Neal Slavin: When Two or More Are Gathered Together

This expanded fifty-year anniversary edition of When Two or More Are Gathered Together revisits the question of social unity in the United States and includes new subjects-dogs, fencers and chambermaids-some photographed as recently as 2023.

Neal Slavin began taking group portraits in the early 1970s, intrigued by the social dynamics of groups and the motivations behind their formation. While the pictures themselves were most often posed, Slavin instructed his subjects to arrange themselves, allowing natural hierarchies and indications of status to emerge. When the series was first published in 1974, it was recognized as an instant landmark in the emerging field of color photography, a field that included photographers such as Stephen Shore and William Eggleston. Regarded as something of a deadpan stunt, yet framed as a serious social experiment, When Two or More Are Gathered Together was appreciated for its surprising insights into American social life. Fifty years later, on the eve of a presidential election, the United States grapples with profound social division and political unrest.
An essay by art historian Kevin Moore offers historical context for this timely and relevant body of early color photography.