that mystery can emerge from both the extraordinary and the everyday. A photograph may capture something difficult to explain, reveal a familiar subject in an unfamiliar way, or simply raise questions that remain unresolved. Across these different contexts, the image retains a universal capacity to provoke curiosity and invite interpretation. Power of Mystery: 100 Years brings these approaches together to consider photography’s ability to make the familiar uncertain, prompting viewers to pause, look again, and form their own understanding of what they see.
The exhibition includes works by John Albok, Holly Andres, Ljubodrag Andric, Trent Davis Bailey, Roger Ballen, Ruth Bernhard, Vladimir Birgus, Matt Black, Manuel Álvarez Bravo, Hugh Brown, František Drtikol, Foto Ada, Eva Fukova, Jaromír Funke, Oliver Gagliani, Ferenc Haar, Philippe Halsman, Gyula Holics, Adam Katseff, György Kepes, André Kertész, Károly Kismányoky, Alex Kolpan, Ken Kolpan, Josef Koudelka, Jiří Lehovec, Lajos Lengyel, Nathan Lerner, Helen Levitt, Emila Medková, László Osoha, Sutezo Otono, Mimi Plumb, Emile Joachim Constant Puyo, Vilém Reichmann, Josep Sala, Josef Sudek, Drahotin Sulla, János Szász, Brian Ulrich, Geza Vandor, Alex Webb, Rebecca Norris Webb, Jo Whaley, and Michael Wolf.