In praise of Barbara Bosworth

I am a huge fan of Barbara Bosworth - her work and her person.

It all started when I saw the above image in my very first PRC auction exhibition, Christmas Eclipse in my Father's Hands, Sanibel. I remember exactly where it was installed in the old PRC. I was new - I didn't know her personally yet, but boy did I covet that image.

Time passed and last spring, I was delighted to work with her and feature her Meadow series in New England Survey at the PRC. That same show is on display now through December 21st at the Fruitlands Museum. Last month at the Fruitlands (appropriately in the Hudson River School painting gallery), Barbara gave a wonderful overview of her whole career. I was enthralled all over again.

Courtesy of via Mary Virginia Swanson's blog, I came across this very cool slideshow of Barbara's work from her recent Smithsonian show.

Click here or above to to see it!

PRC landscape show opening this Sunday at Fruitlands Museum, 4-6pm

I hope you can take that wonderful drive out route 2 to Harvard, MA this weekend. The PRC show I curated, New England Survey, gets a reprise in a delightful setting with a beautiful view (seen above). The reception is Sunday, September 14th from 4-6pm.

Surrounded by 200 acres and right next to a collection of Hudson River School paintings, I couldn't imagine a more perfect setting for this exhibition. Come see work by Barbara Bosworth, Tanja Hollander, Janet Pritchard, Thad Russell, Jonathan Sharlin, Paul Taylor again or for the first time.

Click here for directions and more information about this former Transcendentalist and Utopian community and jewell of a museum.

In praise of Frank

You know how there are certain people that just simply make you happy? Well, my next couple of posts will be devoted to a few of my favorite people.

Frank Gohlke was just in town last week for the opening of his exhibition Accommodating Nature: The Photographs of Frank Gohlke at the Addison Gallery of American Art. I've done crits with Frank at MassArt and AIB, and know him from around town and Bruce. Bruce helped him build one of his darkrooms and like many others, assisted with a variety of things and got to know him well. To me, it's always a delight to see Frank and even a greater delight to hear him. Frank, as many know, is a slow talker (a Texas thing?). Oh - but what journeys he takes you on! You can see some more work at Gallery Kayafas through June 7th.

Frank moved to Arizona last year to oversee the photography program at the University of Arizona. There is a lot of energy & photo there - a friend from the BU PhD program just got hired there as the new photohistorian. Frank too qualifies as an academic. Holding a MA in English from Yale, he is as brilliant a writer as he is a photographer. You can see this to great effect in his current book, which functions as the show's catalogue, published by the equally amazing Center for American Places.

In celebration of Frankness (ha!), I present 2 videos. In the embedded one below, Frank talks about his photograph of a Hillsboro, Texas home and in the other, he is interviewed on a Dallas tv program. In the latter, unless you want to hear from the mayor of Dallas, you have to skip ahead about 60% through it, so I will let you access that clip via this link. I hope you enjoy Frank!

A New England poem by a New England poet

Inspired by the current PRC exhibition, New England Survey, and a recent sharing of a Frank O'Hara poem (and perhaps my humble attempt to fill the vacuum left from the Poem of the Week), I share with you a poem by Amherst poet Robert Francis (1901-1987). This landscape photography show was inspired by Francis's poem "New England Mind" (you can read my essay and see images from the show here as well as check out the opening reception snaps here). In addition to his gentle approach to nature, Francis used rhyming, puns, and humor in his work, as demonstrated in the title of autobiography, The Trouble with Francis. Below, I present another Francis poem, the wonderful "The Two Lords of Amherst."

As Bruce is traveling often to Amherst for his memory panoramas and reading lots of Francis himself, I feel like I am getting to know this New England town and alternative to the other Amherst poet quite intimately. For those that aren't familiar with Amherst's town center, you might enjoy knowing that Francis is referring here to a tavern/inn and a church that are actually across a street from one another. Lord Jeffery Inn is named after the founder of the town, Jeffery Amherst; the "Jehovah" named below is Grace Episcopal Church. Both are still in operation today. Enjoy!

"The Two Lords of Amherst"

The two Lords, Jeffery and Jehovah, side by side
Proclaim that hospitality lives and Jesus died.

Jeffery in whitewashed brick, Jehovah in gray stone
Both testify man does not live by bread alone.

From sacred love to bed and board and love profane
One could dart back and forth and not get wet in rain.

How providentially inclusive the design:
Here are the cocktails, here the sacramental wine.

Here is the holy, here the not-so-holy host.
Here are the potted palms and here the Holy Ghost.

Tell, if you can and will, which is more richly blest:
The guest Jehovah entertains or Jeffery's guest.

- Robert Francis


"To make anything interesting," Flaubert says, "you simply have to look at it long enough."

For those interested, we're working with a local writing non-profit, Grub Street, to co-present a workshop in and about the current exhibition on May 3rd. Called Staring and Wonder, the workshop will discuss ideas of staring and looking in literature to kick start the day and then turn to the photographs in the shows for expository inspiration. I am terribly excited by the whole idea and intend to sit in on the first half of the day. More information here.