Why Am I Sad by Dana Stirling | Formal/Informal: Innovations in Portraiture

Description

Why Am I Sad by Dana Stirling explores mental health and depression through still life photography. An estimated 280 million people worldwide live with depression; this exhibition shares the personal narrative of one of them—Dana Stirling. As a child of immigrants, she grew up navigating dual identities, often feeling like an outsider in both cultures. This sense of displacement fostered deep isolation and emotional unrest. Photography became her refuge, a way to express what words could not.

Formal/ Informal: Innovations in Portraiture from the Syracuse University Art Museum explores the definition of portraiture, comparing that formal term to the compositions created by photographers. During the 19th century, formal studio or posed portraits flourished as a way to capture a vision of a person, whether known or unknown to the photographer. The artist, in turn, utilized their craft to tell the story of the sitter. Images from the 20th and 21st centuries evolved into both formal and informal views of people, as their environs began to play as much of a role in their portrait as their faces did. The result is a collection of portraits that could be serious, playful, have social or political ramifications, or whose purpose is to celebrate the people, famous or infamous, ultimately telling the story of our society as a whole.

Why Am I Sad by Dana Stirling and Formal/Informal: Innovations in Portraiture will be on display from March 24 to May 15, 2026.