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‘Kenneth Josephson: Photography Is’: Noontime Talk between artist and curator

Wed, December 7th, 2016 at 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM

Join curator Russell Lord and artist Kenneth Josephson as they give a Noontime Talk on the exhibition Kenneth Josephson: Photography IsNoontime Talks are brief, casual discussions on exhibitions or works of art in the galleries, given by NOMA curators and special guests.

About Kenneth Josephson: Photography Is

This exhibition presents a brief survey of the work of Kenneth Josephson (American, born 1932), one of the most inventive photographers of the second half of the twentieth century.

Throughout his career, Josephson has explored photography’s central relationships: between light and shadow, flatness and depth, the real world and its representation, and the image and the object. In his work, these explorations take many different forms—multiple exposures, richly printed street photographs, landscapes, and pictures of pictures—but these disparate works all share one thing in common: every Josephson photograph refers back to itself or to the processes that created it. While these ideas might lead to dry, analytical images, in Josephson’s hands they result in playful, beautifully composed photographs that surprise, challenge and delight. In one, for example, he photographs his own shadow looking down into a ravine. As a result, his shadow is split by the depth of the ravine. In another, the strange silhouette of a car, which appears to be the result of darkroom manipulation, is in fact un-melted snow, preserved by the car’s shadow blocking the sun.

The world, as it exists in his photographs, seems to be made for photography, but sometimes Josephson is the one who made it. His early images of bright white ferns in the forest record the dappled light filtering through the trees. Later, however, he painted the leaves white himself and then recorded the results of his actions. Collectively, his work suggests a host of definitions for photography—photography is about lightness and darkness, about immediacy, about representation—but individually, each photograph seems to celebrate the existence of photography, to revel in the process that brought it into being, and to delight in the simple fact that photography is.

SPONSORS: Education and outreach initiatives at NOMA are supported in part by the Patrick F. Taylor Foundation; Janice Parmelee and Bill Hammack; the Hearst Foundations; the Harry T. Howard III Foundation; The Walton Family Foundation; Chevron; the Louisiana Division of the Arts, Office of Cultural Development, Department of Culture, Recreation & Tourism, in cooperation with the Louisiana State Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts, a Federal agency; GPOA Foundation; Elizabeth and Willy Monaghan; and generous GiveNOLA Day donors.

Details

Date:
Wed, December 7th, 2016
Time:
12:00 PM - 1:00 PM
Event Categories:
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Venue

New Orleans Museum of Art
1 Collins Diboll Circle
New Orleans, LA,70119
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Phone
504.658.4100