Art: Under 95 to quite a bit higher for Strauss

Zoe Strauss is a genius - not at photography, at which she's merely talented, but at marketing.

She developed one brilliant concept, an annual outdoor exhibition of her work under the I-95 elevated expressway in South Philadelphia, then parlayed that into inclusion in the 2006 Whitney Biennial, and now into a mid-career retrospective at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

This level of professional success would take most artists far longer, if they managed to achieve it at all. Few do. Yet Strauss, who will turn 42 on April 1, has conquered two career peaks in little more than 10 years as a committed photographer.

Like many Internet Age artists, she has worked assiduously at promoting her work through blogging and social media.

Yet that alone doesn't explain why she has become a local phenomenon. Her effervescent personality and infectious enthusiasm have helped. Not only did she charm the media at the press preview of her show, a day later about 2,000 fans and supporters crowded into the museum for a dance party - with ?uestlove! - to celebrate the public opening.

Strauss' photographs seem to speak forcefully to members of her own generation, but even that isn't the whole story. The key, I think, is her passion to involve the public in her image-making and storytelling, both as subjects and as audience.

She began to do this with the "Under I-95" shows, where her color prints on photocopy paper, priced at $5 apiece, were displayed on the roadway's support columns for a single day.

For the museum, Strauss has extended this Gallery Alfresco strategy to 54 billboards around the city. Most of these large-scale images will be up at least through March 26.

Putting art on billboards isn't any more innovative than the types of photos Strauss makes, but her populist outreach feels like a natural extension of her working philosophy, to "present an epic narrative about the beauty and struggle of everyday life."

When one considers the 146 color prints hanging, a bit too snugly, in the museum's Honickman and Berman galleries and the 54 billboards, struggle seems to predominate.

She clearly identifies, and empathizes, with people living on the margin of polite society.

She also displays a gift for friendship with strangers that allows her what is often a startling degree of intimacy in photographing them.