VoxPhotographs Weblog

Thanks to a tip from Curator-at-Large Bruce Brown last week, I stopped in to Bowdoin College Museum of Art to see their (through Oct. 29) small but interesting exhibit “Landscape Photography: Politics and Poetics” in the nice Center Gallery at the recently refurbished Museum.

Sally Mann’s landscapes were mentioned to me three times last week and I had never seen one, had gotten online to find some and didn’t have much luck. The first image in this exhibit is a landscape by Mann, using broken and damaged lenses, etc…and it is big enough that you can get your head right into it. A small Harry Callahan photo (without Eleanor!) called “Cape Cod” (1972) is a gem, a platinum print by John La Farge called “Seascape” worth studying. Images of mines and other industrial sites, rivers and oceans made for a pretty eclectic collection of work.

My appreciation of Richard Misrach’s work is growing fast and I was surprised to find his two images in the exhibit were my favorites, except for the Watkins shown below. Misrach’s 1982 image “Storm Clouds, San Jacinto Mountains” is a standout.

Carleton Watkins’ “Devil’s Slide, Utah, U.P.R.R.” 1873-74 topped my list. I truly can’t get enough of his work. This beautiful albumen print on paper is pictured below. He was a master.

The serendipity of my visit occured in the tiny Becker Gallery adjacent to this exhibit. Never willingly missing anything Homer, the exhibit titled “Graphic Drama: Winslow Homer’s Etchings” caught my attention. The etchings were fine enough (most spectacular is “Fog Warning” (1887) by Hamilton Hamilton which is so fine and beautiful it will blow your socks off – Homer held Hamilton in high esteem and it’s easy to see why), but…what a treasure the little tintype of Homer and his dog Jackie on Grant’s Rock, Marshfield, MA is – on your left as you enter the exhibit. So lovely, so unexpected, one of those “rare sitings” for me. There’s also a tiny anonymous silver print title “Cliffs at Prout’s Neck” at your right as you enter the room.

And lastly…here are some of the treasures in the Bowdoin College Museum of Art’s photography collection. I’m going to make an appointment to go and see them personally if I can. Any chance I can get to be in the presence of greatness…

This entry was posted on July 26, 2008 at 1:22 pm and is filed under EXHIBITS/SHOWS, Maine . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.