Landscape Photography 1865 to Now
September 21, 2012–January 13, 2013
Museum of Art
Rhode Island School of Design
224 Benefit Street
Providence, RI 02903
T 401 454-6500
[email protected]
America in View: Landscape Photography 1865 to Now offers a history of photographs of the American landscape primarily through the collection of the RISD Museum. The ever-evolving definition of landscape photography encompasses everything from seemingly pristine vistas captured with 19th-century view cameras to the decaying urban streets composed today from Google Street View. The RISD Museum’s collection of American landscape photography begins at the end of the Civil War in 1865, when photographers traveled west with government survey teams and railroad companies to record the country’s extraordinary natural features and resources. Ever since, landscape has remained a compelling subject for photographers, who have revealed through their images this country’s ambition and failings, beauty and degradation, politics and personal stories.
America in View was inspired by a generous gift of 71 photographs to the RISD Museum from the collection of the late Joe Deal (RISD Provost 1999–2005 and Photography Professor 2005–2009) and his wife, Betsy Ruppa.
Opening celebration: Thursday, September 20, 5:30–8:30pm. Free, all welcome.
Landscape Photography Study Day
Friday, September 21,10–4pm
This day-long program of gallery talks and discussions looks at a wide range of photographs, from 19th-century albumen prints documenting the Western landscape to contemporary digital images that construct new visions of post-industrial America.
Members/students 20 USD; non-members: 35 USD (includes Museum admission). Reservations required, visit risdmuseum.org.
Artists on Art: Photo Futures
Thursday, September 27, 8:30pm
FlakPhoto.com creator Andy Adams and Jörg M. Colberg, publisher of the website Conscientious, explore the intersection of online publishing, social media, and community collaboration in this discussion of photography in the Internet era. Free.
Sally Mann: If Memory Serves
Wednesday, October 3, 6:15pm
One of the most influential photographers today, Sally Mann shares her evocative images and reads from her forthcoming book in this annual Gail Silver Memorial Lecture. Mann is a Guggenheim fellow and a three-time recipient of the National Endowment for the Arts fellowship, and was named America’s Best Photographer in 2001 by TIME magazine, which praised, “In both family scenes and rural landscapes, she views the world with singularly naked candor.”
Free; reservations required, visit risdmuseum.org.
Landscape Views: Reflections of Ourselves
Tuesday, October 23, 6:30pm
Photographers Frank Gohlke, Laura McPhee (RISD MFA ’86, Photography) and Deborah Bright, chair of the Fine Art Department at Pratt Institute, discuss how we understand our relationship to nature through the landscape and photographs of it.
Free; presented with RISD Photography Department’s annual TC Colley Lecture Series;
visitrisdmuseum.orgfor details.
Looking at the Land — 21st-Century American Views
A collaboration with FlakPhoto.com, ongoing
The Museum commissioned FlakPhoto.com creator Andy Adams to curate a collection of 21st-century American landscape views by contemporary image-makers shown as a digital projections in the RISD Museum and on FlakPhoto.com.
Double Features: America on Screen
Rarely seen shorts, award-winning documentaries, and feature films are paired to offer thematic
considerations of human intervention in the natural world.
Free; visitrisdmuseum.orgfor details.
Support for America in View is provided by Dr. Joseph A. Chazan, the Robert Lehman Foundation, and Dr. and Mrs. William G. Tsiaras. Additional support from Mrs. Houghton P. Metcalf, Mary Kate Rittmann, Betsy Ruppa, John W. Smith and Rocky Caldararo, and Mr. and Mrs. William A. Viall II.
Press contact: Lani Stack, 401 454 6506 or [email protected]
