Good portraiture is hard. To dig beneath the surface and expose vulnerable, multifaceted individuals while also maintaining a personal style is a delicate line to walk. Every so often, though, a rare eye emerges with a real knack for portraiture. This Friday, These Days presents “Familiar Differences: A Group Photography Exhibition” curated by Innocnts focusing on contemporary portraiture by LA-based photographers.

Dane Peterson, Emily Knecht, Keegan Gibbs, Stacy Kranitz, Valerie J. Bower, and Will Adler all use their cameras to lead visual lives to communicate the difficult beauty and power of the world around them. Each of their photographs are human, incisive, and candid.

Often, as active participants within the cultures they document, these young photographers are imbued with a sense of access and spontaneity that is unique and endearing to the work. Using various unmediated approaches, this survey of early career photographers explores aspects of portraiture through formal and informal depictions of human experience. Each of these photographers, of course depict their own style, but are all inspired by spontaneous portraiture, drawn to the beauty in the pensive moment, elusive emotional states and occasional humor.

“Familiar Differences” opens this friday August 19th, with an opening reception from 8-11. The show will run until September 4th.