Shine: Vintage Photographs and Shoe Shine Boxes

No gallery in Dallas offers a more compelling glimpse of American folklore and history than Photographs Do Not Bend. Its current exhibition, “Shine: Vintage Photographs and Shoe Shine Boxes,” is made up of terrific black-and-white photographs of shoeshine men whose faces say it all. But the gallery has added a fresh new dimension in the form of vintage shoe boxes from the era depicted in the photographs. Gallery director Burt Finger has been acquiring the boxes for the past eight years as part of a collection that began as a folk-art gift from a friend. The photographs are from the 1930s to the ’70s, with many dating from the Great Depression, when shoeshine men buffed shoes just to keep food on the table. The photographers whose work is featured include John Albok, Morris Engel and Ruth Orkin. As an added bonus, the gallery’s new show, “Bauhaus Art & Design: Celebrating the 90th Birthday of the Bauhaus,” which features photography, print making, furniture and decorative arts from the historic Bauhaus School of Design, opens with a reception Saturday, 10/17.