For over thirty years, the weekly New York Times Magazine has commissioned and published photographic work that has ranged from photojournalism to fashion to portraiture. Opening at the Hunter Museum of American Art this Thanksgiving weekend, this exhibit will explore this wide ranging selection through a number of installations which spotlight notable projects that have been presented in the Magazine. Focusing primarily on the last fifteen years, long-time New York Times MagazinePhoto Editor Kathy Ryan provides a behind-the-scenes look at the collaborative, creative processes that have made this magazine the leading venue for photographic storytelling within contemporary news media.

Using visual materials drawn from different stages of the commissioning process—storyboards, shot lists, work prints and contact sheets, videos, tear sheets and framed prints —the Magazine’s collaborative methodology is revealed from initial idea to the published page, and, in some cases, continues beyond magazine publication, when a subject that begun as an assignment has become a part of a photographer’s ongoing work.

Featured are 35 artists from across the globe, investigating the many concerns of contemporary life. Internationally renowned photographer Sebastião Salgado captures the devastation he encountered at the Kuwaiti oil fields while artist Gregory Crewdson delves into the enigmatic through his piece, Dream House. Ryan McGinley offers a fresh perspective on traditional sports photography with his inventive imagery of Olympic swimmers and skiers, alongside unique takes on the world of fashion by artists such as Lee Friedlander, Nan Goldin and Jeff Koons.

The New York Times Magazine continues to provide an increasingly rare venue for visual storytelling on the printed page, and, perhaps of equal consequence, offers a unique forum for the cross-pollination of photographic genres. As Ryan asserts, “Often the best creative work happens when there is crossover between different disciplines. A film is painterly. A photograph is sculptural. Likewise, the Magazine is often at its best when we bring photographers to projects that fall outside their usual borders. When a fine artist takes on a news story, or a documentary photographer embarks on a fashion shoot, sparks fly from the page.”