EXHIBITS
The work of N. Jay Jaffee has been exhibited in many solo and group exhibits…
…beginning with the seminal 1950 show, “51 American Photographers,” at the Museum of Modern Art.
A major 50-year retrospective, “Coney Island to Caumsett: The Photographic Journey of N. Jay Jaffee,1947–1997,” was shown at the Heckscher Museum in Huntington, New York in 1999. A major solo exhibit, “Inward Images,” was shown at the Brooklyn Museum in 1981.
N. Jay Jaffee’s work has also been included in several shows about the Photo League, such as “The Radical Camera: New York’s Photo League, 1936–1951,″ at the Jewish Museum and the Colombus Museum of Art in 2011. His photographs have also been shown internationally at exhibits in England and France.
Solo Exhibits
2018 “Urban Studies: Photographs by N. Jay Jaffee,” Binghamton University, Binghamton, NY
2014 “N. Jay Jaffee: Photographs from Public to Personal, 1947–1997,” University of Maryland, Baltimore, MD
1999 “Coney Island to Caumsett: The Photographic Journey of N. Jay Jaffee: 1947–1997,” Heckscher Museum of Art, Huntington, NY
1997 “Always Towards the Light: 50 Years in Photography,” Port Washington Public Library, Port Washington, NY
1991 “Social Landscapes: The Post War Years,” Photofind Gallery, NY.
1991 “The Inward Image: Photographs by N. Jay Jaffee,” St. Anselm College, Manchester, NH
1989 St. Michael’s College, Winooski, VT
1986 Snite Museum of Art, University of Notre Dame, IN
1985 “Inward Image,” Staten Island Institute of Arts and Sciences, NY
1983 “Inward Image II,” Neikrug Gallery, NYC
1982 “Inward Images,” Impressions Gallery of Photography, York, England
1982 Mint Museum, Charlotte, NC
1981 “Inward Image,” The Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY
1981 New York Gallery of Photographs, NY
1981 Books & Co., NYC
1959 Brooklyn Public Library, Brooklyn, NY
Group Exhibits
2025 “Breaking the Mold: Brooklyn Museum at 200,” Brooklyn Museum, NY
2025 “Portal: The Window in American Photography,” Edward Hopper House, Nyack, NY
2021 “Touchstones of the Twentieth Century: A History of Photography,” University of Notre Dame, Snite Museum, IN (See also Publications)
2021 Portal: The WIndow in American Photography, Everson Museum, Syracuse, NY
2018 “The Heckscher Collects: Recent Acquisitions,” The Heckscher Museum of Art, Huntington, NY
2018 “Unexpected Encounters,” Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO
2017 “Subjective Objective: A Century of Social Photography,” Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum, Rutgers University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, NJ
2017 “Reflect: Photography Looking Forward, Looking Back,” Luther W. Brady Art Gallery, George Washington University, Washington, DC
2014 “Hope and Anger: The Civil Rights Movement and Beyond,” Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NY
2015 “On the Scene: 20th Century Street Photography,” Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, MA
2016 “Street Life: Private Moments/Public Record,” The Heckscher Museum of Art, Huntington, NY
2016 “Before Selfies: Portraiture through the Ages,” The Heckscher Museum of Art, Huntington, NY
2013 “Bearing Witness; Sonia Handleman Meyer and the New York Photo League,” The Mint Museum, Charlotte, NYC
2013 “Landscape into Abstraction,” Orange County Museum of Art, Newport Beach, CA
2012 City Scenes: Highlights of New York Photography,” The Museum of the City of New York, NYC
2012 “African American Art: Harlem Renaissance, Civil Rights Era, and Beyond,” The Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC (See also Books.)
2011 “The Radical Camera: New York’s Photo League 1936–1951,” The Jewish Museum, NYC. (Also: Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, OH; Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco, CA; Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach, FL) (See also Books.)
2011 “New York: New York,” Heckscher Museum of Art, Huntington, NY
2011 “Davidson Collects: 100 Writers Respond to Art,” Van Every/Smith Galleries, Davidson College, Davidson, NC (see Catalogs, below)
2011 “Frost Drawing Project,” Frost Art Museum, Florida International University, Miami, FL
2010 “Shout Freedom! Photo League Selections from the Columbus Museum of Art,” Columbus, OH (traveling show)
2007 “Picturing Long Island: Abstract, Figurative and Historical,” Heckscher Museum of Art, Huntington, Long Island
2006 “The Photo League and Its Legacy (1936–2006),” New York Public Library, NYC
1998 “Eight Million Stories: 20th Century New York Life in Prints and Photographs,” New York Public Library, NYC
1997 “Brooklyn, New York, U.S.A.,” Bonni Benrubi Gallery, NYC
1996 World Trade Center Museum, Nanko, Osaka, Japan
1994 “An American Century of Photography,” International Center of Photography, NYC (traveling show) (see also Books)
1993 “The Photo League, 1936–1951,” 292 Gallery, NYC
1991 “The Great New York Show, Part III,” Howard Greenberg Gallery, NYC
1990 “Structural Symbols,” The Dimock Gallery, George Washington University, Washington, DC
1989 “The Lyric Document,” Madison Gallery, Madison, CT
1989 “Faculty Exhibition,” C.W. Post College, Brookville, NY
1988 Davison Art Gallery, Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT
1988 “Photography, 1900–1988,” Madison Gallery, Madison, CT
1988 “New York, New York,” Photofind Gallery, NYC
1987 “Generations,” Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. (see also Books)
1986 Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY
1985 “Curator’s Choice: Back to Brooklyn,” Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY
1984 “Contemporary Photographs,” The Dimock Gallery, George Washington University, Washington, DC
1982 “A Group Experience,” Neikrug Gallery, NYC
1981 “Autoportaits,” Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France
1979 “101 Photographs from the Brooklyn Museum Collection,” Brooklyn Museum, NY
1979 “A New York Album,” Brooklyn Museum, NY
1950 “Fifty-One American Photographers,” The Museum of Modern Art, NYC
Exhibit Catalogs
Coney Island to Caumsett: The Photographic Journey of N. Jay Jaffee, 1947–1997. Heckscher Museum of Art, Huntington, NY, 1999.
Inward Image, Photographs by N. Jay Jaffee, The Brooklyn Museum, 1981.
“Davidson Collects: 100 Writers Respond to Art,” Van Every/Smith Galleries, Davidson College, Davidson, NC, 2011.
Tradition and the Unpredictable. Boston, MA: The Museum of Fine Arts, 1994.
Contemporary Photographs, The Dimock Gallery, George Washington University, 1981.
Autoportraits Photographiques, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France, 1981.
Auctions
American Photography Archives Group (APAG) Benefit Auction, 2024, 2025
The Two Collection, WGBH Educational Foundation, 1999, 2000, 2001
5th Annual Friends of Friends Photo Auction, Friends Without Borders, 2001
Kobe Aid Fund, World Photo Art Exhibition and Auction, Japan, 1995