Leon Borensztein, “Sharon” (Kehrer Verlag, 2016)

Photographer Leon Borensztein began Sharon (Kehrer Verlag, 2016), his most personal project, thirty years ago when his daughter was born: “Throughout my artistic career, I have been driven by the need to give voice to the unheard and unseen. This desire became a personal passion when my daughter Sharon was born. Just after her birth I felt there was something wrong, and slowly we learned that she was born with disabilities. I started photographing my daughter before she was born and I have never stopped.”

When Sharon was in her early teens, Leon gained full custody of her when he split with her mother. His book is certainly a unique opportunity to increase awareness about disability, but is also a love letter to Sharon. It is both human and heartbreaking, beautiful and bold. Filled with poetic metaphor, Sharon has no text, which provides an intriguing and emotional experience. It is a book that demands and deserves multiple viewings.

Leon Borenszstein earned his MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute in 1980. He was a recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1987, and a grant from the California Council of the Humanities in 2003. His work has been exhibited internationally, e.g. at the Centre Nationale de la Photographie in Paris, and the Art Institute of Chicago, and is in important collections like the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. His first monograph, One is Adam One is Superman, was published in 2004; his second, American Portraits, in 2011.

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