BLOOMINGTON, IN.- The Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art announced the exhibition, The Photographic Reflex: The Lee Marks and John C. DePrez Jr. Collection, from August 29–December 20, 2026. Spanning more than 150 years, The Photographic Reflex celebrates a transformative gift to the Eskenazi Museum of Art at Indiana University. Generously donated by Lee Marks and John C. DePrez Jr., the collection includes more than one hundred works by eighty artists. Featuring photographs by many of the most prominent twentieth-century artists, the exhibition highlights the breadth, power, and enduring impact of photographic expression.
Benjamin Levy, the Lucienne M. Glaubinger Curator of Works on Paper, shares, “Photography has been a part of our daily lives for well over a century, and its impact on how we engage with images cannot be understated. This incredible gift allows us to look back at that ever-transforming history with fresh eyes. The backdrop of IU provides fertile ground to explore the cross-disciplinary work of 20th-century photographers such as Berenice Abbott, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Edward Steichen, and Alfred Stieglitz, as well as contemporary artists including Edward Burtynsky, Abelardo Morell, Susan Derges, and Vik Muniz."
This exhibition explores photography as both a tool for documentation and a vehicle for artistic exploration. The featured exhibition gallery will highlight the medium’s extraordinary range with photographs dating from 1856 to 2017. Through five thematic sections, Play of Light, Industrial Eye, Photographic Figure, Witness to Conflict, and Impressed by Nature’s Hand, visitors will explore how photography has been used across disciplines as a form of communication and expression.
After earning a BA in art history from Connecticut College and subsequently working at Marlborough Gallery in New York, Lee Marks established Lee Marks Fine Art in New York City in 1981. While maintaining a broad inventory of photography and working with many private collections, notably at the Gilman Paper Company and Howard Stein JGS, and museums, Marks increasingly focused on representing a select group of contemporary photographers. John C. DePrez Jr. earned a BA in English literature from Trinity College, CT, and subsequently served as a reporter, editor, and executive at various news outlets, including United Press International and Reuters.
Lee Marks and John DePrez began collecting in 1981. Through a combination of Marks’s discerning eye as an art historian and dealer and DePrez’s expertise in photojournalism, they amassed an impressive collection that illustrates the breadth of photographic practice, from fine art to journalistic depictions of important events over the past century. Sadly, Marks died in 2025. Her photographic legacy will be instrumental in the education and inspiration of IU students through exhibitions, programming, and visits to the Martha and David Moore Prints, Drawings, and Photographs Study.
John C. DePrez Jr. said, “We decided to give the collection to the Eskenazi Museum because we were most interested in having these photographs used by students of photography and other related fields.” He continued, “I am a native Hoosier, and Lee lived here for more than thirty years, so we wanted to give back to the place we’ve called home. The fact that the Eskenazi Museum is an especially fine university museum on the campus of a renowned university with an especially strong focus on the arts gave us the perfect impetus. The internationally known photography faculty at the university and the museum’s existing collection of photographs, housed in an extraordinary I. M. Pei building was enticing. The fact that many well-known photographers in our collection are not represented in the Eskenazi Museum’s collection was a plus. Finally, the current plans for photography exhibitions and programs were icing on the cake. We want to be part of the Eskenazi Museum’s future.”
The Photographic Reflex will be accompanied by a richly illustrated catalogue featuring the gifted works. An interview with Marks and DePrez highlights their intertwined lives with photography. Copies will be available for purchase through the museum’s Newkirk Cafe and Gift Shop, and major online booksellers.
“The Photographic Reflex is a remarkable exhibition that speaks to both the depth of Lee and John’s vision as collectors and the extraordinary quality of their gift to the Eskenazi Museum of Art,” said Mindy Besaw, the museum’s director. “We are deeply grateful for their generosity and for the care with which this collection was built. Its range, intellectual rigor, and visual power offer countless entry points—for students encountering photography for the first time, for scholars and artists engaging with its histories, and for visitors simply drawn to the medium’s ability to reflect and shape how we see the world."
