John Beasley Greene was born in France in 1832. His parents were well-off Americans, and the young man grew up with two loves: the new technology of photography and the new discipline of Egyptology. He died at age 24, in 1856, of tuberculosis. But in his short life Greene took hundreds of archaeological photographs that capture the awe of the ancient. Greene’s ghostly framing, his stark sense of space, are about immanence—a spiritual presence manifested in the material world. This is the first retrospective of his poignant, haunting work. —L.J.

Travels to: Art Institute of Chicago (February 5 – May 25, 2020).