Photographer
Mark Steinmetz
American photographer known for quiet black-and-white work depicting the American South and everyday life.
Selected Works & Key Projects
A source-backed introduction to individual photographs and significant bodies of work.
Key projects
Project · 1991–1993
South Central
South Central is the opening volume of Steinmetz’s South trilogy, a body of black-and-white photographs made in the southeastern United States. Nazraeli Press identifies the trilogy—South Central, South East, and Greater Atlanta—as published between 2007 and 2009 and as a lyrical examination of American culture and ideas of progress. This project merits selection because it establishes the first section of the three-book sequence through which this extended Southern work became a coherent published statement, rather than a group of isolated photographs.
View source ↗
Project · 2015–2017
Terminus / ATL
Terminus arose from Steinmetz’s 2015 High Museum Picturing the South commission. Over the following two years he photographed in, around, and above Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, treating the airport as a crossroads of the contemporary South. The High presented more than 60 resulting works in 2018. The project is significant for extending his attention to ordinary encounters into a global transit infrastructure, joining passengers, workers, aircraft, surrounding neighborhoods, and night-flight studies in a museum-commissioned body of work.
View source ↗Selected photographs
1986 · Chelsea, Massachusetts, United States
Chelsea, Massachusetts
Chelsea, Massachusetts is a 1986 gelatin silver print in MoMA’s Photography Department, given to the museum by the artist in 1991. Its selection is warranted by its direct institutional record: the print entered MoMA’s collection early in Steinmetz’s career and is one of the works through which the museum represents his 1980s photography online. As an individual work, its significance is distinct from a series claim: it is a specifically titled, dated, and accessioned print with documented medium, dimensions, ownership history, and museum collection status.
Work source ↗1987 · Near Suffield, Connecticut, United States
Near Suffield, Connecticut
Near Suffield, Connecticut is a 1987 gelatin silver print held by MoMA’s Photography Department. Acquired through the Polaroid Foundation Fund in 1989, it has a documented museum object number and is among the works MoMA makes available in its Steinmetz artist record. It merits inclusion as a recognizable early photograph because the institutional catalog fixes its title, place, date, medium, dimensions, and collecting history. These details make it a securely documented example of Steinmetz’s late-1980s work, rather than an image known only through reproduction or secondary commentary.
Work source ↗1989 · Chicago, Illinois, United States
Chicago
Chicago is a 1989 gelatin silver print in MoMA’s Photography Department, acquired through the Polaroid Foundation Fund in the same year. MoMA’s catalog identifies it by city and date and assigns it a distinct object number. It merits selection because it offers a firmly documented urban entry within Steinmetz’s early museum-held work and because the catalog preserves it as a discrete photograph rather than subsuming it under a later book project. Its value here is evidentiary as well as artistic: it makes a named, accessioned record available for study.
Work source ↗1992 · Knoxville, Tennessee, United States
Knoxville
Knoxville is a 1992 gelatin silver print cataloged by MoMA in its Photography Department. The museum’s artist page lists several Steinmetz photographs made in Knoxville in 1992, and this separate record confirms that this is an individually cataloged work. It merits selection because it gives a precise, museum-documented point within the Southern geography that would become central to Steinmetz’s published work. Rather than making unsupported claims about the image’s reception, the record establishes its importance through its named place, date, medium, and inclusion in MoMA’s collection.
Work source ↗1992 · Magnolia Avenue, Knoxville, Tennessee, United States
Magnolia Ave, Knoxville
Magnolia Ave, Knoxville is a 1992 gelatin silver print cataloged by MoMA. The title identifies a more specific urban site than the museum’s other Knoxville entries from the same year, making it useful for tracing how Steinmetz’s photographs register both city and street-level location. It merits inclusion because MoMA records it as a distinct photograph in its collection and places it among Steinmetz’s online works. The work therefore provides a closely localized, institutionally documented example from the period in which his Southern photographic practice was taking shape.
Work source ↗-
1987
Career milestone
Camargo Foundation Residency Fellowship
Steinmetz received a Camargo Foundation Residency Fellowship in Cassis, France.
Source: Yancey Richardson Verified Sep 3, 2026
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October 7, 1993–January 4, 1994
Exhibition
New Photography 9, Museum of Modern Art
MoMA included Steinmetz in New Photography 9 with Christopher Giglio, Boris Mikhailov, and Beat Streuli.
Source: Museum of Modern Art Verified Sep 3, 2026
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1994
Award
John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship
Steinmetz received a Guggenheim Fellowship. The High Museum states that it enabled him to photograph extensively throughout the South.
Source: High Museum of Art Verified Sep 3, 2026
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2006–2009
Photobook
Publication of the South books
Steinmetz’s curriculum vitae lists South Central (2006), South East (2008), and Greater Atlanta (2009), all published by Nazraeli Press. Nazraeli describes these volumes collectively as the South trilogy.
Source: Nazraeli Press Verified Sep 3, 2026
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2015–2017
Series
Picturing the South commission
The High Museum commissioned Steinmetz in 2015 for Picturing the South. He then spent two years photographing at, around, and above Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport for the resulting body of work.
Source: High Museum of Art Verified Sep 3, 2026
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March 3–June 3, 2018
Exhibition
Mark Steinmetz: Terminus
The High Museum debuted more than 60 works from Steinmetz’s Picturing the South commission in Mark Steinmetz: Terminus.
Source: High Museum of Art Verified Sep 3, 2026
Collection
Museum of Modern Art
MoMA’s artist record identifies Steinmetz as an American photographer born in 1961, lists 23 works by him online, and documents multiple exhibitions and collection rotations involving his work.
Verified 2026-09-03Museum of Modern Art
Collection
High Museum of Art
The High Museum commissioned Steinmetz for its Picturing the South initiative and acquired the resulting Terminus photographs for the project’s collection.
Verified 2026-09-03High Museum of Art
Publishing relationship
Nazraeli Press
Nazraeli Press published Steinmetz’s South trilogy—South Central, South East, and Greater Atlanta—and identifies the trilogy as appearing between 2007 and 2009.
Verified 2026-09-03Nazraeli Press
Mark Steinmetz’s Summertime (opens a new site)
TIME’s feature introduces Summertime in connection with its Nazraeli Press publication. It describes an intuitive roaming method, photographs of people encountered in public, and the book’s geographically wider scope in comparison with Steinmetz’s earlier Southern publications. The article is especially useful for documenting the project’s emphasis on young people, summer time, and locations where the photographer lived, visited family, or taught.
Mark Steinmetz (opens a new site)
Vogue Italia’s 2013 interview accompanies an exhibition of photographs from Summertime at Micamera in Milan. It discusses Steinmetz’s early interest in photography, his continued darkroom practice, his attention to weather and picture-making details, and his stated interest in complex, ambiguous photographs. It is a useful primary interview for his working approach.
Normal Vision: A conversation with Mark Steinmetz (opens a new site)
This educational, non-commercial video by LENS Escuela de Artes Visuales is a 24-minute conversation about Steinmetz’s photographic world and his links with other photographers and filmmakers. It is a compact video resource for viewers seeking a direct discussion of his practice and professional reference points.
Picturing the South: 25 Years (opens a new site)
Published by the High Museum’s Picturing the South digital project on October 29, 2021, this video accompanies the exhibition marking the initiative’s twenty-fifth anniversary. Steinmetz is among the commissioned photographers represented in the initiative. The video provides institutional context for viewing his Terminus/ATL commission alongside other museum-commissioned approaches to the American South.
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