Documentation Photography for NYC Galleries

Carlson Art Photography is an artist-run art documentation studio in Harlem, working with NYC galleries in Chelsea, Tribeca, the Lower East Side, the Upper East Side, Soho, and Bushwick on installation shots, exhibition records, art fair booths, inventory archives, and artist-onboarding sessions. Every shoot is calibrated against a printed reference target, captured on a high-resolution medium-format sensor, and delivered as TIFF, JPEG, and web-sized files ready for press, catalogs, and online inventory.

Galleries hire the studio for two reasons: the files hold up to publication standards on the first pass, and the photographer behaves like part of the team — quiet on the floor, on-time for openings, and embargoed by default. Whether you’re running a six-show season or shooting a single career-defining installation, the workflow is the same: calibrated, archival, and built to outlast the run of any single exhibition.

Most exhibition shoots are scheduled the morning before opening or the morning after — whichever protects the install. The session captures wide installation views to establish the show, three-quarter relational views to show how works speak to one another, and individual piece details for press kits, gallery websites, exhibition catalogs, and grant deliverables. Cross-polarized lighting handles glass, plexi, and varnished surfaces without removing work from the wall.

Most exhibition documentation sessions take two to four hours on-site and ship within five business days. For galleries running a regular program, a recurring rate keeps the cost-per-show low and ensures the visual record is consistent from one exhibition to the next — the same color science, the same crops, the same archive structure across the season.

Fair documentation runs on a different clock. The studio shoots on-location at Frieze NY, NADA, Independent, the Armory, and smaller satellite fairs, with same-day delivery available for press, social, and sales-team use. Each session captures the booth in full context, mid-range views that show how the program is hung, and individual works at sales-grade resolution for collectors who request files post-fair.

Booth shoots are quoted as a flat session rate with on-site turnaround, not by the piece. The result is a single set of files that can run the press cycle, populate the booth on the gallery website, and ship to collectors before the fair closes.

When a gallery brings on a new artist or commits to a full archive sweep, the work scales differently than a single show. Inventory and onboarding shoots run on a per-piece rate with volume pricing over forty works, and they conform to whatever archive standards the gallery already uses — consistent crop, consistent background, consistent file naming, consistent color across multi-day sessions. Sessions can run at the studio in Harlem or on-location at the gallery or artist’s studio.

For ongoing programs, the studio can hold a recurring slot — one day a month, one day a quarter, or whatever the inventory cadence requires — so new acquisitions are documented on a predictable schedule rather than batched into emergencies before fair season.

Galleries deal in pre-release work, embargoed press, and collector privacy. The studio operates accordingly. Files are not shared, posted, or used for self-promotion without written permission from the gallery. NDAs are signed on request without friction. When the shoot happens during install or de-install, the photographer works around preparators and the floor schedule rather than the other way around.

This is the part of the workflow that is hardest to advertise and easiest to verify: ask any gallery the studio has worked with how the day went.

Single-show installation shoots start at $450 plus a one-time $125 studio fee per session. Per-piece artwork is $50 with volume rates over forty works. Recurring program rates and full-archive engagements are quoted directly — send the show count, average works per show, and the season window, and the studio will return a flat rate.

Standard turnaround is three to five business days from the shoot. Rush turnaround inside 48 hours is available on request. For art fair booths, same-day delivery is built into the session rate.