Josh Lehrer's 'MY SHOT' HAMILTON Exhibition Opens Tonight at The Public

As previously announced, The Public Theater will host the exhibit MY SHOT Portraits From Hamilton, one-of-a-kind portraits by acclaimed photographer Josh Lehrer. Portraits of original cast members, taken with an antique camera lens from the mid-1800s and used just after Alexander Hamilton's era, are on display now at The Public at 425 Lafayette Street where the groundbreaking musical first began.

The exhibit, which includes some photos that were taken during the run of Hamilton at The Public, will have an official opening night reception tonight, October 27, from 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. on the Levin Mezzanine at The Public Theater, and will be free and open to the public. The exhibit will be on display through Sunday, December 18.

Lehrer's photographs have appeared all over New York in galleries and exhibitions, as well as on billboards and subway stations. Whether it is the chaos of homelessness, celebrity, propulsive success or projected sentiment, capturing the individual, their unique survival strength and calm in the center of personal storms drives Josh's portraiture.

A number of the Hamilton portraits will be available for purchase, and a portion of the proceeds will benefit The Public Theater.

Hamilton premiered at The Public Theater on the Newman Stage on Tuesday, January 20, 2015, and extended three times, officially closing on Sunday, May 4, 2015 before moving to Broadway and winning 11 Tony Awards.

Josh Lehrer's clients are business leaders, Broadway legends, screen stars and large commercial enterprises. With an eye toward social justice, Lehrer created the series, Becoming Visible, focused on New York City's fastest growing homeless population, transgender teenagers. In 2010, the first of these images premiered at the Robert Miller Gallery and have since appeared in galleries and museums all over the world. The series garnered the 2010 Photo Philanthropy award and was the centerpiece of the inaugural PhotoVille, now an annual photo event on the Brooklyn waterfront. Josh lives and works on the Upper West Side of Manhattan and is a graduate of Boston University's School for the Arts and The International Center of Photography.

The Public Theater, under the leadership of Artistic Director Oskar Eustis and Executive Director Patrick Willingham, is the only theater in New York that produces Shakespeare, the classics, musicals, contemporary, and experimental pieces in equal measure. Eustis has created new community-based initiatives designed to engage audiences like Public Lab, Public Studio, Public Forum, Public Works, and a remount of the Mobile Unit. The Public continues the work of its visionary founder, Joe Papp, by acting as an advocate for the theater as an essential cultural force, and leading and framing dialogue on some of the most important issues of our day. Creating theater for one of the largest and most diverse audience bases in New York City for over 60 years, today the Company engages audiences in a variety of venues-including its landmark downtown home at Astor Place, which houses five theaters and Joe's Pub; the Delacorte Theater in Central Park, home to free Shakespeare in the Park; and the Mobile Unit, which tours productions to underserved audiences throughout New York City's five boroughs. The Public's wide range of programming includes free Shakespeare in the Park, the bedrock of the Company's dedication to making theater accessible to all; Public Works, an expanding initiative that is designed to cultivate new connections and new models of engagement with artists, audiences and the community each year; and audience and artist development initiatives that range from Emerging Writers Group and to the Public Forum series. The Public is located on property owned by the City of New York and receives annual support from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs; and in October 2012 the landmark building downtown at Astor Place was revitalized to physically manifest the Company's core mission of sparking new dialogues and increasing accessibility for artists and audiences, by dramatically opening up the building to the street and community, and transforming the lobby into a public piazza for artists, students, and audiences. The Public is currently represented on Broadway by the Tony Award-winning acclaimed American musical Hamilton by Lin-Manuel Miranda. The Public has received 59 Tony Awards, 168 Obie Awards, 53 Drama Desk Awards, 54 Lortel Awards, 32 Outer Critics Circle Awards, 13 New York Drama Critics Awards, and five Pulitzer Prizes. Visit www.publictheater.org for more.