Only Skin Deep: Changing Visions of the American Self at the International Center of Photography is a collaboration of Tim Durfee & Iris Anna Regn, with Louise Sandhaus Design. The exhibition examines the relationship that photography has with perceptions of race. Provoked by the themes of skin and appearance versus reality, the design attempts radical superficiality by using an aluminum and polyethylene material to create structurally rigid 3 meter high walls with a total thickness of 3mm.

The large scale corrugation that produces the walls’ strength also affords an organizational reciprocity, in which photographs requiring a vitrine and specific light control are placed in isolated carrels on one side, while video-based works- which can distract viewers from the photographs- are displayed within isolated alcoves. The resulting undulating walls also enable increased density for the art within a very limited gallery space.