January | February 2002 - Boston Photography Focus

THE ART OF THE PHOTOGRAPH 

Celebrating contemporary and traditional photography with two major exhibitions 

January | February 2002 

Volume 26, Number 1 

THE MASTER PRINTS OF EDWARD S. CURTIS 

PORTRAITS OF NATIVE AMERICA 

Through March 17, 2002 

An Oasis in the Bad Lands, 1905, by Edward S. Curtis. Platinum print. 

KENRO IZU: SACRED PLACES 

Through March 17, 2002 

Borobudur, 1996, by Kenro Izu. Platinum palladium print on watercolor paper. 

PEABODY ESSEX MUSEUM East India Square, Salem, MA 01970 800-745-4054 www.pem.org 

SNAPSHOT 

January 17 Opening reception for 

There Is No Eye (see page1) 

January 18 John Cohen, lecture (see page 2), 

Members Project Room exhibition begins (see page 1) 

January 26 Conservation and Preservation 

workshop with Paul Messier (see page 2) 

February 2 Web workshop with the 

Interactive Factory (see page 2) 

February 5 Henry Horenstein, lecture (see page 2) 

February 7 Dan McNichol and Stephen 

SetteDucati: The Big Dig, lecture (see page 2) 

February 15 Members Project Room exhibition 

begins (see page 1) 

February 18 Slide Seminar with Jim Dow 

(see page 2) 

Photographic Resource Center 

at Boston University 

602 Commonwealth Avenue 

Boston, MA 02215 

Non-Profit 

US Postage 

PAID 

Boston, MA 

Permit No. 1839

MISSION STATEMENT 

The Photographic Resource Center is guided by a philosophical 

inquiry into the role of photographic media in the 

formation of human knowledge and experience. By emphasizing 

new work, ideas, and methods, and by creating opportunities 

for interaction among the diverse communities that 

it serves, the Photographic Resource Center strives to be a vital 

international voice in understanding the past and shaping 

the future of photography. 

BOARD OF DIRECTORS 

Rick Grossman, President 

Mark Young, Vice President 

Robert Birnbaum 

Marvin F. Cook 

Andrew Epstein 

Joanne P. Evans 

Roger Farrington 

Keith Johnson 

Lou Jones 

Emily Kahn 

Rodger Kingston 

Gary Leopold 

John Stomberg 

Maggie Trichon 

Charles Zoulias 

STAFF 

Terrence Morash, Executive Director 

Leslie Brown, Curator 

Alice Hall, Librarian 

Ingrid Trinkunas, Coordinator of Programs and Administration 

Sarah English, Editorial Assistant 

Alisa Mazur, Editorial Assistant 

Rohini Sandesara, Editorial Assistant 

GENERAL INFORMATION 

Photographic Resource Center at Boston University 

602 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, MA 02215 

Tel 617-353-0700 prc@bu.edu 

Fax 617-353-1662 www.bu.edu/prc 

HOURS 

Tuesday–Sunday: 12–5pm 

Thursday: 12–8pm 

Closed Mondays 

ADMISSION 

Adults: $3 

Students (with valid ID) and Seniors: $2 

Members, children under 18, 

and school groups are admitted free. 

PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION 

Take the Green Line “B” train to Blandford Street, one stop 

west of Kenmore Square. 

COVER IMAGE 

John Cohen, Robert Frank and Larry Rivers, New York 

City, 1959. Courtesy of the artist and Deborah Bell, 

New York. John Cohen captured a rare meeting of noted 

photographer and filmmaker Robert Frank with jazz 

saxophonist turned pop painter Larry Rivers. 

DESIGN CREDITS 

This issue of in the loupe was designed by Irma S. Mann, 

Strategic Marketing, Inc. of Boston (www.irmamann.com). 

It was printed by Cambridge Offset Printing on Mohawk 

Superfine Ultrawhite 80# text. 

A Note from the Director 

The alternative arts space emerged in the early 1970s in response to numerous social factors and the 

needs of the contemporary art-making community. While galleries and museums focused on the concerns 

of audience development, celebrity and funding, these spaces emphasized art and artists. These 

motives gave birth to a number of vital cultural centers, such as the Photographic Resource Center, 

and remain the defining factors for their existence. 

Over the next three decades, numerous challenges faced cultural organizations. Those that survived the 

recession and government funding reductions of the early 1990s, spent the last decade rebuilding. As 

we are now faced with another economic downturn, these organizations must again struggle to stay 

afloat. Some are unable to. In October, the Friends of Photography, one of the more influential photography 

centers over the past quarter century, closed its doors over a lack of funding and the exorbitant 

real estate costs of San Francisco. 

The PRC is not immune to these challenges. As we continue to work to provide you with the innovative 

programming that fills these pages, we are faced with a reduction in government and foundation 

support due to the diminished economy. We need your help. Your support of the PRC through membership, 

program participation, attendance, and donations is crucial to its continued survival. Thank 

you, in advance, for your continued support. We are truly grateful. 

On another note, we are currently in the midst of planning an exhibition to mark the 6 month anniversary 

of 9-11. The exhibition will focus on the memorializing and mourning process in which we are all 

engaged. We are actively looking for work that addresses the idea of 9-11 shrine-making and use of 

photography in our understanding of the tragic events to include in this exhibition. Please visit the 

PRC website at www.bu.edu/prc, or call 617-353-0700, for more information and a detailed call for 

entries. Hurry though, we ask that submissions are received before the end of January. 

Best wishes for a great 2002, 

Terrence Morash 

Executive Director 

Support 

The programs and exhibitions of the Photographic Resource Center are made possible 

through the generous support of its members, Boston University, various government and 

private foundations, and corporations including: 

Adesso 

American Printing 

Ardon Vinyl Graphics 

Art New England 

artsMedia 

Associated Press Photos 

Becket Papers 

Boston Beer Company 

Boston Cultural Council 

Boston Park Plaza Hotel 

Boston University 

Calumet Photographic 

Cambridge Offset Printing 

The Charles Hotel 

Christie’s 

Paula Cooper Gallery 

Crestar Mfg. 

Arthur Dion 

Jim Dow 

Eastman Kodak 

Jesseca Ferguson 

Filene’s 

FleetCenter Neighborhood Charities 

Fox River Papers 

Gay’s Flowers and Gifts 

Gourmet Caterers 

Hasselblad 

Harpoon Brewery 

Helicon Design 

Henrietta’s Table 

Mark Hunt Backdrops 

Hunter Editions 

Keith Johnson 

Deborah Kao 

KISS 108 FM 

Robert Klein 

Lina Kutsovskaya 

Rachel Lafo 

Lee Gallery 

E.P. Levine 

Joanne Lukitsh 

Luminos Photo. Corp. 

Irma S. Mann Strategic Marketing 

Massachusetts College of Art 

Massachusetts Cultural Council 

MassEnvelopePlus 

Ted Marrazzo 

MCS Frames 

Merry Maids 

Inge Milde 

Museums Boston 

Bruce Myren at Bee Digital 

National Endowment for the Arts 

Nielsen & Bainbridge Co. 

Nikon Inc. 

Alison Nordstrom 

Nylon Magazine 

Olympus 

Panopticon, Inc. 

Perfecta Camera, Corp. 

photocurator.org 

Photography in New York 

Polaroid Corporation 

Rialto 

Sebastian’s Catering 

Sonya’s Catering 

Jerry Spagnoli 

Spectrum Color Labs, Inc. 

Betsy Urrico 

WBUR 

Howard Yezerski Gallery 

Keitaro Yoshioka 

Zeff Photo Supply 

Zona Laboratories 

Zoo New England 

PRC 

Announcements 

Help Rebuild the Library 

We are sure that you, like we, truly value the PRC’s 

Aaron Siskind Library. Whether you are searching 

for that hard to find title, or getting assistance 

from our wonderful Librarian, Alice Hall, the 

library serves as a unique collection of information 

and publications for all of your photography 

needs. However, an unfortunate reality is that its 

books are occasionally stolen, and we do not have 

the resources to replace all of them. We are hoping 

that you can help. Below, you will find a list 

of some of the key titles that are currently missing 

from the library. If you have a copy that you 

would like to donate to or purchase for the 

library, please let us know. 

Avedon, Richard. Portraits. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 

1976. 

Bey, Dawoud. Dawoud Bey Portraits. 

Walker Art Center, Minnesota, 1995. 

Brassai. The Secret Paris of the 30s. 

Pantheon Books, 1976. 

Callahan, Harry. Harry Callahan New Color 

Photographs 1978-1987. Hallmark Cards, 1988. 

Clark, Larry. Teenage Lust. 

Evans, Walker. Walker Evans. MOMA, 1971. 

Freund, Gisele. Photography and Society. 

Godine, 1980. 

Grundberg, Andy. Photography and Art: 

Interactions since 1946. Abbeville, 1987. 

Kertesz, Andre. Andre Kertesz 60 Years. Grossman, 

1972. 

Kraus, Rosalind. Cindy Sherman 1975 - 1993. 

Rizzoli, 1993. 

Upcoming Exhibitions 

There is No Eye: 

Photographs by John Cohen 

January 18–March 1, 2002 

Opening Reception: 

Thursday, January 17, 5:30-7:30pm 

Bakalar and Klebenov Galleries 

Curated by John Jacob, Director of photocurator.org 

There is No Eye is the first major traveling retrospective 

exhibition by John Cohen — the musician 

who provided inspiration in part for the Grateful 

Dead song “Uncle John’s Band.” As co-founder of 

the band the New Lost City Ramblers in 1958 and 

a regular writer for Sing Out Magazine, he was 

central to the emergence of the urban folk revival 

of the 1960s. The title, There is No Eye, comes 

from Bob Dylan’s liner notes concerning Cohen in 

Highway 61 Revisited (1965). 

The exhibition covers all areas of Cohen’s work: 

New York City of the 1950s, the Beats, American 

traditional music, as well as his travels in Peru and 

the American South. Cohen’s formal relationships 

are stunningly beautiful, as Greil Marcus notes in 

his introduction to the monograph of the same 

name: “You can look at John Cohen’s “There Is No 

Eye” and see through very familiar eyes: the New York 

City eyes of Helen Levitt and Walker Evans, Evans’s 

country eyes, the highway eyes of Robert Frank, even 

Margaret Bourke-White’s doubting eyes in Holiness 

churches.” The exhibition is also accompanied by a 

Koudelka, Joseph. Exiles. Aperture, 1988. 

Koudelka, Joseph. Gypsies. Aperture, 1975. 

Morell, Abe. A Camera in a Room. Smithsonian 

Institute, 1995. 

Michals, Duane. The Nature of Desire. 

Papageorge, Tod. Walker Evans and Robert Frank. 

Yale University Art Gallery, 1981. 

Solomon-Godeau, Abigail, Photography at the Dock. 

Sudek, Joseph. Joseph Sudek poet of Prague. 

Aperture, 1990. 

Smith, Lauren. The Visionary Pinhole, 1985. 

Uelsmann, Jerry. Jerry N. Uelsmann 25 years. 

Little Brown, 1982. 

Weegee. Naked City 

Portfolio Reviews 

with the Curator! 

The PRC’s new Curator, Leslie Brown, will begin 

conducting portfolio reviews in February. The purpose 

of these sessions is wide ranging: from providing 

feedback and considering ideas for new shows 

to having Leslie meet you and get a sense of the 

current work our members are producing. Work 

that is photographically based in the broadest conception 

— from gelatin silver to iris prints to video 

to installations — in any format is welcomed. While 

seeing the real work is preferred, slides, transparencies, 

work prints, videos (VHS), or CDs can also be 

brought. Portfolio reviews will be conducted on 

the first Monday of every month (barring a holiday), 

with a reservation call-in date set for the third 

Friday of the month prior. They will be 45 minutes 

long and scheduled on the hour from 9am to 3pm. 

Smithsonian Folkways CD compilation featuring 

the music of those pictured in the exhibition. Both 

will be available for purchase at the PRC. See John 

Jacob’s essay on page 4, and Leslie Brown’s essay on 

page 7 for more information. 

Michael Hintlian and 

Camila Chavez-Cortes 

January 18–February 8, 2002 

Members Project Room: 

An informal space curated and installed by members. 

The Members Project Room presents the documentation 

of architectural projects by Michael Hintlian 

and Camila Chavez-Cortes. Michael has been 

working on the development of the “Big Dig” 

since 1997. When he started, he quickly saw that 

it would be the skill of individual tradespeople that 

Michael Hintlian, Central Artery/Tunnel, 1999 

Reviews are free for members. Individuals are 

restricted to one review per calendar year. The next 

review dates, and call-in reservation dates, are listed 

below. 

REVIEW DATES: 

Monday, February 4th (Call for reservations at 

10am, Friday, January 18th) 

Monday, March 4th (Call for reservations at 

10am, Friday, February 15th) 

2002 Members Print Program 

At the time of this writing, we are finalizing the 

2002 Members Print Program — a program which 

offers original limited edition prints to higher level 

members. While the new program will be announced 

shortly, we are thrilled to present an exciting array 

of fine artists. Among the artists generously participating 

in this year’s program are: David 

Armstrong, Pamela Ellis Hawkes, Emily Kahn, 

Rodger Kingston, Eric Lewandowski, Abelardo 

Morell and Karin Rosenthal. Keep your eye out 

for the brochure. 

Mark Hunts Backdrops has 

expanded its inventory! 

Every backdrop available for rental at MHB is 

available for purchase for a limited time. For more 

information, visit www.markhuntbackdrops.com, 

call 617-951-0737, or email mark@markhuntbackdrops.com. 

PRC members get an additional 10% off 

during this sale! 

would make this project a reality. He also realized 

that this would be the first thing forgotten. It has 

become very important to him to separate the 

integrity of the workers from the politics and negative 

press through his photography. Camila will 

present her photos of the landscape transformation 

of Berlin 1994–2001. She focused her lens on 

the vestiges of old and burgeoning new sites: 

wrapped buildings and overnight transformations 

of green landscapes, empty lots and demolished 

spaces, and glass facilities designed by an international 

cadre of architects." 

Continuum of Time Exposed 

February 15–March 8, 2002 

Members Project Room: An informal space curated 

and installed by members. 

Continuum of Time Exposed challenges the common 

notion that photography simultaneously 

captures all of the elements of a scene on a sensitive 

surface. Christian Waeber and Nancy Wynn 

will both present images obtained by slowly scanning 

their subjects. Christian uses a panoramic 

camera with a rotating lens to slowly scan his 

models while they move in front of him, transforming 

them into dreamlike human-flower 

chimeras. Nancy’s images are metaphors of the 

human condition. They are created using the photographic 

environment of a digital scanner. 

1

education programs at the 

WORKSHOPS 

Identification and Preservation 

of 19 th Century Photographic 

Techniques with Paul Messier 

Saturday, January 26, 2002, Morning Lecture 

9am–12pm, Afternoon Workshop 1–4pm 


Morning-only: $20 Members/$25 Non-Members 

Full-day: $75 Members/$100 Non-Members 

Reservations required. Please call 617-353-0700 

Paul Messier will lead a two part workshop on the 

identification and preservation of 19th Century 

photographic techniques. During the morning session, 

Paul will introduce the various 19th century 

photographic processes with an emphasis on identification 

and preservation. For those partaking in 

the afternoon workshop, Paul will bring in a selection 

of photographs from his study collection. He 

will guide participants in the methodology used to 

identify the various photographic processes. Following 

this hands-on session, he will present a slide talk 

focusing on deterioration and preservation issues 

pertaining to photographs. Participants are invited 

to bring in easily transported photographs from 

their own collection for identification and preservation 

recommendations. Paul is an extensively trained 

conservator who was head conservator in the paper 

and photographic materials lab of the Rocky Mountain 

Conservation Center, Denver. He currently teaches 

photography conservation at Buffalo and is a regular 

lecturer at Williams College and MIT. He is also a 

leader in the emerging field of electronic media preservation. 

To read more about Paul’s background and 

current work go to www.paulmessier.com. 

Shooting Slides 101: 

A Workshop and Slide 

Presentation with Jim Dow 

Monday, February 18, 2001, 12:30–2pm 


$30 Members/$40 Non-Members 

Reservations recommended. 

Please call 617-353-0700 

Shooting slides of exhibition spaces and individual 

artwork can be tricky. Learn once and for all, 

the ins and outs of shooting your artwork and 

exhibitions, in order to keep a professional and 

accurate representation of them in your portfolio. 

Join acclaimed photographer, Jim Dow, in the 

PRC galleries as he demonstrates these crucial 

skills. He will end the workshop with a slide presentation 

of some of his unique interior and exterior 

shots. Jim received three National Endowment 

for the Arts Fellowships and has a touring exhibition 

through the Smithsonian Institution. His work is 

included in a number of major collections and he 

has a long list of one-person exhibitions. He is currently 

a full-time faculty member at SMFA and a 

visiting lecturer at Harvard University. 

Building an Online Portfolio: 

A Workshop for Photographers 

Co-Sponsored by the PRC and the Interactive Factory 

First day: Saturday, February 2, 2002, 1–6pm 

Second day: Participants choose from 

Saturdays February 9, February 16, 

February 23, 2002, 9am–5pm. 

The Interactive Factory, 368 Congress Street, 4th floor, 


$250 Members/ $250+membership Non-Members 

Reservations required. Please call the Interactive Factory 

directly at 617-426-0609. 

The Interactive Factory will lead a two-day workshop 

at its state-of-the-art facilities to prepare 

photographers and their photography for the web. 

The first part of the workshop will be an in-depth 

lecture/presentation providing an introduction to 

web design issues, geared specifically towards photographers. 

Topics covered will include design 

concepts for the web, essential hardware and software, 

information architecture, bandwidth considerations, 

copywriting, and finding a web hosting 

service. The second part of the workshop will be 

a hands-on day in which participants create a web 

page using their own copy and photographs. 

Participants will learn basic HTML concepts, then 

learn how to use Photoshop and ImageReady to 

prepare photographs for the web. Finally, they 

will learn how to upload web pages to a web server. 

For more information about the Interactive Factory, 

please visit them at www.ifactory.com. 

LECTURES 

Henry Horenstein: Aquatics, 

Lecture and Book Signing 

Tuesday, February 5, 2002, 6pm 



Reservations recommended. Please call 617-353-0700 

Join us for lecture and booksigning by acclaimed 

photographer, Henry Horenstein. Henry will present 

the work from his new book Aquatics which 

represents a series of platinum prints of marine life. 

The prints will be on display at the Robert Klein 

Gallery from January 11–February 16, 2002 (please 

see the exhibition details on page 10). 

Stephen SetteDucati, The Acela Wink at South Station, 2001 

Dan McNichol and 

Stephen SetteDucati: 

The Big Dig 

Co-sponsored by the New England School of 

Photography and the PRC 

Thursday, February 7, 2002, 7:30 pm 

Location to be announced. 

Free to the public. 

Reservations recommended. Please call 617-353-0700. 

Join us for a lecture/presentation on The Big Dig: 

the largest construction project in the history of the 

United States and the most complex urban project 

ever undertaken in the world. Boston’s own personal 

love-hate relationship. Dan is the author of 

the new and best selling book, The Big Dig, and the 

soon to be published Big Dig At Night. As an official 

spokesperson for the project for nearly eight 

years, Dan has led the production of numerous 

documentaries about the project while working 

with The Discovery Channel, NOVA, The Learning 

Channel and History Channel, as well as the American 

and German Public Television Networks. 

Stephen is the featured photographer in the latter 

book. His photographs have been featured in 

Architecture magazine, on the Discovery Channel and 

on CBS Sunday Morning. 

John Cohen: 

Lecture and Book Signing 

Friday, January 18, 2002, 6pm 



Reservations recommended. Please call 617-353-0700. 

John Cohen (see page 4) will discuss his life and 

work, amidst the exhibition. Come hear about 

his ineraction with the Beat generation and the 

world of old-time country, roots and folk music. 

After the lecture, he will sign copies of his monograph 

There is No Eye. Books will be available at 

the PRC for $45. 

Matthias Vriens, Nu Masqué, 2000 

Featuring forty of today’s most celebrated 

photographers, this is the first exhibition to 

visualize the debate between aesthetics and 

commercial pressures in fashion photography. 

Open Wed & Fri, noon–5pm; Thurs, noon–9pm; 

Sat & Sun, 11am–5pm 

Lou Jones, Boy and Poster, Havana, Cuba, 1980 

Creativity and Commerce in Contemporary Fashion Photography 

January 23 – May 5, 2002 

955 Boylston Street, Boston 617-266-5152 www.icaboston.org 

Two Views of Cuba: 

Photographs by Lou Jones and Peter Kayafas 

January 19 – March 17, 2002 

DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park 

51 Sandy Pond Road, Lincoln, MA 01773 

781/259-8355 www.decordova.org 

Media sponsor 

Fashion lounge 

provided by 

2 3

john cohen & why there is no 

I like to say that I grew up with John Cohen’s music, but that’s 

not exactly true. More accurately, I grew up with the songs popularized 

by John and his family, notably the collection of American 

Folk Songs for Children published in the 1940s by composer Ruth 

Crawford Seeger and re-interpreted by countless musicians, among 

them her step-son (and John’s brother-in-law) Pete Seeger. I didn’t 

actually begin listening to the New Lost City Ramblers, the band 

that John co-founded in 1958 with Mike Seeger and Tom Paley, 

until high school, when I discovered the Lincoln Center Music 

Library, the Musical Heritage Society, and Folkways Records all 

within walking distance of home. 

Although it’s for his music and work with musicians that he is 

most widely recognized, John Cohen started out as a visual artist. 

During the early 1950s, John studied painting with Josef Albers 

and photography with Herbert Matter at Yale University; he moved 

to New York City in 1957. At the time of his arrival there, the 

Abstract Expressionists still held sway, and were easy to find presiding 

over conversations downtown at the Cedar Bar. In the 

cooperative galleries on the Lower East Side, Pop Art was emerging 

in the happenings of Red Grooms and Claes Oldenberg, while 

in the coffeehouses of nearby Greenwich Village the Beat poets 

were reading, and at the Folklore Center on MacDougal Street 

the urban folk-music scene was being born. 

John Cohen, Roscoe Holcomb, 1964. Courtesy of the artist and Deborah Bell, New 

York. John Cohen “discovered” one of the most noted old-time Appalachian musicians, 

Roscoe Holcomb, in Daisy, Kentucky in 1959. Cohen later made a film about his hardscrabble 

life, “The High Lonesome Sound.” This portrait by Cohen appears on the 

cover of Holcomb’s 1965 Folkways release of the same name. 

4 5

an improvisation on 

mus i c and photograp 

Leslie K. Brown, Curator, PRC 

From his loft on Third Avenue, John immersed himself in the ferment of 

the New York City art scene. Soon after he arrived, John had his first exhibition 

at Helen Gee’s Limelight. In 1959, his neighbor Robert Frank asked 

an shared. experience 

Of Dylan, Cohen recalls a moment in 1962, when he “showed me the words 

The eye permits us to experience and to document the thing depicted, but is rarely sufficient to convey the deeper meaning of 

John to take production stills of the filming of Pull My Daisy. The images 

produced during those sessions are among the finest portraits ever of Allen 

Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, and Frank himself. In return, Frank photographed 

the New Lost City Ramblers for a series of images that would grace the 

covers and liner notes of their albums for years to come. John’s loft became 

a crossroads for musicians and artists. An organization of independent photographers, 

with members including Lee Friedlander, Gary Winogrand, and 

others, was formed there. Southern musicians on their way to and from 

performances dropped by, as did Woody Guthrie, Alan Lomax, and others 

involved in the folk-music revival. 

Throughout the late ’50s and early ’60s, Cohen toured extensively with the 

New Lost City Ramblers, sharing the stage with rural musicians like Roscoe 

Holcomb and the Stanley Brothers as well as with emerging stars such as 

Bob Dylan and Joan Baez. Robert Cantwell, whose When We Were Good 

(1996) outstandingly documents the growth and decline of the folk music 

revival, noted that during this period the Ramblers “raised the nap of the 

revival with newly esotericized discographic sources and a performance style 

that sounded as exotic as a Tibetan prayer.” 

Also during the late 1950s Cohen took the first of many trips to Peru, 

ostensibly to study Andean textile production. In the isolated mountain 

region of Q’eros he photographed Indian weavers at work, learning their 

vocabulary and rituals and developing a deep appreciation for Andean 

music. Years later, Cohen returned to Q’eros to make the films Mountain 

Music of Peru (1984) and Carnival in Q’eros (1992). He also recorded and 

released two albums of traditional Peruvian music. One of his recordings, 

of a young girl singing an Andean huano, was included as a sample of the 

sounds of our planet that was sent into space on the Voyager spacecraft. 

In 1962, the young Bob Dylan visited for a portrait session on John’s Third 

Avenue rooftop. In addition to their common appreciation for traditional 

music, the two men shared a close friendship with the ailing Woody Guthrie. 

to his new song A Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall. At first it resembled the old ballad 

Lord Randall or Where Have You Been Billy Boy. Then it seemed like an 

old French symbolist poem to me, and I invited Bob to look at some of 

that poetry at my loft. I thought his verses were very strong although I 

couldn’t imagine how he would fit them to music. The night of the Cuban 

Missile Crisis when it felt like the world was on the brink of atomic collision, 

Dylan and I sang together at the Gaslight Café. We did an old Carter 

Family song, You’re Gonna Miss Me When I’m Gone, not certain if there’d be 

anyone left to miss us.” 

By the late ’60s the Ramblers were performing in large halls like the Fillmore, 

in lineups with supergroups such as The Grateful Dead, the Jefferson 

Airplane, and the Jimi Hendrix Experience. Cohen notes that during this 

time “a shift of sensibilities set in. The beat generation had prepared the 

stage for the counter culture, while the emerging civil rights movement 

shook the social landscape… For me, a decade of wide-eyed wandering 

with my camera was closing down… So much of what I’d responded to on 

a poetic level was becoming entertainment and commerce… Further, there 

was my own dissatisfaction with the prospects of ever getting my work seen 

on its intended level. By the time the photography galleries were opening 

I was somewhere else.” That “somewhere else” was filmmaking. 

John shot his first film, a silent two-reeler, on the rooftop with Dylan. 

Beginning with his landmark 1962 feature, The High Lonesome Sound, 

John has made a total of fifteen documentary films, including important 

work on the folk culture of Peru and on the North Carolina musician 

Dillard Chandler (The End of an Old Song, 1970). “I made films about 

music,” he writes. “And that challenge became so great and transformative 

that it became my main effort for the next twenty years.” 

Behind the scenes, but central to the picture, is the growth of John’s own family. 

In the early 1960s, Cohen married Penny Seeger. The youngest child of 

musicologist Charles Seeger and composer Ruth Crawford Seeger, after the 

death of her mother when Penny was eight she lived with her half-brother 

Pete. A potter by training, she also sang with her siblings Mike and Peggy on 

several collections of American folk music, including the classics American 

Folk Songs for Christmas and Animal Folk Songs for Children, both of which 

drew extensively from their mother’s folk music collection. To support his 

family, John took a position as Professor of Visual Arts at the State University 

of New York, Purchase, where he worked until his retirement in 1997. 

Penny and John raised two children, Rufus and Sonja, in Putnam Country, 

New York. In the summer of 1965, when daughter Sonja was still an infant, 

her parents brought her to the Newport Folk Festival where the Ramblers 

were scheduled to perform. Uncle Pete Seeger opened the program by playing 

a cassette of Sonja crying, announcing to the audience, “Here’s the real 

folk music.” Sonja, now an adult, has recorded two highly regarded recordings 

with composer Dick Connette’s Last Forever project, which draws its 

inspiration from American traditional music. Her brother Rufus, also a 

musician, works in New Mexico as a textile craftsman. The Cohen family 

is featured in both the exhibition, where photographs document their 

growth, and in John’s CD, There Is No Eye: Music for Photographs. The CD 

presents a musical counterpoint to the exhibition, with songs by many of 

the artists whom John photographed, from Rev. Gary Davis and Holcomb 

to Dylan and David Amram, and includes pieces by Rufus and Sonja. 

In all of John Cohen’s work, his collecting, photographing, filmmaking, 

performing, teaching, and parenting, a layer of pure fact (i.e., the thing 

depicted) is combined with a layer of meaning conveyed (i.e., the memory 

revived or the tradition shared). The eye permits us to experience and to 

document the thing depicted, but is rarely sufficient to convey the deeper 

meaning of an experience shared. Individual songs or photographs may 

describe specific moments in time, and each moment possess a distinct historical 

narrative, which we may know by looking. 

But experience is not conveyed by looking, or wisdom by simply reading. 

This has been a central theme of the New Lost City Ramblers, and it is 

implicit in John Cohen’s photographs as well. Meaning and value are conveyed 

not through the eye alone, but through the active and generous 

bequest of tradition and knowledge from one generation to another, from 

one culture to another, from teacher to student, and from parent to child. 

This, for me, is the underlying message of John Cohen’s work, and the 

deeper narrative of this exhibition: there is no eye because, in the end, it is 

the exchange of songs, the sharing of wisdom, the flow of knowledge, and 

the gift of life that are important, and not the individual eye/I. 

John P. Jacob, Guest Curator 

Penobscot, Maine 2001 

John Cohen’s photograph, Jack Kerouac Listening to 

Himself on the Radio, (seen at left) demonstrates, literally and humorously, the 

complex conundrum photographers face when attempting to document subjects 

of an auditory nature. Can photography adequately capture a musical 

moment by recording the performer, or even a snippet of the performance? 

In this short improvisation, an etude if you will, I attempt to cast a wider net 

and muse upon Cohen’s fascinating photographs within a larger historical 

and philosophical context. 

From its inception, photography has been lauded as a method for nature to 

reproduce itself. While this was meant primarily in the visual sense — cameras 

were often compared to eyes — artists have long attempted to capture the 

non-perceptual. Those seeking the abstract saw in sound an equivalent for 

the internal non-objective world for which they were searching: an aesthetic 

“music of the spheres”. While photography and dance seemed to partner more 

readily, painting took especially to music: James Abbott McNeill Whistler 

and Wassily Kandinsky titled their canvases symphonies and compositions, 

while Piet Mondrian explored the pulsating rhythms of jazz. 

This is not to say that photographers did not engage music or its attendant 

ideas. In fact, some saw photography as particularly suited for the task. 

Cohen alludes to this ability when explaining why he did not become a 

painter: “The lens became the center of an equation with the visible world on 

one side and the interior world on the other.” Many culture mavens at the 

turn of the last century were interested in synaesthesia, or the crossing of various 

senses whereby one could see music and hear colors. Such beliefs led to 

the invention of fascinating instruments such as the color organ, which 

played colors instead of music. Photographer Francis Brugiuère made some 

of the earliest abstract photographs and films documenting patterns produced 

by such an apparatus. Playing off the Theory of Correspondences so 

popular with the Symbolists, Alfred Stieglitz photographed clouds, initially 

titling them “Music,” intending that they stand in for mental states akin to 

those induced by melodies. 

Cohen’s exhibition, book, and accompanying CD provide the viewer (and 

listener) with a rare opportunity to see (and to hear) what he has recorded. 

Although freezing performers in mid refrain or strum, his photographs are not 

silent; instead they sing with beautiful formal relationships. When Cohen’s 

photographs don’t show music, they imply it, transforming the viewer into a 

makeshift deejay. Images of Cohen’s wife in Peru and a lone figure in a Tenth 

Street studio, for example, almost give rise to a melancholy dirge. 

One would think that photography’s use of a negative and its ability to be 

repeated and reinterpreted much like a musical score would make these arts 

close cousins. Ansel Adams’s much-repeated comparison of the negative to 

sheet music and its printing to performance alludes to this attribute. Quite 

the opposite, many photographers even go so far as to destroy their negatives 

so no one can translate them. Ironically or aptly, Cohen’s re-discovery of 

Left to right: 1. John Cohen, Woody Guthrie at Cooper Union. Courtesy of the artist and 

Deborah Bell, New York. 2. John Cohen, Third Avenue, New York City, 1962. Courtesy of the 

artist and Deborah Bell, New York. 3. John Cohen, Philadelphia, 1961. Courtesy of the artist 

and Deborah Bell, New York. 4. John Cohen, Jack Kerouac listening to himself on the radio. 

Courtesy of the artist and Deborah Bell, New York. 5. John Cohen, Harlem, New York City, 

1954. Courtesy of the artist and Deborah Bell, New York. 6. John Cohen, Harlem, New York 

City, 1954. Courtesy of the artist and Deborah Bell, New York. 

(continued on page 8) 

6 7

(continued from page 7) 

bygone musical genres would not have been possible had the original arrangements 

been lost or forgotten. 

Music, photography, and film all invoke time. Cohen’s artistic practices slice 

this continuum at many intervals. On the one hand, a photograph is sometimes 

the only evidence that an act of art has occurred and becomes entwined 

in the art making process, as in the use of photographs by performance artists. 

On the other hand, in order to convey the passage of time, film is often the 

preferred medium. Cohen tackled several temporal aspects: recording several 

“happenings,” shooting film stills, and even producing his own documentaries 

about music. 

Today, disciplines blend so much so that the term “photographic arts” is often 

used in lieu of photography. Even the history of photography as a discrete 

entity has come into question. Cohen’s body of work, crossing music, photography, 

film, and performance as it does, brilliantly illustrates this confluence 

as well as the very crux of the Photographic Resource Center’s mission. 

In the end, if a comparison is desired, Cohen’s photographs are perhaps closest 

in kin to poetry, a similarity he himself noted: “Photographs were like 

poetry to me, triggering ideas, stimulating images in the mind. Images that 

were too active to sit on a wall.” As we stare at Kerouac’s thoughtful, puzzled 

countenance, we are left to surmise what sort of ideas and images were created 

in his mind; and maybe, that’s the wonder of it all. 

John Cohen, Tenth Street, New York City, 1959. Courtesy of the artist and Deborah Bell, 

New York. 

8 9

10 

photography events in new england and 

EXHIBITIONS 

MASSACHUSETTS 

Arlington Center for the Arts, Gibbs Gallery 

Reflections of Midlife: Works by Elizabeth Buckley, Karen Davis, 

Andrea Geyer, and Nancy Hart (Jan 22–Mar 1, 2002). 41 

Foster St., Arlington, MA 02474. 781-648-6220. 

Art Institute of Boston 

Sun Works: Contemporary Alternative Photography (thru Jan 

18). Mon–Sat, 9–6pm, Sun 12–5pm. 700 Beacon St., 

Boston, MA 02215. 617-262-1223. www.aiboston.edu. 

Arthur Griffin Center for Photographic Art 

American Hollow: Photographs of an Appalachian Family by 

Steve Lehman (thru Jan 13). Tue–Sun, 12–4. 67 Shore Rd., 

Winchester, MA 01890. 781-729-1158. 

www.griffincenter.org 

Bernard Toale Gallery 

Manifest: Photographs by Deborah Bright (Jan 2–26, opening 

Jan 4). Tues–Sat, 10:30–5:30. 450 Harrison Ave., Boston, 

MA 02118. 617-482-2477. www.bernardtoalegallery.com 

Cambridge Multicultural Arts Center 

Reconstructing Kosovo: Photographs by Glenn Ruga, Frank 

Ward and Barbara Ayott (thru Jan 11). Mon–Fri, 9:30–5:30. 

41 Second St., Cambridge, MA 02141. 617-577-1400. 

www.cmacusa.org 

Danforth Museum of Art 

Carnaval in Canvas: Photographs by Brazilian photographer 

Rogerio Reis (Jan 17–May 12). Wed–Sun, 12–5. 123 Union 

Ave., Framingham, MA 01702. 508-620-0050. 

www.danforthmuseum.org 

DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park 

Two Views of Cuba: Photographs by Lou Jones and Peter 

Kafayas (Jan 19–Mar 17). Tue–Sun, 11–5. 51 Sandy Pond 

Rd., Lincoln, MA 01773. 781-259-8355. 

www.decordova.org 

Firehouse Center for the Arts 

Collection of Moments: Black and White Photography from the 

1970s by Jeremy Barnard (Jan 30–Feb 25). Tue–Sat, 10–5. 

Market Square, Newburyport, MA 01950. 978-352-8280. 

EDUCATION 

Karin Rosenthal will be teaching a workshop on photographing 

the nude in the landscape, in Maui, Hawaii in February 

2002. For further information contact Maui Photo Workshops 

at 800-314-2994 or www.mauiphotoworkshops.com 

DeCordova Museums and Sculpture Park: Meet the Artists 

and Curators. Every Saturday at 3pm the DeCordova Museum 

hosts conversations with artists/curators. In relation to Two 

Views of Cuba: Photographs by Lou Jones and Peter Kayafas. Jan 

19 meet Peter Kayafas, Mar 9 meet Lou Jones. Third Floor 

Main Lobby. 51 Sandy Pond 

ENTRIES/OPPORTUNITIES 

Harvard Art Museums, Fogg Art Museum 

A Curious and Ingenious Art: Reflections on Daguerreotypes at 

Harvard (Jan 19–Apr 14). Mon–Sat, 10–5, Sun, 1–5. 32 

Quincy St., Cambridge, MA 02138. 617-495-9400. 

www.artmuseums.harvard.edu/fogg 

Howard Yezerski Gallery 

John Coplans (Feb 1–26). Tue–Sat, 10–5:30. 14 Newbury St., 

Boston, MA 02116. 617-262-0550. 

www.howardyezerskigallery.com 

Institute of Contemporary Art 

Chic Clicks: Creativity and Commerce in Contemporary 

Fashion Photography (Jan 23–May 5). Wed, Fri, 12–5; 

Thur, 12–9; Sat-Sun, 11–5. 955 Boylston St., Boston, MA. 

617- 266-5152. www.icaboston.org 

Massachusetts College of Art, Bakalar Gallery 

Photographs by Mimmo Jodice (thru Jan 11). Mon–Fri, 10–5. 

621 Huntington Ave., Boston, MA 02115. 617-879-7000. 

www.massart.edu 

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston 

The Look: Images of Glamour and Style; Photographs by Horst 

and Hoyningen-Huene. (thru Jan 6). Mon, Tue, 10–4:45; 

Wed–Fri, 10–9:45; Sat, Sun, 10–5:45. Avenue of the Arts, 

465 Huntington Ave., Boston, MA 02115. 617-267-9300. 

www.mfa.org 

New England School of Photography, Gallery One 

Cameraless Photographs by Norman Sarachek 

(Jan 7–Feb 8, 2002). 

Shadows and Ghosts (Feb 11–Mar 15). Mon–Fri, 9–5 

537 Commonwealth Ave., Boston, MA 02215. 

617-437-1868. www.nesop.com 

Panopticon Gallery 

Mon–Fri, 10–6 pm, 435 Moody St., Waltham. 

781-647-0100 

Peabody Essex Museum 

Kenro Izu: Sacred Places (thru Mar 17) 

The Master Prints of Edward S. Curtis (thru Mar 17). 

Tue–Sat, 10–5, Sun, 12–5. East India Square, Salem, 

MA 01970. 978-745-9500. www.pem.org 

Road, Lincoln, MA 01773. Visit www.decordova.org or call 

781-259-8355 for more information. 

Horizons to Go is offering two great photographic workshops 

this summer. A Photographic Medley: Polaroid Transfers, 

Cyanotypes and More with Joan Fitzsimmons is offered April 

19–26 and takes place in Southern France. Photography 

“Independent” with Mini-Workshop is offered April 13–20 

and will take place in Albuquerque and Acoma, AZ. For 

more information, contact Horizons to Go at PO Box 2206, 

Amherst, MA 01004, call 413-549-2900, fax 413-549-5995 

or e-mail horizons@horizons-art.com. 

The Firehouse Gallery, Newburyport, MA, announces its 

annual call for entries for the exhibition year beginning July 

2002. Open to all performing and visual artists. Deadline 

January 15, 2002. Send 10–20 slides with Bio/statement, $20 

entry fee and self addressed, stamped envelope to Firehouse 

Gallery Director, Market Square, Newburyport, MA 01950. 

For additional info go to www.firehousecenter.com 

The SRO Photo Gallery at the School of Art, Texas Tech 

University will host a competition to fill nine photographic 

exhibitions each year. Slide portfolios are viewed and considered 

for possible individual exhibitions by a committee from 

the Photography Division of the School of Art and Gallery 

Coordinator. They are looking for strong portfolios of creative 

photography in all styles, techniques and aesthetic 

approaches. For more info, write to: SRO — Photo Gallery, 

Texas Tech University, School of Art, Attn. Zachary 

McFarlen, PO Box 42081, Lubbock, TX 79409-2081. 

Deadline for entries is April 2, 2002. 

The Santa Fe Center for Visual Arts is calling for entries 

for its seventh-annual competitions. There are four topics 

one can choose to apply to: Project Competition, Vision 

Awards, Photographic Teaching Awards, and Light Warriors 

Mentorship Program. The deadline for entries is January 22, 

2002. For a prospectus, send a business-size SASE to: Vision 

2002, P.O. Box 2483, Santa Fe, NM 87504. For more information 

on the 2002 contest visit the contest section at 

www.santafeworkshops.com. 

The Asian American Arts Centre’s Artists Slide Archive will 

be accepting submissions until June 20, 2002. The Artists 

Slide Archive program is designed as a registry of contemporary 

Asian American artists as well as a permanent historical 

record of the cultural presence of Asians in America. Works 

of all media created by artists of Asian descent are welcomed, 

as well as artists strongly influenced by Asia. For more information, 

contact the Asian American Arts Centre, 26 Bowery, 

New York, NY 10013, 212-233-2154, aaartsctr@aol.com 

The Indianapolis Art Center is calling for artists to participate 

in their exhibition Religion, Spirituality, and the Object, 

slated for their 2003-2004 season. Preference is given to 

artists within 250 miles of Indianapolis and to “artists working 

within their own spiritual beliefs or traditions from a 

position of knowledge and respect. Artwork representing, 

depicting, or based on any faith or spiritual belief, traditional 

or non-traditional considered.” All works in the following 

categories considered: liturgical objects or garments designed/ 

fabricated by the artist, 2D or 3D artwork with religious or 

spiritual theme/intent, or artwork used to express a personal 

crisis of faith. Approximately 20 artists are chosen. Honorarium 

and catalogue pending funding. Send up to 20 slides or 

CD-ROM with images, resume, an artist statement specifi- 

in the loupe listings deadlines 

March/April issue: 

January 15, 2002 

May/June issue: 

March 15, 2002 

Robert Klein Gallery 

Aquatics: Photographs by Henry Horenstein (Jan 11–Feb 16, 

opening and book signing Jan 11 6–8). Tue-Fri 10–5:30, 

Sat 11–5 and by appt. 38 Newbury St., Boston, MA 02116 

617-267-7997. www.robertkleingallery.com 

Rose Art Museum 

Inigo Manglano-Ovalle (Jan 24–Apr 7). Tue-Sun, 15–5, 

Thurs, 12–9. Brandeis University, 415 South St., Waltham, 

MA 02454. 781-736-3434. www.brandeis.edu/rose 

Sullivan Properties 

Camila’s Central Artery (ongoing thru Spring 2002) 

200 State St., Boston, MA 02109. 617-497-2638 

camila@mit.edu 

ELSEWHERE IN NEW ENGLAND 

Farnsworth Art Museum 

Amy Toensing: Monhegan Photographs (Jan 6–Apr 17). 

Tue-Sat, 10–5, Sun, 1–5. 356 Main St., Rockland, 

ME 04841. 207-596-6457. www.farnsworthmuseum.org 

RISD Museum 

By Mouth and Hand: Ann Hamilton 1990-2001 (thru Jan 20, 

Video Screening with Artist Jan 16, 6:15, Talk and Book 

Signing Jan 17, 7:30). Tue-Sun, 10-5, 3rd Thur monthly, 

10-9. RISD, 224 Benefit St., Providence, RI 02903 

401-454-6502. www.risd.edu/museum 

The Santa Fe Workshops offer many Photography and 

Digital Workshops in February and March. One workshop, 

In Search of the Personal, is taught by PRC member, John 

Goodman. For further info, please contact the Santa Fe 

Workshops, call 505-983-1400, fax 505-989-8604, e-mail 

info@santafeworkshops.com, or www.santafeworkshops.com. 

Art Institute of Boston at Lelsey University The Office of 

Continuing and Professional Education has recently introduced 

their new website www.aiboston.edu/EXTRA complete with 

all their new Winter and Spring workshop listings in Digital 

Media Design and Photography. Additional inquiries can be 

made to Diana Arcadipone, Associate Dean, 617-585-6729. 

cally tailored for this project, and SASE for all materials 

submitted. Deadline for receipt of materials: June 1, 2002 

to Julia Muney Moore, Director of Exhibitions and Artist 

Services, Indianapolis Art Center, 820 E. 67 th St., Indianapolis, 

IN 46220. For more information, call 317-255-2464 x233 

or email exhibs@indplsartcenter.org 

A Hunger Artist Gallery is calling for entries for their 

May Flowers exhibit to be on view April 25–May 12, 2002. 

Work should be theme related. Open to representational 

or abstract art. All works must be for sale. For a prospectus, 

send a SASE to A Hunger Artist Gallery, 3003 Monte Vista 

Blvd. NE, Albuquerque, NM 87106 or call 505-255-0513 

or download prospectus from www.hungerartist.com 

Deadline: March 4, 2002 

A new Web site has been created to help fine artists mine 

resources on career development and career challenges — 

including nuts and bolts issues — and personal and creative 

growth. The free site, www.ArtistHelpNetwork.com, 

is packed with publications, organizations, service providers, 

Web sites, software, and audio-visual materials, 

pinpointing information on a comprehensive and focused 

range of career-related topics. For additional information 

contact the Artist Help Network, 19 Springwood Lane, 

East Hampton, New York, 11937-1169. 631-329-9105. 

E-mail: info@artisthelpnetwork.com 

Barbara Hitchcock 

An Interview with 

insig 

Barbara Hitchcock first joined Polaroid Corporation in a research and development capacity, 

then worked as a publicity manager in the company’s international division. Since 1990, Hitchcock 

has coordinated Polaroid’s cultural activities worldwide. She manages its multi-million dollar 

art collections, which include approximately 24,000 photographs, its traveling exhibitions, and 

its large-format photography program in the U.S. She has been the curator of several exhibitions 

and editor of numerous publications. 

ht 

Why photography? 

I became really interested in art in general when I 

was in college. One of my roommates was very 

interested in the arts and she lived in Manhattan. 

I used to go visit her and we would go to museums. 

I took art and architecture courses, both history 

and studio arts, when I was in school. We 

didn’t have photo when I was in college. After living 

in New York for a short period, I moved to 

Japan. In Japan, photography was hot, hot, hot. It 

was something that I became very interested in. I 

bought a Nikormat and started making photographs. 

[When I moved back to the U.S.], I got a 

job at Polaroid with a group that actually tested 

the products and where I was fortunate enough to 

work with Ansel Adams. Ansel was a consultant 

with the company from the time instant photography 

was born until his death. I really got 

hooked and ultimately was taking a 4x5 camera 

into the field. I would take films out, test them, 

bring the pictures back, and show them to the 

engineers. They would look at the mathematical 

paradigms and say, "This has got to be a great 

photograph because the numbers say so." Well 

the numbers don’t tell everything! (laughs) [The 

field testing] was a very useful function. 

Did this testing process lead to the start 

of the collection? 

In a sense, it was the model that set up this whole 

collecting process. [Edwin H.] Land believed in 

the intersection of art and science. He was introduced 

to Ansel in 1948, and Ansel was passionate 

about photography and the evaluation of it. He 

loved the instant process. I think he was determined 

to help Land position it so that it would be 

taken seriously, as opposed to gimmicky. He felt 

that instant photographs needed to be shown juxtaposed 

with works by the fabulous artists of the 

time. Land gave him the go ahead to collect for 

Polaroid. The collected work is now called the 

Library Collection. It is primarily the work that 

Ansel collected by Strand, Bourke-White, Lange, 

Weston, Cunningham, Chiarenza, and Callahan, 

among others. Ansel paid [the artists] fifty bucks 

for each print, and Dr. Land paid Ansel a hundred 

dollars for each print. [The photographs] 

became the paradigm against which all these new 

instant films would be measured. However, 

[Polaroid] felt it was too expensive to buy this 

photography from the masters. At a hundred dollars 

a print, isn’t that wild! (laughs) There was a 

woman who ran one of Land’s labs named Meroe 

Marston Morse. She said, "You know, what we 

should be doing is providing film to emerging 

artists and people in mid-career. Get them to use 

our products and have them provide feedback on 

the use of them. In exchange, we will select some 

of their pictures so we’ll have a document of that 

particular film by that particular artist." The 

result is a technological and cultural document of 

the last 50 years, an incredibly interesting time 

period. Today, we have in place what is essentially 

the same program, the barter of photographs for 

Polaroid products. 

What does this collection mean to you? 

Well, it has certainly been a very important part 

of my life. I began working with the collection 

essentially as a volunteer, and curated my first 

show around ’72 or ’73. I really started collecting 

in earnest for the international collection in ’79. 

It wasn’t always the focus of my work here, but it 

became the prime focus in the ’80s, and for both 

the international and domestic collections, in 

1990. The work that I have done has helped to 

grow the collections. It has been wonderful for 

me, number one, because I am able to see all this 

wonderful creative work and meet so many of the 

creative artists, photographers, who have been 

doing it. Many of them are now my friends. I 

think the biggest problem for me is that the program 

got to be so big, and we had so many things 

to do, that it became more and more difficult for 

me to sit down with artists and spend an hour 

with them to talk about their work. For years I 

did that. It was wonderful. One of the things that 

made the collections really important to me early 

on was working for Land in one of his labs. I got 

to know him. It was inspirational. [The work I 

did] was more than just a job. It became something 

that was critical in a way — this whole process 

of working with artists and helping the creative 

process. It was also cool. (laughs) 

What is going to happen to 

the Polaroid Collection? 

I don’t know. I know what we would like to 

have happen and I can certainly speak to that. 

[The collections] are the legacy of Land and 

Adams. It would be very sad to see it broken up 

and dispersed. The company has been very supportive 

of the collection and really wants to see 

it kept together. You hear management talk 

about it as a national treasure. This is music to 

my ears. I wish I heard it all the years I’ve worked 

with the collections! (laughs) A number of institutions 

have contacted me and are very interested 

in the collection and keeping it together. 

Locally, the Harvard University Art Museums 

and the Houghton Library at Harvard have 

written very supportive letters and said they 

would be very interested in having these collections. 

The Smithsonian has also been very interested 

and a number of its representatives have 

been here to look at the collections and the 

Corporate Archives. 

Is the fate of the collection ultimately up 

to the courts? 

Although I am certainly not expert in this arena, 

from what I hear, that’s the case. 

What is the legacy of Polaroid? 

Creativity. Innovation. Pushing the envelope. In 

the days of chips and computers, you may not 

think necessarily of Polaroid as being high tech, 

but in fact it really is. Just the technology of 

coating, of laying down on a film base all of the 

elements that make it in to an instant darkroom 

is high tech. It is really quite extraordinary. It is 

still magic. 

11

phonelines: member news from near and 

12 

Congratulations to all 

for your recent successes. 

Please keep us informed of 

your news and triumphs. 

Constantine Manos was featured at the 

Panopticon Gallery, Waltham, MA, in the 

exhibition Greek Portfolio, on view through 

November 2001. 

During October 2001, Mary Woodman had an 

exhibition of her photographs, The Virgin Fort, at 

the Kennebunk Free Library, Kennebunk, ME. 

The 2001 Alumni/ae Juried Exhibition at Tufts 

University Gallery, Medford, MA, ran from October 

through December 2001, displaying work by 

numerous artists, including Robin Radin. 

Through January 6, 2002, select photographs 

from Michael Philip Manheim’s series, Under 

Nature’s Canopy, will be part of the exhibition 

Terrors and Wonders: Monsters in Contemporary 

Art at the DeCordova Museum and Sculpture 

Park, Lincoln, MA. 

Kristen Struebing-Beazley exhibited two bodies 

of work during September 2001. Journeys 

& Destinations featured pinhole camera photographs. 

Carnal Knowledge: the Red & the Black 

featured small Polaroid dye and emulsion transfer 

photographs of surgical specimens. Subsequently, 

the Kipp Gallery at Indiana University 

of Pennsylvania featured more of her work in 

the exhibition Taking Care, from November 

through December 2001 

The University Gallery of Salve Regina 

University, Newport, RI, presented Todd Gieg 

and Walter Crump’s work in the exhibition 

Tarnished and Bleached, October 2001. 

The Mazmanian Art Gallery at Framingham 

State College, Framingham, MA, organized a 

Communication Arts Faculty Art Show which 

included photographs by Leslie Starobin, 

October through November 2001. 

Jesseca Ferguson participated in the 22nd 

Annual Fort Point Open Studios in October 

2001. She was also one of the artists whose 

work was included in the 10th Annual Benefit 

Auction at the Attleboro Museum, Attleboro, 

MA, which took place November 2001. 

The Essex Art Center, Lawrence, MA, held its 

Eighth Annual Juried Show October through 

November 2001. The show included work by 

Edward Mason and Paul Weiner. In addition, 

Edward Mason had photographs displayed at 

La Capelli, Cambridge, MA, from September 

through October 2001. 

The exhibition Florida Fragments will run 

through January 20, 2002, at Southeast 

Museum of Photography at Daytona Beach 

Community College, Daytona, FL, featuring 

work by Henry Horenstein. 

The Art Center in St. Paul’s School, Concord, 

NH, exhibited recent work by members of the 

Fine Arts Faculty in November 2001. Charlie 

Lemay was one of the six featured artists. 

Jerry Uelsmann was one of numerous artists 

included in the exhibition Light 2 Images from 

the Photography Collections at the University 

of Maryland, Baltimore County, MD. 

18 Amherst Alumni Artists, a juried exhibition 

at the Mead Art Museum at Amherst College, 

Amherst, MA, featured photographs by Stephen 

Petegorsky. He also has a show at The Light 

Factory, Charlotte, NC, titled Gold Work. This 

show will be up through January 17, 2002. 

Bill Franson had work shown at The Center for 

Photography in Woodstock, NY, in the exhibition 

The Steps We Have Taken, which ran through 

December 2001. 

Lyn Markey appeared in various exhibitions during 

September 2001, including the Estrogenius 

Festival at the Manhattan Theater Source, New 

York, NY, and If These Walls Could Talk, in Fort 

Worth, TX. During October 2001, her work 

was featured in the Cambridge Art Association’s 

exhibition Light. Then, during December 2001, 

a series of her work appeared in the CAA’s 

exhibit Beneath the Surface of Time at University 

Place Gallery in Harvard Square, Cambridge, MA. 

Annu Palakunnathu Matthew had an exhibition 

titled Memories of India at the Cambridge 

Multicultural Arts Center, Cambridge, MA, 

October through December 2001. 

Nubar Alexanian had a large exhibition comprised 

of 65 prints at the Cape Ann Historical 

Museum, Cape Ann, MA, during November 

2001. Most of the work shown is included in 

his new book, Gloucester Photographs, which was 

published in October 2001. A lengthy excerpt 

from it was featured in the Digital Journalist. He 

was also a special guest at www.Transom.org, 

a site where he lead an electronic discussion 

group on documentary photography. 

PRC members Kay Canavino, Robert Goss, 

Rosamond Purcell, Jo Sandman, and David 

Stone participated in the Brickbottom Gallery 

Open Studios, Somerville, MA, on November 

17 and 18, 2001. 

The exhibition The Animal as Muse: Divine to 

Demonic, at the New Art Center, Newton, MA, 

featured work by Heather Bohm-Tallman, 

Henry Horenstein, Rosamond Purcell, and 

Paul Weiner. Paul Weiner was also the curator 

of the show. This exhibition ran from 

September through November 2001. 

On October 28, 2001, Bruce Myren and 

Richard Sepulveda were part of a show 

at the Floating Gallery, Salem, MA. 

Laurel Charette is one of the artists whose 

work is shown in the group exhibition 

Photographs of Cuba, at Lesley University’s 

Gallery at the Porter Exchange Building, 

Cambridge, MA. The show will be up through 

January 2002. 

The Eclipse Gallery, Bar Harbour, ME, exhibited 

Peter Dreyer’s portfolio in the exhibition 

Freeze Frames. 

Carl Chiarenza has just released (January 

2002) the book Evocations. It contains eight 

of his most important photographs, spanning 

from the mid-1980’s to 2000. 

The Maud Morgan Visual Arts Center, 

Cambridge, MA, had an exhibition titled Small 

Works, through November 2001. The show 

included work by many artists including Laura 

Blacklow, Elsa Dorfman, Jack Lueders-Booth, 

and Barbara Norfleet. 

The Pivot Gallery, Florence, MA, organized a 

digital art group show, art from the mechanism 2 , 

featuring work by Sylvia Stagg-Giuliano, 

Chester Michalik, and Jim Spirakis. This 

show will run through January 11, 2002. 

Planes, Trains, & Automobiles, the national 

juried exhibition at South Shore Art Center, 

Cohasset, MA, features work by Tom Gearty. 

This show will run through January 5, 2002. 

The Barrett Art Center in Poughkeepsie, NY, 

selected a photograph by Oscar Palacio for the 

show New Directions ’01, a national contemporary 

fine arts exhibition. 

Media Gallery presented Works of an Eastern 

Nature, featuring the work of six artists, 

including Lana Z. Caplan. 

Donna Hamil Talman was exhibited in 

Overlay; Mapping the Journey and From Past 

to Present, at the New Artspace Gallery, 

Maynard, MA. Her current work was also 

displayed at the Society for Contemporary 

Photography in Kansas City, MI. 

Ditta Baron Hoeber exhibited her work during 

2001 in a group show at the Houston 

Center for Photography, Houston, TX and 

the Third Biennial at Silvermine Guild Arts 

Center, New Canaan, CT. She was also awarded 

Honorable Mention by the Silver Eye Center 

for Photography, Pittsburgh, PA, during their 

Fellowship 2001 Exhibition. She will be having 

a solo exhibition in April 2002 at the Abington 

Art Center, Abington, MA. 

become a member of the prc 

The Photographic Resource Center is a membership-supported, privately operated organization. In this period of dwindling government 

and foundation support, your membership provides critical income to support our programming and educational mission. Join for the 

obvious benefits listed below, but also for the more subtle perks. PRC members enter the network of the New England photographic 

community, which includes commercial and artistic photographers, collectors, scholars, philanthropists, and critics, to name a few. If you 

love photography and are interested in supporting our vital mission, join us — your tax-deductible membership does make a difference. 

PRC MEMBERSHIP CATEGORIES AND BENEFITS 

Individual ($45) 

• Unlimited free admission for one cardholder 

• Invitation for two to opening receptions, members-only 

previews and special events 

• Annual subscription to In the Loupe 

• Opportunities to present work in the annual Members 

Exhibition and Members Project Room 

• Discounts at PRC lectures and workshops 

• Discounts on portfolio reviews with 

photography professionals 

• 10% discount on PRC exhibition catalogues and 

other products 

• Discounts at area darkrooms and retail photographic 

merchants 

• CONNECTIONS (free admission to, or discount at, 

select photography institutions across the country. 

Student ($25) 

• Individual benefits for full-time students only 

(photocopy of ID required) 

Family ($60) 

• Individual benefits for two (two membership cards, 

one mailing) 

Supporter ($125) 

• Family benefits plus 

• Four guest passes for one-time free admission 

• Annual PRC exhibition catalogue (when available) 

• Invitations to special receptions, cocktail parties and 

gallery talks 

• Eligibility to rent the Center for private functions 

(Corporate Member rental rates will apply) 

Contributor ($300) 

• Supporter benefits plus 

• Choice of photographic print from the Contributor 

Members Print Program level 

Benefactor ($600) 


• Choice of a photographic print from the Benefactor 

Members Print Program level or two prints from the 

Contributor level 

Patron ($1,200) 


• Choice of photographic print from the Patron Members 

Print Program level or a combination of prints from the 

Contributor and Benefactor Members Print Program levels 

(to equal $1,200) 

Angel ($2,400) 


• Choice of photographic print from the Angel Members 

Print Program level or a combination of photographic 

prints from the Contributor and Benefactor Members Print 

Program levels (to equal $2,400) 

• Invitation to annual Director’s Dinner 

• Invitation to private reception with PRC Board of Directors 

• Additional invitations to all previews and openings upon 

request 

• Free admission to all PRC lectures and workshops 

Corporate 

For information on becoming a Corporate Member, 

please contact the PRC. 

Name 

Phone 

Email 

Address 

Address 

City 

State 

ZIP 

■ Employer’s matching gift form enclosed 

Company Name 

■ New Membership ■ Membership Renewal 

Payment Method(check one): ■ Visa ■ Mastercard 

■ Check enclosed (payable to Photographic Resource Center) 

Credit Card # 

Expiration Date 

Signature 

Return this form, or the requested information, with payment 

(and copy of ID, if required) to: Membership Office, 

Photographic Resource Center, 602 Commonwealth Avenue, 


The Photographic Resource Center is a non-profit, 501(c)3 

corporation and membership fees are tax-deductible as allowed 

by law. For information on tax-deductible portions of your 

membership, please contact the Membership Office at 

617-353-0700. 

13

January | February 2002 - Boston Photography Focus

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