My Pie Town

On display as part of The Gender Show, Debbie Grossman’s photographic series My Pie Town reworks a body of images originally photographed by Russell Lee for the United States Farm Security Administration in 1940. Using Photoshop to modify Lee’s pictures, Grossman creates an imaginary, parallel world: a Pie Town populated exclusively by women and girls.

Grossman is interested in playing with time, reimagining history, and reviving archival images and documents. Born and raised in Rochester, she holds a master of fine arts degree in Photography, Video, and Related Media from the School of Visual Arts, where she won the Paula Rhodes Memorial Prize, and a bachelor of arts degree in women’s studies and art history from Barnard College. Her work is in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Jewish Museum, among others.