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This week I watched the PBS American Masters special Dorothea Lange: Grab a Hunk of Lightning. The film is anchored in earlier film footage by her assistant Phil Greene of her preparation for a one-person exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in 1966. Lange died a few months before the exhibition opened so it was particularly riveting to watch and listen as she sorted photographs and negatives in her studio with her assistant Richard Conrad, and then with John Szarkowski, curator of the exhibition. They sort, select, and arrange prints on the long wall of her studio, pausing to intently study and rearrange. I want to watch the film again to listen more closely to what she says about her work, and to the tidbits of interactions with Szarkowski that are in the film.
At one point, as Lange reviews a file drawer of negatives in their paper envelopes, she throws a negative away. I twitched at that moment. But I promptly reminded myself that it is Lange’s prerogative to throw away one of her negatives. The Center’s archivists consider negatives as core elements in the archives we house. Negatives are what makes a collection an archive they tell me, and not merely a collection. The life of a negative has so many potential paths. Dorothea Lange: Grab a Hunk of Lightning casually mentions that while Lange was working for the Farm Security Administration she sent her negatives to Washington for printing by the government. We need to remember all the people—darkroom assistants, publishers, printers—who can be involved in making the final photographic image that the public sees. Some mourn the end of the analog era; I find photography so compelling in part because there can be so many participants who contribute to the making and dissemination of photographic images.
Here is a link to a very nifty web-based platform for organizing, searching, and visualizing the 170,000 photographs from 1935 to 1945 produced by the United States Farm Security Administration—Office of War Information (FSA-OWI): photogrammar.yale.edu. And if you’d like to look “under the hood” to see how it was created go to photogrammar.yale.edu/labs. Changing gears now…Dance Professor Doug Nielsen recently brought a class of his dance students to CCP to look at his collection of contemporary portrait photographs featured in the current exhibition. Doug was excited that his students would see a new aspect of their teacher. The assignment was to select a work and create a dance inspired by close looking. I invite you to look at the students in action, shots of which can be found on our Facebook and Instagram.
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 | Elliott Erwitt, USA, 1962 (Family on the sofa). ©Elliott Erwitt |
| Performance: Contemporary Photography from the Douglas Nielsen Collection
Center for Creative Photography
On view through January 4, 2015
This exhibition gathers more than 100 works from the private collection of Douglas Nielsen, choreographer and professor at the University of Arizona School of Dance. Featuring photographs and photo-based prints by artists as diverse and provocative as Diane Arbus, John Baldessari, Jo Ann Callis, Nan Goldin, Bruce Nauman, Richard Renaldi, and Cindy Sherman, the exhibition’s unique installation draws out the dramatic and physical tension that can result between photographer and subject, the observer and the observed. Among the exhibition’s highlights are focused displays of images by Nancy Burson and Jimmy DeSana, as well as compelling works by lesser-known artists such as Todd Gray and Noah Kalina, all of which are presented in ways that are by turns whimsical, meditative, and revealing about a fundamental aspect of the art and nature of photography. Gallery hours Mon-Fri 9am-5pm, Sat-Sun 1pm-4pm. More info
OPENING RECEPTION THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 6:30PM. FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
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| PHOTO FRIDAY: Family
Where: CCP, Volkerding Print Room
When: Friday, September 5, 2014
11:30am-3:30pm
Free and open to the public
Photo Friday returns with a selection of photographs curated by Becky Senf revolving around the theme of family, presented in conjunction with the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art's Bill Owens: Suburbia. More info
*Meet in the lobby for guided exhibition tours at 11:30am and 1:00pm on September 5.
What is Photo Friday? Find out here.
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|  | Photo Friday Feature: John Gutmann, Black Man with Three Little Daughters Looking at Sculpture, 1939. John Gutmann Archive ©1998 Center for Creative Photography, Arizona Board of Regents | |
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| ARTIST TALK: Keith Carter & Kate Breakey
Where: CCP Auditorium
When: Friday, September 12, 5:30pm
Free and open to the public
Etherton Gallery Distinguished Lecture Series at the Center for Creative Photography: For the past two decades, Keith Carter and Kate Breakey have each created hauntingly poetic and evocative bodies of work from the stuff of the real world. In a conversation moderated by Chief Curator Joshua Chuang, these acclaimed photographers will discuss their current work, longstanding friendship, and ongoing belief in the medium of photography. More info
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Keith Carter, Boy and Hawk, toned gelatin silver print, 2005 ©Keith Carter, Courtesy of Etherton Gallery | |
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| ARTIST TALK: Jo Ann Callis
Where: CCP Auditorium
When: Thursday, September 18, 5:30pm
Free and open to the public
Join Performance: Contemporary Photography from the Douglas Nielsen Collection artist Jo Ann Callis as she presents her work in a conversation with collector Doug Nielsen and CCP Chief Curator Josh Chuang. More info
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|  | Jo Ann Callis, Cake, Hat, Pillow, 1981 ©Jo Ann Callis | | | |
| OPENING RECEPTION for Performance
Where: CCP Auditorium
When: Thursday, September 18, 6:30-7:30pm
Free and open to the public
Immediately following the Jo Ann Callis lecture, stick around for food, drink, and a few unexpected surprises as we celebrate the opening of Performance: Contemporary Photography from the Douglas Nielsen Collection. More info
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| GALLERY TALK: Brian Paul Clamp & Douglas Nielsen
Where: CCP Auditorium
When: Thursday, October 9, 5:30pm
Free and open to the public
Brian Paul Clamp, owner and director of ClampArt in NYC, will speak with collector Douglas Nielsen.
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| ARTIST TALK: Richard Renaldi
Where: CCP Auditorium
When: Tuesday, October 21, 5:30pm
Free and open to the public
Photographer Richard Renaldi, internationally exhibited and most recently acclaimed for his series Touching Strangers (monograph released by Aperture Foundation, spring 2014), will present and discuss his work.
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| SAVE THE DATE
OCTOBER PHOTO FRIDAY
Where: CCP, Volkerding Print Room
When: Friday, October 3, 2014
11:30am-3:30pm
Free and open to the public
Free guided exhibition tours will be offered at 11:30am and 1:00pm during every Photo Friday. What is Photo Friday? Find out here.
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| The Center for Creative Photography loans works from its fine art and archive collections to major institutions around the world. You can now view a list of current and upcoming exhibitions to which the CCP has loaned works here.
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INFOCUS Juried Exhibition of Self-Published Photobooks
Where: Phoenix Art Museum
When: through September 28, 2014 INFOCUS, the Photography Support Organization of Phoenix Art Museum, invited photographers to submit a self-published photography book for a juried exhibition to be presented in the Norton Photography Gallery of Phoenix Art Museum. The purpose of the exhibition is to explore the range of ways that artists are using newly available commercial technologies to self-publish photobooks in order to express themselves. More info
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| INFOCUS Photobid
Online bidding now live
Where: Phoenix Art Museum
When: Friday, Oct. 17, 2014, 6 - 9pm
Bid online through October 17 by visiting photobid14.auction-bid.org. Go to infocus-phxart.org/auction for a schedule of events and to purchase tickets to the live auction.
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ABOUT THE CCP & PHOENIX ART MUSEUM: In 2006, Phoenix Art Museum and the Center for Creative Photography at the University of Arizona in Tucson inaugurated a highly innovative and unprecedented collaboration to bring the finest in photography to Phoenix Art Museum visitors. It established a vibrant new photography exhibition program at the Museum, while bringing the Center's world-renowned collections to new and larger audiences. Learn more
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| The Center for Creative Photography is now on Instagram! Follow us for behind-the-scenes shots and daily happenings at the Center @cntrforcreativephoto.
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© 2014 Center for Creative Photography 520-621-7968 | info@ccp.arizona.edu | 1030 North Olive Road, Tucson, AZ | www.creativephotography.org |
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