PERFORMANCES:
Biggs Museum of American Art,
February 2 thru April 22, 2018
Cab Calloway School of the Arts,
December 20, 2018
thru February 18, 2019.
This exhibit debuted at the Biggs Museum of American Art, February 2 thru April 22, 2018. A reception was held on Friday, February 2, 5:00–7:00 p.m. That was followed a month later by a joint tour of the exhibit with fine art photographers from the Coastal Camera Club in Rehoboth Beach.
Curator Ryan Grover of the Biggs described the exhibit this way:
“The artists of the Brandywine Photo Collective organized this art-making challenge for each member to interpret their own image, shot either on film or digitally, as well as three other raw images by their fellow members. They were tasked with personalizing unfamiliar subjects and compositions. As they altered their raw imagery, using computer software and/or physical manipulation, they began to consider what makes their final photographs an expression of their own ability and aesthetic. This challenge became an exploration of what made each final artwork unique.”
Our “Performances” exhibit was on display again at the end of 2018, this time in the excellent fine arts gallery of the Cab Calloway School of the Arts, 100 N. Dupont Road, Wilmington, DE.
This was a photography exhibit like no other! Just as a singer can interpret a song, we challenged ourselves to interpret each other’s work in ways unlike anyone else’s.
Each participating member of the Brandywine Photo Collective had one image in this exhibit, printed as they wanted it seen, but that same image also was also interpreted by three others in the group, often very differently. The exhibit showed some of the many ways in which images can change between the camera and the final print, based on the artist’s intent.
The idea for the BPC’s “Performances” exhibit came from Ansel Adams. Before he became the iconic photographer, Ansel Adams was a gifted pianist. As a photographer, Adams continued to think in musical terms, that each print made in the darkroom was a “performance” of the negative that had been composed in the field. Light exposure, composition, color, and any number of other tiny details can be arranged by the artist to create an original expression. At the end of his career, in donating his negatives to the University of Arizona’s Center for Creative Photography, Adams anticipated that his negatives would be interpreted by others in the years to come, his negatives being the “compositions” the students would “perform”.
This exhibit challenged those who participated. Most of us do little post-processing to our images once they are out of the camera. We had to learn a lot and took some chances!
Original Photographer and Performers
Cindy Bonnes image was performed by Jeffrey Rubin, Gerry Meekins, Kathy Buckalew
Walter Borders = Danny Schweers, Kathy Buckalew, Cindy Bonnes
Kathy Buckalew = Cindy Bonnes, Ken Francis, Walter Borders
Ken Francis = Danny Schweers, Lynn Maniscalco, Cindy Bonnes
Kerry Harrison = Jeffrey Rubin, Lynn Maniscalco, Walter Borders
Lynn Maniscalco = Gerry Meekins, Walter Borders, Ken Francis
Gerry Meekins = Jeffrey Rubin, Danny Schweers, Kathy Buckalew
Jeffrey Rubin = Ken Francis, Gerry Meekins, Danny Schweers
Danny Schweers = Gerry Meekins, Jeffrey Rubin, Lynn Maniscalco
Sample Images
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