Keith Johnson: Photography and the Social Landscape » Exhibitions

Callahan at the MFA Boston

KJ — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 16:23:01 +0000

We went to see the Callahan show of about 50 pictures at the MFA yesterday. It was a perfect way to close out (visually) 2009. Becky suggested that Callahan had quite an influence on my work: GUILTY. A couple of pictures stood out: a woman on the street in Chicago in a very light green coat and hat probably from the early 50s; a four panel grid of tree limbs looking up form Atlanta in 1993. Marvelous pictures. Yes, Harry was (remains) quite an influence.

Robert Frank at the Metropolitan

KJ — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 16:37:41 +0000

I was a tad reluctant to go to the Met Wednesday; haven’t we seen enough of The Americans already? I had never seen its entirety as an exhibition with some rather large prints laid out as in the book through 5 or 6 rooms. I have to say the sequence had never read as clearly nor as succinctly as it does that way. The Americans is truly a book in my mind, but having known the work for 40 years it remains brilliant, ground-breaking, and formative for me and my photography. There were always some pictures that were less resonant, particularly from the Montana timeframe, but yesterday I was completely satisfied. Furthermore the art of sequencing photographs (which I have be long steeped in-thanks, Nathan-makes the meanings deeper and more satisfying. I learned some stuff, yet again. Happy Thanksgiving.

Griffin Museum

KJ — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 15:37:15 +0000

New Topographics Redux

KJ — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 16:59:54 +0000

for the second time in 34 years I spent some time at the New Topographics show at GEH. the house has re-hung the seminal show from 1975 not in the original gallery but the adjacent one, 100 prints from the original exhibition. Talk about a personal history of photography. I distictly remember having a railing experience about Hank Wessel’s work for at least an hour as Paul Hester and I drove back to Providence from Rochester. How impactful the show became when my generation began to teach the edicts of the show and then those students carried on the tradition. My feelings have changed about the work in the show over the years and now taking a class there yeaterday heard my speaking in reverential terms about the work. True, photography has moved along and different ideas are embraced now, and Rick Hock said “it was no big deal”, it still remains a seminal work. I am delighted to spen time with it.

Exhibition Trifecta

KJ — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 00:22:36 +0000

This coming fall I will be having three concurrent exhibitions in Boston:

Panopticon Gallery in Kenmore Square at the Hotel Commonwealth will show recent Grids

September 16-November 8, 2009;

New England School of Photography in Kenmore square as well will show Extended Landscapes

August 24-October 2, 2009;

and the Griffin Museum in Winchester, MA will show Suite Niagara

August 27-October 5, 2009.

Status Update

KJ — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 15:39:18 +0000

An interesting show curated by Debbie Hesse and Donna Ruff about the use of social networking tools in art making. Good tuff.

Syntax at PRC

KJ — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 15:02:01 +0000

Syntax, a fine show curated by Leslie K. Brown, is an intelligent, well selected show of photographers working on the edge of the bubble using photography to often talk about photography. Luke Strosnider has his book of New Ansel Adams Landscapes which are the histograms of famous Adams landscapes presented to be viewed as reseen landscapes, they are quite wonderful. Benno Friedman challenges what a photograph should/might look like. These two plus seven other artists do challenge nicely. See the show at Photographic Resource Center (PRC) is at 832 Commonwealth Ave., Boston, MA.

Leslie has hit her stride with this and her reecent show at the Fruitlands Museum show. This lady is bright, inciteful and truly one to be watched, her work is of the highest order.

Bruce Myren: Redux.

KJ — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 17:13:17 +0000

Bruce has his MFA Thesis show up at the Benton Museum on the UConn Campus in Storrs, CT and a fine show it is. 15 new 24×30 prints from 8×10 film of Fort Juniper made over the past six months. The one above is a particular favorite, a strong bit of seein. Additionally, The View Home, shown in a grid this time was shown and written about last year from his Gallery Kayafus show. Kudos.

David Taylor: Aldrich Museum

KJ — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 13:42:13 +0000

David Taylor has a show at the Aldrich Museum in Ridgefield, CT. The exhibition is photographs and video installations entitled Frontier/Frontera looking at the border between Mexico and the US. A document through the eyes of a somewhat neutral but impassioned viewer of the land and the people on both sides. Regardless of your political position, the work shows us something about us. I was particularly taken with the video work with three multiple monitor installations. The museum is a marvelous jewel of a pocket museum with about ten galleries of first rate current work, including Taylor’s.

David Hilliard

KJ — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 13:23:32 +0000

Recent work (2008) of David Hilliard at Carroll & Sons Gallery at SOWA in boston is first rate. His work continues to evolve and is beautiful to boot.