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| Richard Bram – Standing Up at the Downs, Louisville, 1991. |
Curated by Elizabeth E. Reilly
Review by Keith Waits
Entire
contents are copyright © 2012 Keith Waits. All rights reserved.
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| Gary Winogrand, Hugh Hefner, Jesse Jackson, Operation PUSH Fundrasier, Chicago, 1972. |
When lists are compiled of Louisville
treasures, more often than not, the University of Louisville Photographic
Archives are included. Exactly why this is so may be lost on people outside of
the worlds of art, history or journalism. But the walls of the Cressman Center
for Visual Arts are currently filled with all of the evidence anyone would ever
require to understand why. Retrospect: Celebrating 50 Years of the University
of Louisville Photographic Archives opened on September 7.
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| Walker Evans – Church, South Carolina. |
Curator Elizabeth E. Reilly has taken great
care in the positioning of the work, with images juxtaposed to reveal
connections, some of which are somewhat obvious but still powerful. A
picture by Gary Winogrand that shows Jesse Jackson and Hugh Hefner seated
together at a 1972 fundraiser next to a photograph by Louisville native Richard
Bram capturing Jackson at the Occupy Wall Street protest that took place last
year charts a clear line through the long career of the once controversial
social activist that is no less meaningful for being so easy a choice. The 1972
version has both fists exuberantly raised in the air, but Bram’s camera
captures the world-weary wisdom gained of a further forty years of experience.
Other pairings, such as classic images of
Babe Ruth and Pee Wee Reese alongside recent pictures of The Louisville River
Bats, approach a more pedestrian level of observation but remain compelling.
Far more subtle and intriguing are the relationships to be discovered in groupings, such as
that including Guy Mendes, Jean Thomas and Kate Matthews in which small
details of form and human gesture are echoed in black-and-white images taken
many years apart but speaking to the same tone and feeling of time and place.
Since the older photographs were chosen by the modern day artists, the ancestry
of influence may not be surprising. But one has to wonder if the contemporary artists
themselves, upon seeing the combinations, have gained an even deeper
understanding of their own place in the developing history of the medium.
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| J.C. ReigerStudio, Unidentified, 1918. |
The format of pairing specific photographers lends
formal consistency to the format but also allows recognition of local artists
that serves to underscore the rich legacy of superior local talent behind the
camera throughout the years: Sarah Lyon, Ted Wathen, Bob Hower, Mary Carothers,
Barbara Crawford, John Nation and Guy Mendes are just a few of the Kentucky and
Indiana photographers represented here alongside famous names such as Dorothea
Lange, Walker Evans and Jerry Uelsmann.
The exhibit strives for more than simply
representing the range and breadth of the archives. It certainly does
accomplish that goal. But the depth of the archive collection allows this show
to become something of a de facto retrospective of photography in America. It
may not be one of the stated goals, but the exhibit almost cannot help itself from
reaching for this ambition. From detailed and objective, journalistic
observation to sumptuously rendered art photography, it charts many approaches
to the use of the camera.
Retrospect: Celebrating 50 Years of the University of Louisville
Photographic Archives
September 7 – October 13, 2012
Cressman Center for Visual Arts
Hite Art Institute, University of Louisville
100 East Main Street
Louisville, KY 40202
502-852-0288
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