A Gathering of the Tribes Gallery will hold an exhibition of documentary photography by the late John Ranard, with an opening reception on the evening of Sat., Sept. 6.
A longtime East Villager, Ranard, 56, died on May 14 of liver cancer. He was known particularly for his boxing photos, his documentary work on the collapse of the Soviet empire and his photographic investigations of the Russian prison system and the AIDS epidemic in Russia. His boxing photos were included in the classic 1987 book “On Boxing,” a collaboration with Joyce Carol Oates. Ranard also documented the East Village’s tumultuous period in the 1980s, and in recent years had contributed his photos to The Villager.
In an obituary in The Villager, East Village photographer Q. Sakamaki said of Ranard, “He’s a real, great photographer… If he is lucky, he could have been one of the best photographers in the world — in the opinion of photographers.”
A broad range of Ranard’s work will be showing at the Tribes Gallery, at 285 E. Third St., second floor, from Sept. 4-30, with the opening reception on Sat., Sept. 6, from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m.
The same day as the opening, at 5 p.m., Ranard’s family will hold a memorial service for him at St. Mark’s Church in-the-Bowery, 131 E. Tenth St. at Second Ave., at which a slideshow will present 80 of Ranard’s iconic works. Friends and media are invited.
