During the design and building phases of Cassilhaus, Ellen and I had a moratorium on art buying as we were actively collecting drywall, faucets, and appliances. The last few years, however, we have returned to our favorite art fairs and started collecting photography again. Included with these finds are several pieces from our resident artists. I decided that our fall show would be a survey of recent discoveries and a look at the direction our collection was headed.
Right around the time I decided to put the show together I had just shot some iPhone images in Duke Forest. One of them I titled glimpse (above) and it seemed an apt title for the show. I enlisted the aid of dear friend and wonderful curator Huston Paschal as well as our new Duke MFA intern Rachel Boillot to put the show together. Given the ecclectic nature of our collecting, it was an interesting challenge to put a show together with date of purchase as the basic selection criterion. Almost Immediately though, interesting pairings and juxtapositions started to present themselves. Huston prepared a wonderful checklist. Download Glimpse checklist Final
Rachel and I hung the show and went through 4 or 5 rounds of sequencing.
Joni assisted. The Kertész was her favorite.
Vinyl girl as always did an incredible job on the show graphics. I found a company in Florida that would custom color match the groovy olive green color I wanted to use.
The lead image of the show on the gallery entry wall is an Emmet Gowin image called Edith, Chincoteague, Virginia, 1967 and it is one of the most beautiful prints I have ever seen. It is now my favorite piece in our collection. The reproduction here does not do it justice.
Our friends from Waynesville Chris and Malea came down for the opening and to help with last minute patching and painting and food prep. The opening was packed and quite an affair.
Nasher Museum director Sarah Schroth and Center for Documentary Studies Director Wesley Hogan discuss Chris McCaw's piece from his Sunburned Series.
Photographer power trio Elizabeth Matheson, Susan Harbage Page, and Caroline Vaughan.
David Summer of Framers Corner and Peter Nisbet, Chief Curator at the Ackland Museum, delight in Lisa McCarty's Impossible Project Instant Film Series Cassilhaus on the First Day of Autumn.
Bryan and Rachel Andregg share a moment in front of Georges Rousse's Baldwin #1 Durham NC.
MJ Sharp makes the case for rotting fruit as the best still life subject and Nancy Townsend and Rachel Boillot have drunk the KoolAid. MJ has two wonderful pieces in the show.
David Simonton, his wife Carolyn, and Ellen.
I had a wonderful studio visit with David earlier in the year. He has photographed in over 350 North Carolina towns. Check out his map!
I fell in love with his image from an abandoned school in Chinquapin, North Carolina
Another of my favorite finds in the past few years has been Laura Findlay. When Cassilhaus visiting artist Dave Anderson came to town, he had a copy of the Oxford American Literary Magazine with him. He is doing video work for them now. I couldn't take my eyes off Laura's image on the cover.
I tracked her down in Canada where she is finishing up her MFA. I got the first print in the edition of this wonderful piece called Tim. It is crazy beautiful.
There has been much talk in recent years about the growing popularity of "process based" work in the photo world. I would loosely define this as work where the process of making the image is a major component of the artwork itself. I'll be doing a post next month about our most recent visiting artist Chris McCaw's photographs which certainly falls into this category. Another wonderful artist working in this vein is Alison Rossiter whose cameraless abstract images on expired vintage photo paper expand the notion of what a photograph is or can be.
Gevaert Gevarto 47, exact expiration date unknown, circa 1960s, processed 2013 (#7); unique
4 gelatin silver prints
Just when I lull myself into the notion that everything has been done before in photography, someone like Alison comes along and blows that notion out of the water. I continue to make amazing and wonderful discoveries almost on a monthly basis. Thanks for taking a glimpse with me.
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