‘Don’t Forget to Call Your Mother,’ a compact show of photography from the 70s onward from the Met Museum’s collection, showcases complex portraits built from pieces of information rather than a traditional physical likeness. Snippets from Larry Sultan’s family’s home movies and an image of a solitary bathrobe by Sophie Calle point to specific memories that shaped an individual’s identity, while Darrell Ellis worked with his late father’s photo archive and Sadie Barnette creates a neon-edged photo collage memorial to San Francisco’s first Black-owned gay bar, owned by her father. Annette Messager’s collection of small, framed photos of eyes, mouths, torsos and other body parts arranged against the wall in a dense, circular cluster by twine and nails creates a collective portrait of an unknown group. Titled ‘My Vows,’ the images suggestively connect belief and the body. (On view on the Upper East Side through Sept 15th).
