Waiting to be Seen
“Waiting to be Seen” explores the charged, chaotic, and deeply human theater of street life. Inspired by the spirit of Diane Arbus, the exhibition features street photography and photojournalism that documents drag performers, queer communities, clowns, bodybuilders, and everyday passersby in moments of unfiltered presence.
From the defiant joy of a sidewalk voguing battle to the quiet intimacy of public rituals, these images capture the unscripted drama of urban life. The work blurs the line between art and reportage—inviting viewers to see the street not just as a backdrop, but as a living, breathing character.
Presented at the 2026 FotoFocus Biennial, “Waiting to be Seen” is a tribute to lives lived in public view, and to the photographers who stop to really look. For more information about these artists or to purchase artwork, please contact Eisele Gallery at info@eiselefineart.com or 513.791.7717.
Ave Pildas
13 × 19 ″
Born and raised in Cincinnati, Ohio, Ave Pildas worked early in his career as a photo stringer for Downbeat Magazine in the Ohio Valley and Pennsylvania in the 1960's, and has been a successful photographer and educator for the past 40 years.
In 1971 Pildas began working as the Art Director at Capitol Records in Hollywood and designed and photographed album covers for the label's recording artists. He launched a career as a freelance photographer and designer soon after, specializing in architectural and corporate photography. His photographs have been exhibited in one man shows at the: Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, Photographers Gallery, London, Janus Gallery, Los Angeles, Gallerie Diaframma, Milan, Cannon Gallery, Amsterdam, Gallerie 38, Zurich and numerous group shows. They have been featured in: The New York Times Magazine, 'ZOOM', 'PHOTO', 'CAMERA', 'photographic' and many publications both in the United States and abroad .
Photographs by Ave Pildas are included in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Bibliotheca National, Paris; the University of Arizona as well as numerous other public and private collections. He is a Professor Emeritus at Otis College of Design.
Melvin Grier
Melvin Grier is an award-winning photojournalist who spent 33 years as a staff photographer for The Cincinnati Post. During his career, he documented news, sports, and everyday life in Cincinnati, while also traveling internationally on assignment to countries including Cuba, El Salvador, Kenya, Somalia, and Vietnam. After The Cincinnati Post closed in 2007, Grier turned his focus toward his work as an independent artist. His photographs capture the people, places, and moments that have shaped Cincinnati and his life as a photographer.
Maurice Mattei
Maurice Mattei is a Cincinnati-based photographer, illustrator, musician, and graduate of the Art Academy of Cincinnati. His photography explores people, places, and everyday life, often with a candid and documentary sensibility. His work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, including Straniero: Pictures of Italy, presented during the 2016 FotoFocus Biennial, and exhibitions at the Contemporary Arts Center and other Cincinnati venues. Mattei’s photographs have also appeared in editorial publications, advertising, and music projects. Born in Italy and raised primarily in Cincinnati, he frequently draws on both places in his work.
8 × 12 ″
12 × 18 ″
6 × 9 ″
Matthew Zory
Matthew Zory is a Cincinnati photographer and musician with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. His book, Through the Lens: The Remaking of Cincinnati’s Music Hall, offers an intimate look at the transformation of one of Cincinnati’s most beloved landmarks.
Going beyond the building’s elegant public spaces, Zory photographs its hidden corners, the construction process, and the craftsmen and women who worked to transform Samuel Hannaford’s 19th-century landmark for a new generation. His images capture the unexpected beauty, quiet moments, and human stories found behind the scenes.
10 × 15 ″
Over The Rhine, Cincinnati 1973 #33-B, Photographed (1973)-Published 2020 Museum Grade Print Archival Pigment Ink Print, Hahnemühle Archival Photo Rag Peril® 315 gsm 13 × 19 in Edition 1/50
10 × 15 ″
Photographed (1973)-Published 2020 Museum Grade Print Archival Pigment Ink Print, Hahnemühle Archival Photo Rag Peril® 315 gsm Edition 1/50 + 1AP Part of a limited edition set Includes a Certificate of Authenticity
10 × 15 ″
Photographed (1973)-Published 2020 Museum Grade Print Archival Pigment Ink Print, Hahnemühle Archival Photo Rag Peril® 315 gsm Edition 1/50 + 1AP Part of a limited edition set Includes a Certificate of Authenticity
10 × 15 ″
Photographed (1973)-Published 2020 Museum Grade Print Archival Pigment Ink Print, Hahnemühle Archival Photo Rag Peril® 315 gsm Edition 1/50 + 1AP Part of a limited edition set Includes a Certificate of Authenticity
10 × 15 ″
Photographed (1973)-Published 2020 Museum Grade Print Archival Pigment Ink Print, Hahnemühle Archival Photo Rag Peril® 315 gsm Edition 1/50 + 1AP Part of a limited edition set Includes a Certificate of Authenticity
10 × 15 ″
Photographed (1973)-Published 2020 Museum Grade Print Archival Pigment Ink Print, Hahnemühle Archival Photo Rag Peril® 315 gsm Edition 1/50 + 1AP Part of a limited edition set Includes a Certificate of Authenticity
10 × 15 ″
Photographed (1973)-Published 2020 Museum Grade Print Archival Pigment Ink Print, Hahnemühle Archival Photo Rag Peril® 315 gsm Edition 1/50 + 1AP Part of a limited edition set Includes a Certificate of Authenticity
13 × 19 ″
Photographed (1973)-Published 2020 Museum Grade Print Archival Pigment Ink Print, Hahnemühle Archival Photo Rag Peril® 315 gsm Edition 1/50 + 1AP Part of a limited edition set Includes a Certificate of Authenticity
10 × 15 ″
Photographed (1973)-Published 2020 Museum Grade Print Archival Pigment Ink Print, Hahnemühle Archival Photo Rag Peril® 315 gsm Edition 1/50 + 1AP Part of a limited edition set Includes a Certificate of Authenticity
10 × 15 ″
Photographed (1973)-Published 2020 Museum Grade Print Archival Pigment Ink Print, Hahnemühle Archival Photo Rag Peril® 315 gsm Edition 1/50 + 1AP Part of a limited edition set Includes a Certificate of Authenticity
10 × 15 ″
Photographed (1973)-Published 2020 Museum Grade Print Archival Pigment Ink Print, Hahnemühle Archival Photo Rag Peril® 315 gsm Edition 1/50 + 1AP Part of a limited edition set Includes a Certificate of Authenticity
Timothy Harrier
Timothy Harrier is a multidisciplinary artist whose work includes painting, printmaking, photography, sculpture, and film. His photographs are known for their sharp precision and unusual perspectives, encouraging viewers to look closely at the familiar and see it in unexpected ways. With a career spanning more than five decades, Harrier continually explores the tension between reality and abstraction and the many ways we experience the world through images.
William Messer
William Messer is a photographer, curator, writer, and educator who began photographing at seven and was first published at fifteen. After studying at Tufts and earning BFA and MFA degrees from the San Francisco Art Institute, he worked extensively in the U.S. and UK, curating exhibitions, teaching, writing, and publishing photography in major journals. In 1980, Messer became director of The Photographic Gallery/Yr Oriel Ffotograffeg in Cardiff, Wales, where he organized groundbreaking exhibitions of contemporary photography from Britain and Europe. His career has encompassed fine-art photography, criticism, curating, education, and advocacy for freedom of expression and the environment.
8.75 × 6.5 ″
Original image is a vintage silver gelatin print, but the image can be scanned and reprinted as a pigment digital print and will sell for $250.
95 × 6.25 ″
Original image is a vintage silver gelatin print, but the image can be scanned and reprinted as a pigment digital print and will sell for $250.
9.25 × 6.25 ″
Original image is a vintage silver gelatin print, but the image can be scanned and reprinted as a pigment digital print and will sell for $250.
6.5 × 9 ″
Original image is a vintage silver gelatin print, but the image can be scanned and reprinted as a pigment digital print and will sell for $250.
6.25 × 9.25 ″
Original image is a vintage silver gelatin print, but the image can be scanned and reprinted as a pigment digital print and will sell for $250.
Michael Wilson
9 × 9 ″
Michael Wilson was born in Cincinnati in 1959 and has lived there ever since. He studied photography at a Kentucky college and began his career working a variety of jobs while continuing to make photographs. In 1984, he published his first book, Heads Bowed Eyes Closed, No One Looking Around. He became a freelance photographer in 1987 and has spent decades pursuing strong, compelling images rooted in everyday life.
Rachel Rampleman
30 × 20 ″
$300 unframed and $350 framed Edition of 5 +1 Artist Proof
30 × 20 ″
$300 unframed and $350 framed Edition of 5 +1 Artist Proof
30 × 20 ″
$300 unframed and $350 framed Edition of 5 +1 Artist Proof
30 × 20 ″
$300 unframed and $350 framed Edition of 5 +1 Artist Proof
30 × 20 ″
$300 unframed and $350 framed Edition of 5 +1 Artist Proof
30 × 20 ″
$300 unframed and $350 framed Edition of 5 +1 Artist Proof
Rachel Rampleman is a Brooklyn-based artist, archivist, and cultural anthropologist originally from Cincinnati. Her work explores gender, artifice, and spectacle, often focusing on unconventional performers and personalities. Her ongoing project Life is Drag documents alt-drag and neo-burlesque performers through video, interviews, and photography, creating an extensive archive of American drag culture. Rampleman received her MFA from New York University in 2006 and has exhibited widely in the U.S. and internationally.
Maureen France
8.5 × 11.5 ″
Gelatin Silver Print NFS Archival Inkjet Print $500
8 × 11 ″
Gelatin Silver Print NFS Archival Inkjet Print $500
12 × 8 ″
Maureen France has exhibited her photographs nationally and internationally in more than 135 exhibitions. Her mid-career retrospective, Positively Alive: The Photographs of Maureen France, was held at the Cincinnati Art Museum in 2002. Her work has appeared in numerous publications and is included in museum and corporate collections, including the Cincinnati Art Museum and Eastman Kodak. She has received grants from the Ohio Arts Council and other organizations.
France has collaborated with the University of Cincinnati’s Classics Department to document archaeological sites in Greece and Cyprus and participated in an artists’ residency in India in 2016. Recognized for her civic involvement, she received the University of Cincinnati’s Just Community Award and the Greater Cincinnati Foundation and Enquirer Woman of the Year Award. She serves as Board President of FotoFocus and is a Professor of Design at the University of Cincinnati’s DAAP, where she served as Graphic Design Program Chair for 10 years.
12 × 17.5 ″
Gelatin Silver Print NFS Archival Inkjet Print $500
10 × 7 ″
Gelatin Silver Print NFS Archival Inkjet Print $500
Robby Parsons
Robby Parsons is a photographer and designer from New Martinsville, West Virginia. His work reflects a deep connection to the people, culture, and character of the Ohio Valley, capturing the everyday life and distinctive spirit of his Appalachian hometown. His background in graphic design informs his strong visual sense and attention to composition.
Parsons is also Director of the Wetzel County Convention and Visitors Bureau and founder of the Back Home Festival, an annual celebration of music, art, and Appalachian culture. His photography is rooted in observation, authenticity, and a close connection to place.
Brad Smith
Brad Smith is a photographer with over 17 years of experience, combining an artistic eye with a documentary approach. His photographs capture authentic moments, genuine emotion, and unexpected details, transforming everyday interactions into expressive visual stories.