Opening Day Talk: Judy Glickman Lauder
In Sarasota, where an afternoon can move from a gallery wall to a conversation under a banyan tree, photography has a particular way of making the world feel both larger and more intimate.
By Edit Sarasota Staff
In Sarasota, where an afternoon can move from a gallery wall to a conversation under a banyan tree, photography has a particular way of making the world feel both larger and more intimate. On October 17, that perspective comes into focus with an opening-day talk by Judy Glickman Lauder, the photographer and humanitarian whose collection has earned international recognition for its emotional depth and moral clarity.
Lauder’s photographs do more than record places and people. They ask viewers to slow down—to consider the lives contained in a gesture, the history held in a landscape, the quiet evidence of resilience. Her work has long been shaped by a deep engagement with human rights and remembrance, and her collection brings together images that are formally compelling while remaining attentive to the dignity of their subjects. In the exhibition Presence, that attentiveness becomes the organizing idea: photography as witness, encounter and an invitation to look again.
For Sarasota, a city with an unusually rich relationship to the visual arts, the program offers more than an introduction to a distinguished body of work. It is also an opportunity to think about what collecting can mean beyond acquisition. Lauder’s collection reflects a sustained belief in photography’s ability to preserve memory and encourage empathy—qualities that resonate in a community where museums, artists, educators and audiences regularly meet across generations.
Hearing Lauder speak about the photographs in her collection should add a vital human dimension to the exhibition. The images will no longer be only objects of contemplation; they will be connected to the decisions, relationships and convictions that brought them together. Her perspective promises insight into the responsibilities of looking, the pleasures of discovery and the role art can play in keeping difficult histories visible.
The Opening Day Talk: Judy Glickman Lauder takes place Saturday, October 17, 2026, at the venue hosting Presence in Sarasota. Visitors can attend the conversation as part of their experience of the exhibition, allowing Lauder’s own words to serve as a guide into a collection defined by curiosity, compassion and a profound respect for the presence of others.