My first job out of college was at The Jewish Museum on the Upper East Side of New York City. In 2004 I participated in the Museum’s acquisition of a photograph by a young Israeli photographer named Elinor Carucci. I never met her, but loved her work and kept her on my radar; it was exciting to see her editorial work in the New Yorker and other magazines.

What a thrill to be asked to return to The Jewish Museum nearly 20 years later to work the design of an exhibition of Carucci’s photographs about such a pivotal figure. Shortly after RBG’s passing in September, 2020, Carucci was commissioned by Time magazine for a commemorative piece on the late justice, focused on the stories behind her legendary collar. The Jewish Museum acquired these photographs and wanted to display them alongside amulets and jewelry from the collection to reflect on the expressive possibilities as well as the cultural and religious aspects of adornment.

The design direction from the outset was not to make the show to “gridded” or symmetrical. I worked with the curator to establish compelling visual juxtapositions between the objects in the collection and the photographs. We used exclusively casework that was already in the Museum’s collection, so the biggest challenge was to create a unified aesthetic. I think our success is reflected in the first sentence of the New York Times’ coverage of the show by James Barron: In the soft stillness of a museum gallery, you could forget that the photographs on the walls around you were shot under time pressure.

Installation view of "RBG Collars: Photographs by Elinor Carucci" at the Jewish Museum, NY, December 15, 2023-May 27, 2024. Photo by Kris Graves.