Treasures from the Vault

November 24th, 2018 - January 11th, 2019

Ansel Adams
Henri Cartier-Bresson
Walker Evans
André Kertész
Beaumont Newhall
Nancy Newhall
Nino Migliori
Luis González Palma
Eliot Porter
Todd Webb
Carrie Mae Weems

The exhibition comprises both vintage and contemporary works.  The exhibition begins with work from contemporary artists including Carrie Mae Weems’ God Bless The Child, 1995; Luis González Palma’s El Amor Coagulado  (The Coagulated Love), 2004; and Nino Migliori’s Il Tuffatore (The Diver), 1951.  Migliori is known as the Italian surrealistic photographer of dreams. In a February 2018 article in The Guardian Migliori tells the story of capturing Il Tuffatore. To read the article please visit The Guardian.

Carrie Mae Weems was recently honored by The New York Times in the article written by Megan O’Grady entitled, How Carrie Mae Weems Rewrote the Rules of Image-Making. O’Grady states that Carrie Mae Weems is, “Perhaps our best contemporary photographer, she creates work that insists on the worth of black women – both in art and in life.”
To read the full article, please visit the New York Times Website.

The second part of the exhibition has a group of iconic images from the 20th century, including a 1960’s print of Ansel Adams’ Moonrise Over Hernandez, New Mexico, 1941; André Kertész’s 1929 view from the Eiffel Tower; Beaumont Newhall’s Chase National Bank, 1928, and a rare large print of The Plaza Hotel, New York, 1941, Eliot Porter’s dye-transfer print of Redbud Tree in Bottomland, 1968; and Todd Webb’s image of Under the El at Chatham Square Station, NY, 1946.  Also included in this group are two rare photographs by Nancy Newhall of New York in 1938 and 1944, Henri Cartier-Bresson’s On the Banks of the Marne, 1938, and Walker Evans Barber Shop, New Orleans, 1936.

Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico, 1941, is his most celebrated photograph and possibly one of the most well-known photographs of all time.  Prints of this size are scarcer than the 16 x 20” size in which most interpretations of this image were made.  However, the smaller size reveals the beautiful tonal range and detail that is sometimes not visible in the larger versions.

Ansel Adams described the exposing of the negative for Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico, 1941, in his autobiography in these words, “Driving south along the highway, I observed a fantastic scene as we approached the village of Hernandez. In the east, the moon was rising over distant clouds and snowpeaks, and in the west, the late afternoon sun glanced over a south-flowing cloud bank and blazed a brilliant white upon the crosses in the church cemetery. I steered the station wagon into the deep shoulder along the road and jumped out, scrambling to get my equipment together, yelling at Michael and Cedric to “Get this! Get that, for God’s sake!  We don’t have much time!”  With the camera assembled and the image composed and focused, I could not find my Weston exposure meter!  Behind me the sun was about to disappear behind the clouds and I was desperate.  I suddenly recalled that the luminance of the moon was 250 candles per square foot.  I placed this value on Zone VII of the exposure scale; with a Wratten G (No. 15) deep yellow filter, the exposure was one second at f32.  I had no accurate reading of the shadow foreground values. After the first exposure I quickly reversed the 8 x 10 film holder to make a duplicate negative, for I instinctively knew I had visualized one of those very important images that seem prone to accident or physical defect, but as I pulled out the slide the sunlight left the crosses and the magical moment was gone forever.”

-Ansel Adams, Ansel Adams, An Autobiography, New York Graphic Society Books

 

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