A Relationship More Than 25 Years in the Making

Cat Pettway and Steve Pitkin at work, 2024

Gee’s Bend Gallery grew from a relationship that began with photography.

In 2000, a group of more than 250 quilts from Gee’s Bend, Alabama, arrived at my studio to be documented using what was then state-of-the-art digital photography.

At the time, I could not have imagined where that work would lead.

The photographs became part of a much larger story as the quilts began appearing in books, exhibitions and museums across the country. In 2002, The Quilts of Gee’s Bend opened at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, introducing an extraordinary body of work, and the women who created it, to a much wider audience.

My involvement did not end with those first photographs.

Over the years, I continued working with the artists and their families, photographing their quilts, making portraits, recording artists at work, and building an archive that now spans more than two decades. What began as a photographic assignment gradually became a long-term relationship with a community of artists whose work I deeply respect.

Gee’s Bend Gallery grew from that relationship.

The idea is simple: to create a direct and carefully presented place where the artists can offer their work to collectors around the world, while allowing the history, individuality and voice of each artist to remain central.

This is not a gallery created around an interpretation of Gee’s Bend. It is a place created to present the work itself, the artists who make it, and the remarkable continuum of creativity that exists within this community.

We work directly with participating artists and their families to photograph, document, present and place their work. Seventy-five percent of every sale is paid directly to the artist. The remaining 25 percent supports the photography, documentation, promotion, administration and distribution required to operate the gallery.

After more than 25 years of photographing this work, I continue to be astonished by it.

Gee’s Bend Gallery is the latest chapter in a relationship that began with photography more than 25 years ago.

Stephen Pitkin
Pitkin Studio