ART
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| Annette Mangaard (Canadian, b. Denmark 1955) There’s a Shadow on My Face, 1986 detail, one of four silverprints. |
Photography is the focus of the anchor exhibit at the Confederation Centre Art Gallery this summer. The exhibition features iconic images as well as rarely seen and never-before exhibited works.
Photography 101: push the button is a survey of more than 100 works by 60 Canadian and international artists and photographers that span 140 years. It will be the first broad survey exhibition at the Confederation Centre Art Gallery and a rare opportunity to view work by historically significant artists and photographers such as Julia Margaret Cameron, Alfred Stieglitz and Man Ray.
“Since the advent of the Kodak Brownie, single button-operated camera in 1900, photography has provided a way of seeing and knowing the world,” says curator Ihor Holubizky. “And if the history of the 20th century has been recorded by the camera, the story of the people has been ‘written’ with the camera. The focus of the exhibition is a ‘story’ rather a ‘history’ of photography.”
A key thematic thread of Photography 101 is the relationship of a photographer and the subject with many examples of portraits of the photographers themselves. To understand the flip side of that relationship, there are numerous self-portraits.
Calgary artist Dianne Bos, who has worked almost exclusively with pinhole cameras, will be artist-in-residence for the month of July, based at the Parks Canada Cavendish site. She will do a gallery talk, conduct pinhole workshops for the public and participate in the Gallery’s photography art camp for children.
The exhibition subtitle is drawn from a comment by Irish playwright and novelist George Bernard Shaw to photohistorian Helmut Gernsheim. Asked why his interest in photography, Shaw responded, “I always wanted to draw and paint…but I could not draw well enough to satisfy myself [so] I bought a box camera and began pushing the button....” Alvin Langdon Coburn’s 1913 portrait of Shaw is included in the exhibition.
Photography 101: push the button opens May 24 and runs to September 28. Ihor Holubizky and Jon Tupper are the curators.