In this new exhibition, every photo feels like a memory

Over the last decade, Pomegranate Press has been busy making and publishing an extensive catalogue of books, throwing many parties and selling tons of merch. The independent publishing house was founded in Florida by a then 20-year-old Jesse Feinman (and his friend Alex Rotondo, who’s no longer involved); the pair had nothing but $500 in their pockets, a desire to make some zines and share pictures their friends had taken.

Since then, the goal hasn’t changed, but Pomegranate has grown into so much more. The press moved from Florida to Richmond, Virginia and then New York City, while becoming globally recognised for its quality books and sharp focus on contemporary photography. It only seemed right, then, for Jesse to celebrate 10 years of Pomegranate in style.

Enter: Breathless in Glowing Air, the biggest exhibition he’s ever curated and his first outside the United States. Showing at London’s 10 14 gallery from 14^th August until 19^th September, it brings together the work of 62 photographers, many of whom are renowned for capturing the idiosyncrasies and beauty of day-to-day life.

​“I never expected anything to come from it,” Jesse says, calling in from his New York City apartment, where he moved a year ago. ​“It’s all been this really big surprise, and as a result of that, I have been okay with continuing to try new things. I am so far away from what I thought this project or anything in my life was going to look like.” Pomegranate remains a one man operation with Jesse at the helm – he splits his time between graphic design work and running Agony Books, a specialty bookshop and gallery in Richmond.

Daniel Arnold, Jerry Hsu, Jingyu Lin, Heather Sten, Rosie Marks, Adam Powell, Samone Kidane and Caroline Tompkins are just some of those who’ve contributed work to Breathless in Glowing Air, with a view to capture the subtleties of Pomegranate’s universe: one that is open-ended, optimistic and beautiful. In Jesse’s own words, the show is ​“a suggestion of another world being possible”.

Why put on the exhibition in London? Well, why not. ​“I really wanted this show to be a love letter to contemporary photography and I thought the most honest way to do that was to extend beyond [photographers whose work I’ve published before],” Jesse says. ​“I wanted to showcase people I have worked with and uplift them, but not every photographer I admire is in a place to make a book or they’ve already made a book, so this felt like a great way to introduce the idea of working on something together, and for them to see their work through my curatorial lens in a way they wouldn’t have been able to otherwise.”

Said ​“curatorial lens” precedes Jesse. Kyle Berger, a Canadian photographer whose photobook Twenty Four Hour Fantasy was published by Pomegranate in 2020, says: ​“He has a particular outlook on life that I find quite craveable.” In reference to the Pomegranate-shaped ​“universe” Jesse has created: ​“It’s one of intentional whimsy and romantic simplicity. There is a dreamy quality in the images highlighted by Pomegranate; they feel warm, hazy, and evocative, like tokens of a memory.” The exhibition’s title, Breathless in Glowing Air, lends itself well to what Kyle describes.

​“The collection of photographs [in the show] is about the endlessness of discovery,” Jesse says. ​“I tried to think of a phrase that might encapsulate what that feeling could sound like or could be quantified as. At least in my mind, there’s something about the experience [of seeing all these works in one place] that kind of stops you in your tracks, changes the texture of the atmosphere around you, and forces a sort of pause.”

As the world we live in is in a state of devastating turmoil, Breathless in Glowing Air gives us something a little gentler, funnier, and more beautiful to dig into. There are images here that speak to the joys of friendship, family, young love, summer, connection, community and nature. An appreciation for the things around us at a time when it is easy to forget it even exists.

​“What I do think has been so special about [the exhibition] is that it isn’t in any way about escapism or distraction,” Jesse says. ​“I think beauty has the ability to be a revolutionary act. Being committed to creating beautiful things is really important.”

Jesse has referred to his show as a ​“love letter” to many things: beauty, contemporary photography, discovery, a more optimistic world. ​“What else was it going to be?” Jesse says, grinning.

Breathless in Glowing Air is showing at 10 14 Gallery until September 19^th