Jessica Dimmock in New York

NEW YORK—Jessica Dimmock’s first New York solo show opened last week at the Foley Gallery, featuring more than 40 chromogenic prints from her remarkable series “The Ninth Floor.” Dimmock began taking these pictures in 2004 while she was still a student in the Documentary Photography and Photojournalism program at the International Center of Photography. A work in progress that she concluded last summer, the series was featured on nytimes.com in 2005 and has been recognized with numerous awards: the F award for Concerned Photography from Forma and Fabrica, the Inge Morath Award from Magnum, the Marty Forscher Fellowship for Documentary Photography from Photo District News, and the Juror's Choice Award for the Project Competition from the Santa Fe Center for Photography. See the show and you’ll understand what all the excitement is about.

One day Dimmock was shooting photographs on the street when she was propositioned by a drug dealer, who, bizarrely, invited her to record his work. As she told ARTINFO, “That encounter changed my life.” Through him she discovered the "ninth floor" – an entire-floor apartment in a swanky building in Manhattan’s Flatiron district – and the blighted lives of its mostly heroin-addicted residents and visitors. Dimmock infuses her images with sympathy and respect, whether the subjects are using, dealing, craving, or recovering from the substance that enslaves them, or attempting to lead what remains of their shattered lives. By Dimmock’s own admission, “The Ninth Floor” illustrates the conflict faced by any intelligent documentarian: between the detached objectivity required to record a modern-day tragedy and the humanistic impulse to help bring an end to that tragedy. This dilemma is precisely what gives the work its resonance.

Dimmock is as knowledgeable about other people’s photography as she is passionate about her own. Here are her recommendations for shows in New York this weekend.

1. Gregory Crewdson at Luhring Augustine, through May 3

“I always enjoy looking at Crewdson’s work. I think I’ve been influenced by him because I photograph in a cinematic style — I think of my work like snapshots from movies — but the way that he goes about it and the way that I go about it are completely different: I see a cinematic moment and I’m drawn to it, but I don’t know how to create a cinematic moment; I can’t imagine orchestrating his sort of productions. His ability to make things happen is incredible to me. I get a real kick out of it.”

2. Humanity: Work by the VII Artists at Hasted Hunt, through June 7

“I’m in the VII Network, which is a subsidiary of the [international photo cooperative] VII, so these people are my heroes. They inspire me to do the work that I do. I’m just blown away by their commitment to photography, by their commitment to social issues, and by their amazing image-making. Their work comes from such a place of critical importance and social awareness. I think it’s really incredible.”

3. Shifting Landscapes at Powerhouse Arena, through May 11

“This is a really cool one. I’m not a huge landscape fan, but these artists are all people who look at the social meaning of landscape, examining changes that are happening because of people’s interaction with nature. And they do it in a really beautiful way. Christopher LaMarca is a good friend of mine, and the amount of time that he spends in the darkroom getting things exactly right is really inspiring.”

4. JeongMee Yoon: The Pink and Blue Project at Jenkins Johnson, through April 26

“I don’t know whether I like this show or not. I was very struck by it, but being intrigued by work and liking it aren’t the same thing. The kids in some of the pictures look like they’re sitting on beds filled with sex toys, and I was very tickled by all these little knick-knacks that look so phallic and inappropriate and gross. It’s quite nauseating being in a room full of these things; it must be maddening to own one. But I’m very much at the photojournalist end of the spectrum, so photos like these that are so different really fascinate me.”

5. Cai Guo-Qiang: I Want to Believe at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, through May 28

“I had the opportunity to photograph Cai Guo-Qiang (with Simon Norfolk, one of the artists in “Shifting Landscapes”), and it was really fascinating to watch how he works. He’s larger than life, and he does wild work! You definitely shouldn’t miss the opportunity to see this one.”