by Bob Martin | May 25, 2010 | Art, Exhibits, Museums, Photograhy
For all the World to See: Visual Culture and the Struggle for Civil Rights an exhibit of photograph at the International Center of
Where Every Boy Can Dream of Being President-National Museum of American History, Behring Center, Smithsonian Institution
Photography, New York. The 1950’s, 1960’s and 70’s the struggle for equality in the United States had a face(s) that was visible daily. No longer buried inside of monthly magazines, Life, Look and others, despair, unrest and bigotry was being dramatically witnessed. Witnessed not just in the South but across the country, particularly in the Northeast which harbored a subtle form of racism which now was being disclosed. Even in cities like New York, in order to get a taxicab it was necessary for an African American sneak up on a cab and jump into the backseat, because most cab drivers would turn on the on their “off duty” lights once they saw you.
Today when I hear people say “We want Our Country Back” or “Stop Obama” I sense the same bigotry of fifty years ago. For those who want to go back to something, see this exhibit and then think about it. This is no longer or was it ever the America depicted in the illustration on the left. “Keep it Free” suggests just the opposite for Women and People of Color.
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by Bob Martin | May 19, 2010 | Art, Photograhy
It is sobering to know that nothing ever lasts or at least in the same form. The photographs of Detroit by Andrew Moore are witness to a dying city and culture. Both music and cars have moved on to some other pasture, leaving crumbling buildings and people who have no where to go.
There are movies being made in Detroit now in part I am sure because it is a facade, a Hollywood lot out on location.
The Akron Art Museum will exhibiting “Detroit Disassembled: Photographs by Andrew Moore June 5, 2010 – October 10, 2010 ” an accounting of pre-transformation as we can be certain that Detroit and others cities like them will create a new identity and new industry before long.
by Sandy | May 13, 2010 | Art, Blogroll, Creativity, Photograhy
120 photographs from the Center for Creative Photography’s “Ansel Adams Archive” will be on display at the Phoenix Art Museum until June 6, 2010.
Included in the exhibition are “dozens of archival documents including video footage, original correspondence, photographic equipment, proof prints, alternate views, negatives, and portraits of the photographer – allows for a richer understanding of Adams’s beloved photographs.”
Ansel Adams * Phoenix Art Museum
McDowell Road & Central Avenue
1625 N. Central Avenue, Phoenix, AZ
(Image: “Thunderstorm, Ansel Adams, 1948)
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by Sandy | Apr 16, 2010 | Art, Blogroll, Exhibits, Museums, Photograhy
The Museum of Modern Art, NYC has gathered over 300 photographs for a retrospective of photojournalist Henri Cartier- Bresson (1908-2004) – “…one of the most original, accomplished, influential, and beloved figures in the history of photography. His inventive work of the early 1930s helped define the creative potential of modern photography, and his uncanny ability to capture life on the run made his work synonymous with “the decisive moment”—the title of his first major book.” 
Cartier-Bresson describing the “decisive moment” in photography:
“To me, photography is the simultaneous recognition, in a fraction of a second, of the significance of an event as well as the precise organization of forms [as they are perceived visually] which give that event its proper expression.”
Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Modern Century * Until June 28, 2010
The Museum of Modern Art
11 West 53 Street, New York, NY
FYI- The exhibition travels to The Art Institute of Chicago, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA), and the High Museum of Art, Atlanta.
(Images: Gold Distribution, Shanghai, China 1949 and Srinagar, Kashmir, 1948)
by Bob Martin | Apr 11, 2010 | Exhibits, Photograhy
Dessau, Germany by Henri Cartier-Bresson 1945
Henri Cartier-Bresson’s photographs are both factual and interpretive. They are not trying to sell me on anything other than “this is how it is, this is what I saw and you add, if you must, your own story line”. The New York Museum of Modern Art begins today with a retrospective of his work.
Many of the photographs that fascinate me are simple recordings of the aftermath of devastating events. The series entitled “After the War, End of an Era” depicts the inevitable changes that war brings about, the question of what’s next and how can the past be reconciled.
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by Sandy | Mar 8, 2010 | Art, Blogroll, Culture, Exhibits, Museums, Photograhy
Beginning March 20, 2010, the Museum of the African Diaspora showcases photographer Bryan Wiley’s portfolio dealing with Altars and Rituals from around the world.
“Wiley has assembled his photographs of altar objects from Brazil, Haiti, Cuba, South Carolina and New Orleans into large ornate frames creating collages that reveal the blurred lines between sacred and secular worlds. Wiley’s assembled images focus on the power of the natural elements, earth, wind, fire, and water as manifest in the deities venerated in the altars. Large photographs of the physical locales and the surrounding landscapes contextualize his interpretive installations creating a quiet atmosphere of reverence.”
“African Continuum: Sacred Ceremonies and Rituals” 3/20 – 8/28/10
MoAD – The Museum of the African Diaspora
685 Mission Street San Francisco, CA
(Image: Hanging crosses in Candomble shop, 2006
Senhor do Bonfim, Brazil)
