Gail Albert Halaban

Gail Albert Halaban is a renowned American photographer whose work explores the boundaries between intimacy and distance, privacy and public life. Known for her signature series Out My Window, Gail creates cinematic, large-scale photographs that offer voyeuristic glimpses into the lives of strangers through their windows. These works, staged in cities including New York, Paris, Italy, Istanbul, and Buenos Aires, blur the lines between reality and fiction, engaging the viewer in silent narratives of connection and isolation. Another celebrated project, Hopper Redux, reimagines Edward Hopper’s iconic scenes with contemporary subjects and settings, using photography to echo the quiet introspection and solitude found in Hopper’s paintings

Born in Washington, D.C., Gail Albert Halaban showed an early interest in photography, building a pinhole camera for a science fair in the first grade. Her formal education in the medium began at the Rhode Island School of Design, where she received her BFA in Photography. Gail also holds a BA from Brown University and an MFA in Photography from Yale University. This academic foundation deeply shaped the conceptual framework and narrative structure of Gail’s work, balancing intellectual rigor with visual lyricism.

Gail’s photography has been featured in The New York Times, The New Yorker, Le Monde, and The Wall Street Journal. Her published monographs include Out My Window, Italian Views, and Paris Views, each expanding on the themes of voyeurism, architecture, and urban intimacy. Gail is a frequent collaborator across disciplines, working with writers, architects, and scientists. She currently teaches in the Department of Narrative Medicine at Columbia University, where her focus on storytelling through images continues to inform her broader artistic practice.

Gail Albert Halaban’s work is held in numerous prestigious public and private collections, including the Getty Museum, George Eastman Museum, Yale University Art Gallery, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Minneapolis Institute of Art, Cape Ann Museum, and the Hermes Foundation. Gail has exhibited internationally in solo, and group shows, including a major solo exhibition at the George Eastman Museum in 2018. Her photography has been shown at institutions such as The Museum of the City of New York, Cornell University, and the Wichita Art Museum. Jackson Fine Art has exhibited and featured Gail Albert Halaban since 2016, including three solo exhibitions: Paris and Hopper Redux (2016), Italian Views (2020), and Neighbors in the Building (2024).