Experiencing Photography

 I have written here before about my surprise at how much I have enjoyed seeing examples of my work in a large size on the 27-inch screen of my iMac computer.  Those on-screen images are a good deal larger than any prints hanging on my walls. Additionally, as I have no more wall space in our little house available for hanging prints, the computer display offers a way to make the big images easily viewable without the trouble and expense of printing and framing.

Up to now I have taken advantage of the on-screen image display by using favorite images as static computer wallpaper.  More recently I have begun to just let a rotating slideshow run in a browser tab which I leave in place when the computer is not otherwise occupied.  The source for that ongoing slideshow is the collection of what I consider my strongest images at my Flickr photo-sharing account.

 

 

 If you want to experience what I am talking about here, go to my Flickr homepage (or yours!). Look for the menu of viewing options in the upper right of the screen.  Then click on the icon representing a computer monitor with a black triangle in the center.

Selecting that icon will toggle a slideshow of the over 1,000 images on my site.  If you prefer a briefer experience you can choose to do the same with one of the available albums in which the pictures are organized around a particular theme. (Press ESC to exit at any point.)

Either way, provided you have a reasonably large screen, you will have an encounter with photography which to me is very engrossing.

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Many museum exhibitions feature some use of video displays, often as a way to supplement what is being presented in the form of prints, paintings or other art forms.

The Albuquerque Museum, more often than not for instance, includes a small wall-mounted screen which might offer some expanded information about the artist or the theme of an exhibit.  There is also a screening room showing films about the subjects of current exhibitions.

Temporary installations of larger screens are sometimes devoted to experimental video art presentations.  Touch screens are often available to provide an interactive opportunity for museum visitors.  However, none of those installations offer the kind of engagement with photographs that is provided by the slideshow format that is described above.

The Albuquerque Museum's photo archives contain approximately 150,000 images.  From that vast collection the Museum's archivist mounts regular exhibitions, often featuring the work of local photo studios from Albuquerque's past.  Those shows mounted on the wall of a south hallway are excellent.  However, once the exhibition is terminated to make way for another, the material becomes unavailable.

The prints exhibited from the Museum's  archives are produced by scanning old prints, negatives and glass photographic plates.  It seems like it would be a relatively easy task to make those scanned images permanently available through digital display in the museum as well as online.

In fact,  the Museum archivist has produced many very good online videos featuring materials from the archive.  However, those videos use the images as props to tell a story along with audio commentary.  That is quite a different format than simply presenting photographs for individual contemplation as is the case when photographs are hung for a wall exhibit.

 One of the major suppliers of digital display equipment for museums has a website that shows some of the digital display technology currently available for museum use, along with an overview of strategies and techniques for digital presentations.  It is worth a look.

Refocusing

Each third Thursday the Albuquerque Museum stages a big free evening event featuring live music, multiple exhibitions and various performances.  This one included a young woman walking around on scarily tall stilts.  What I mostly came for this time, however, was the opportunity to learn more about the public school photography program which puts on the yearly Focus On Youth exhibition.  The handout we got at the door read:

Meet the Artists

5:00--7:00 p.m

Meet student artists and hear about their work and creative process.

 When we arrived in the gallery there was just a guard and a couple visitors viewing the pictures.  We decided to get something to eat in the museum's restaurant and then. returned to the gallery a little after 6:00.  By then there were quite a few people viewing the photo prints and I found three students standing beside their entries and ready to talk about them.

All three of the students had single prints in the "Non Digital" sections of the exhibition, which in this case meant film-based analog photography.  The first that I talked to shared that his camera was a Pentax slr which he had gotten from a thrift store for twenty bucks.   That was a nice conversation starter as I could share that I had bought a Pentax in 1969 which was my only camera for about twenty years.

All three of the photographers I spoke with showed pictures featuring people.  The first fellow with the Pentax had made a nice portrait of a female friend.  One young woman did a self-portrait using a hand-held simple camera, and another did a picture of a "best friend" at a distance.  All three in discussing their class experience focused mostly on working in the darkroom to make the final prints.  All expressed favorable opinions of the course experience and the preparation and expertise of their teacher.

I tried to elicit information about course content regarding photographic history and styles specifically referring to books, films and exhibits, but nothing came forth on those subjects beyond the students' own self-directed inquiry.  About all I could safely conclude was that the students had gotten a good introduction to darkroom fundamentals and that the experience was overall satisfactory.

All three students I spoke with were from a single school and had the same teacher, so that left out a lot of what I was hoping to learn about the program which appears to be active in most or all of Albuquerque's high schools.  The presence of at least one of the staff would have filled in a lot of blanks.

It seemed particularly unfortunate that there were no young photographers present to talk about the digital work on display since that is clearly  the dominant mode now and for the foreseeable future.  Here, for instance, is a picture by a young photographer who I would very much liked to have talked with. 

And here is the credit beside the print:

That a picture of such technical excellence and emotional impact can be produced by a ninth grader seems extraordinary to me and demanding of some careful consideration.

While I was viewing the Focus on Youth exhibition Margaret was in the auditorium at the Youth Panel: Border Doors Project where the program announced "students discuss the stories and the ideas behind the Border Doors project."  She said it was an excellent presentation.  Perhaps next year the photography students might be given the opportunity to do something similar.

Photography at Museums

 I have made a lot of photographs in and around museums. That was brought home to me not long ago when I started following and contributing to the Analog Museums group on Flickr. To start that I did a search on the term "museum" in Flickr and was surprised to find I was approaching a hundred images on the subject at that photo sharing site. I made a selection of what I considered the best of those and put them in an album on the Flickr site.

Albuquerque Art Museum

My interest in museums developed early; the first book I can remember reading was one by Roy Chapman Andrews about his explorations in Mongolia and his work as a exhibit designer, curator, and ultimately the director of the Museum of Natural History in New York. My own practical awareness of museums became a reality when I lived for a time in New York.  I had an apartment just across the street from the Brooklyn Museum and visited it often.  Photographing the children of some friends earned me a membership with the Museum of Modern Art and I thereafter visited the MOMA almost weekly.

Albuquerque Art Museum

Albuquerque, where we now live, has a good number of well designed and well run museums for a city of its small size and economic resources. There are three museums within walking distance of our home.  Of those, I visit the Albuquerque Art Museum nearly every Sunday.  The Art Museum and the New Mexico Museum of Natural History offer free entry several times monthly and the Maxwell Museum of Anthropology at UNM is always free to visitors. UNM has had an impressive place in the history of photography in America and it has an extensive archive of photographic works.  In recent years however the UNM Art Museum has done very little of note with the available resources.

New Mexico Hispanic Cultural Center

Restrictions on photography in museums was common in the past, but most now permit visitors to make photos with the only prohibitions being on the use of flash and tripods. In my own museum photo efforts I tend to focus mostly on making pictures which incorporate a portrayal of the museum experience by visitors.

New Mexico Museum of Natural History

 In regard to photographic techniques I have found that a wide-angle lens is often very useful when exhibits are confined to tight spaces, as well as in capturing the subjects in their over-all context.  Museum lighting is often kept at a low level in an effort to minimize light damage to objects on display, so fast films and wide apertures are helpful.

Albuquerque Art Museum

Photography as a subject of museum displays has become of increased importance in most museums over the years.  I always hope for a bit more, but our local museums have actually brought some impressive shows to town.  One of the best in recent memory was the big retrospective of Danny Lyon's work at the Art Museum which provided an opportunity to appreciate the uniquely immersive style of this long-time New Mexico resident.

PIMA Air and Space Museum, Tucson

 All of the museums in town include photo exhibits among their  offerings, and both the Natural History Museum and the Nuclear Museum  conduct yearly contests open to the participation of  local photographers.

One of my pinhole images on display at the Nuclear Museum