STEPHANIE BERGER

Exhibitor, 2013

“I look for that split second that reveals the emotion behind the choreography, the dramatic tension of the actor’s gesture and rhythm inside the performer’s head, when words or songs are played, dancers jump, and the random and ethereal nature of the experience of performance is illuminated.” —Stephanie Berger

Since 1986, Stephanie Berger has been photographing music, dance, opera, cultural events and festivals in New York City at such major New York City arts venues as Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (where she is the staff photographer for the Lincoln Center Festival), the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Carnegie Hall, Park Avenue Armory, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Dia Art Foundation, and The Whitney Museum, as well as in smaller venues such as the Baryshnikov Arts Center, The Kitchen, and Le Poisson Rouge. In this capacity she has photographed performances by the New York Philharmonic, Mark Morris, Meredith Monk, Bang on a Can, Shen Wei Dance Arts, Bill T. Jones / Arnie Zane Dance Company, the Trisha Brown Dance company, and The Young People’s Chorus of New York City. In the fall of 2012, she photographed Robert Wilson and Philip Glass’s seminal Einstein on the Beach and Pina Bausch’s final dance work Como El Musguito En La Piedra for the Brooklyn Academy of Music Next Wave Festival.

As a freelance photographer for The New York Times since 1992, some of her assignments have included photographing the epic Kunqu masterpiece Peony Pavilion in China, and portraits of musicians Sonny Rollins, Wynton Marsalis, Philip Glass, among others. She also photographed The Merce Cunningham Dance Company “Events” at Dia:Beacon, as well as the final Legacy Tour, many photos of which appear in Aperture Foundation’s first ever app, Merce Cunningham: 65 Years. Recently she worked for PBS, shooting the cast of Downton Abbey.