Adam A.
Yelp
Small and humble but fun photographic gallery in Pittsburgh's up-and-coming arty neighborhood of Garfield. An absolute hidden gem if you are looking for something less well-known than Pittsburgh's famous "big" galleries and museums.
Regular exhibits of black-and-white photographs are displayed on the wall with accompanying text explaining the thought process and motivations of each artist. The photographic art displayed here is often socially conscious and utilized to make points about gender, class, and culture. While those points are made with varying degrees of success, the photographs themselves are always quite intriguing.
In addition to the gallery, there is also a reading room. Several of the photography books are for sale, but it can also be used as a library space. If you want to learn about classic photographers and their art, there are more than enough books to give yourself a thorough education as an autodidact.
I have only one caveat about this place that should be taken into account. I want to point out that if you are going here with younger family members, discretion and close supervision should be STRONGLY advised. There are certain visuals you may want to steer away from. The content occasionally goes well beyond PG-13 territory and occasionally into R-rated or NC-17 photography. The gallery portion for example is not unfriendly to nude photographs, and the reading room contains NSFW and explicit titles such as Nan Goldin's Ballad of Sexual Dependency (among others in a similar vein).
With that caveat aside, however, Silver Eye Center Photography is one of Pittsburgh's hidden treasures and is very worth your time.