{"id":977,"date":"2016-02-14T16:02:20","date_gmt":"2016-02-14T21:02:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/richeskinphoto.com\/blog\/?p=977"},"modified":"2016-02-16T14:40:22","modified_gmt":"2016-02-16T19:40:22","slug":"more-photography-at-the-bma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/richeskinphoto.com\/blog\/?p=977","title":{"rendered":"More Photography at the BMA"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\u201c<em>An artist is not paid for his labor but for his vision<\/em>.\u201d \u2013 James Whistler<\/p>\n<p>The BMA currently has on display more photographs than I have ever seen at one time, all under the heading of &#8220;New Arrivals.&#8221; \u00a0There are three themed exhibits:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>The O&#8217;Neil collection from Baltimore collectors Tom and Nancy O&#8217;Neil. \u00a0Approximately 20\u00a0images with broad themes that embody\u00a0the interactions of humans and the environment (e.g., Misrach, Schutmaat, Kirkeby, Tice, Burtynsky), and portraits that reveal people&#8217;s struggles and achievement (Chao, Bey, Anderson &amp; Low), and a few that don&#8217;t really fit in either category. \u00a0On exhibit until March 27, 2016.<\/li>\n<li>Late 20th Century Photographs from Russia and Belarus.<\/li>\n<li>Several other New Arrivals exhibits include single prints from Stephen Shore and William Eggleston, three large prints from Burtynsky, four images from Dorothea Lange&#8217;s FSA work in Oregon, and two small works by Edward Stieglitz.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">The O&#8217;Neil Collection<\/span><\/p>\n<p>The O&#8217;Neil Collection exhibit in the contemporary wing is interesting for the breadth of the collection. \u00a0There seemed to me be three sub-themes:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The first, as described above of human and environment interactions, included Misrach&#8217;s <em>Holy Rosary Cemetery<\/em>, Schutmaat&#8217;s <em>Abandoned Homestead<\/em>, Hatakeyama&#8217;s <em>Blast<\/em> (stop action limestone blast), Kirekby&#8217;s <em>To and From<\/em>\u00a0(transmission lines reminiscent of Callahan&#8217;s minimalist work), Tice&#8217;s <em>Water Tower<\/em> and <em>White Castle<\/em>, probably Matthew Pillsbury&#8217;s <em>Jane&#8217;s Carousel<\/em>, Ulrich&#8217;s <em>Kenosha Wisconsin<\/em> big box store and Burtynsky&#8217;s <em>Oxford\u00a0Tire Pile<\/em> could have been grouped together. \u00a0All have representations of ecological consequences of human activities on the environment. This would certainly be more a grouping of theme and intent rather style or technique, because both varied widely. The contrast for example of Kireby&#8217;s almost delicate image of transmission lines with Burtynsky&#8217;s massive tire pile filled with detail is an extreme contrast. Hatekeyama&#8217;s Blast ties the environmental destruction of exploding limestone with implied construction of roads and buildings using the limestone. \u00a0Tice&#8217;s contemporary architecture combines well with Ulrich&#8217;s image of the interior of the big and the implications for consumption, waste and banal architecture.<\/li>\n<li>The second grouping are\u00a0the portraits of which two really stood out to me: \u00a0Dey&#8217;s large format portrait of Shalanta and Chao&#8217;s of a Buddhist monk Taken with a large format camera, Shalanta was accompanied by statement from the subject. The image truly reflected her positive approach to life. Schutmaat&#8217;s portrait of a Wyoming man also works well with this group. \u00a0Anderson and Low had a diptych of a star Naval Academy lacrosse star in protective gear and in dress uniform, connecting or contrasting the athlete and the warrior.<\/li>\n<li>The third group seemed to be more of technique and and style than of theme, without any real connection other than disparate approaches. \u00a0Abelardo Morell converted a\u00a0room into a camera obscura to capture street scenes. The image was displayed inverted as it was\u00a0taken, and with the softness and lack of sharpness\u00a0resulting from imaging without a lens, seemed surrealistic. Thomas Kellner took individual 35 mm color negatives of sections of the Lincoln Memorial and then assembled the negative strips to create a fragmented, disjointed image of the memorial; very interesting approach of dis-assembly and re-assembly. Welling&#8217;s abstract of draped velvet \u00a0and Lyons use of the flag &#8220;After 9\/11&#8221; were interesting images more as an examples of contemporary work than of any coherent theme.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Late 20th Century Photographs from Russia and Belarus<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Approximately 22 photographs including photographs from Lithuania and Ukraine as well Russia and Belarus from 1959-2000. In general, the images were not exceptional except for being images of a time and place in the Soviet Union where things were controlled by the State and these were unofficial pictures. I thought the two images by Galina Moskaleva were the best of the group, although extremely different. \u00a0The first was from a series of young people who had been exposed to radiation and had to have their thyroid removed. \u00a0The second was of two children repeated and colored. \u00a0I didn&#8217;t understand the curator&#8217;s placement of these images by the same photographer, separated by a grouping of four images by a different photographer. \u00a0It would have been easier to compare the evolution of Moskaleva&#8217;s work if they were adjacent.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Other New Arrivals<\/span><\/p>\n<p>These were scattered though the museum. \u00a0The most arresting were three large prints by Burtynsky (<em>Silver Lake Operations<\/em>, <em>Rock of Ages<\/em> and <em>Shipbreaking<\/em>). \u00a0The two by Shore (<em>Holden St., North Adams, MA<\/em>) and Eggleston (<em>Untitled<\/em>, from Troubled Waters) were also a well-considered comparison of mid-20th century urban scenes\u00a0transformed by light. The four small images by Dorothea Lange, taken during her time with the Farm Security Administration were all of dwellings during the depression in Oregon; one of an exterior and three interior, and provided some interesting insight into life at that time. \u00a0Finally two small images by Edward Stieglitz; one of his wife George O&#8217;Keefe and of another artist, Marsden Hartley.<\/p>\n<p>If you are interested in photography these current exhibits at the BMA shouldn&#8217;t be missed.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cAn artist is not paid for his labor but for his vision.\u201d \u2013 James Whistler The BMA currently has on display more photographs than I have ever seen at one time, all under the heading of &#8220;New Arrivals.&#8221; \u00a0There are &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/richeskinphoto.com\/blog\/?p=977\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[],"tags":[1],"class_list":["post-977","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8lcUy-fL","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/richeskinphoto.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/977","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/richeskinphoto.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/richeskinphoto.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/richeskinphoto.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/richeskinphoto.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=977"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/richeskinphoto.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/977\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1001,"href":"https:\/\/richeskinphoto.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/977\/revisions\/1001"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/richeskinphoto.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=977"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/richeskinphoto.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=977"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/richeskinphoto.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=977"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}