Katy Grannan at Salon94 Bowery

Taken in what photographer Katy Grannan calls ‘spontaneous collaborations,’ photos of anonymous subjects on the street from 2012-13 lend a heroic quality and astounding dignity to Californians on the margins. (At Salon 94 Bowery on the Lower East Side through Dec 20th).

Katy Grannan, Anonymous, Modesto, CA, archival pigment print on cotton rag paper mounted to Plexiglas, 55 x 41 inches, 2013.

Yoon Ji Seon at Yossi Milo Gallery

Physical transformation is nothing new for Korean youth; one recent poll reported that 50% of young women in their 20s have had a cosmetic procedure. Seoul-based artist Yoon Ji Seon alters her features aggressively by stitching over photographic self-portraits printed on linen, but she does so with a wild creativity that rejects conventional beauty norms. (At Yossi Milo Gallery through Dec 5th).

 Yoon Ji Seon, Rag Face #15022, sewing on fabric and photograph, 24” x 16.5”, unique, 2015.

Wolfgang Tillmans at David Zwirner Gallery

Digital technology allows us to picture everything in amazing detail, so how do you choose your subject matter as a professional photographer? Wolfgang Tillmans answers this question by continuing to zero in on the exceptional and mundane, picturing his day-to-day world (portraits of friends, laundry piles) and international travels in prints both tiny and monumental in a characteristic salon-style hanging which seems to evoke the randomness of life. (At David Zwirner Gallery through Oct 24th).

Wolfgang Tillmans, installation view of ‘New York Installation PCR’ at David Zwirner Gallery, September, 2015.

Sara Cwynar in ‘Continuous Surfaces’ at Andrea Rosen Gallery

Sara Cwynar’s photo of stacked images of Nefertiti comes at a moment when it’s possible to see images of the ancient Egyptian queen at both the Brooklyn Museum and another Chelsea gallery, reinforcing the idea that much of what we’re seeing in daily life is an oft repeated referent to a distant original. The words ‘ERROR: ioerror’ appear scattered throughout suggesting a corrupting effect to so much mediation. (At Chelsea’s Andrea Rosen Gallery through Oct 24th)

Sara Cwynar, 432 Photographs of Nefertiti, collaged UV coated archival pigment prints mounted to Plexiglas and Dibond, 54 x 43 x 7/8 inches, 2015.

Sarah Charlesworth at the New Museum

For her last series, late Pictures Generation photographer Sarah Charlesworth used available light coming from her studio window to illuminate carefully chosen objects. Here, a glass holding a sphere has the meticulous quality of product photography, but it sells nothing, instead it turns everyday objects into something serenely magical. (At the New Museum through Sept 20th).

Sarah Charlesworth, Carnival Ball, from the ‘Available Light’ series, Fuji Crystal Archive prints with lacquered wood frames, 2012.