Yesterday, Friday, I spent a few hours walking the University of Arizona campus. My reason for going there was to attend a exhibit at the Center for Creative Photography.My first problem was finding a place to park. Like most large univerisities, the UA public parking situation is a nightmare. Take my advice and bring a bike, or ride the bus,
if you visit the campus. I finally found the parking gargage across from the Marriott Hotel that sits near the campus. It took me a while, but I finally found a spot. Signs were posted everywhere: "Take your parking ticket with you. Pay at the cashier BEFORE you return to your car." When I left, I went to the cashier and had to wait in line behind twenty other people. What a pain in the neck.
The campus itself is beautiful, of course. I walked from the garage in search of the Center for Creative Photography (CCP). I saw the Arizona Historical Society Museum building first, so I visited them.My next stop was the UA Museum of Art. On the first floor, there were two exhibitions: from El Anatsui and Jacques Lipchitz. El Anatsui is from Ghana. His work "Versatility" was a massive quilt-like material made from whiskey and other
alcoholic bottle labels that he collected. His other exhibit was a room full of "anthills" created from the tops of milk cans. Jacques Lipchitz's exhibit included numerous sculptures and some of the tools he used while creating the pieces.The UA permanent collection is exhibited on the second floor. While I was there, students were performing musical works on classical guitars in one of the galleries. It provided a nice soundtrack for my visit. I viewed masterworks from artist like Diebenkorn, Thomas Hart Benton, Jackson Pollock, Picasso, Matisse, O'keeffe, Jacob Lawrence, Reginald Marsh, and Jusepe de Ribera. I especially liked Ribera's "A Greek Sage" from 1630.
I found the Center for Creative Photography across the street from the Art Museum. The photography exhibit was on the first floor and easy to find. The purpose of the exhibit was to show the creative process behind famous photographs, with particular emphasis on how the photographer works. The exhibition include contact sheets, letters, notes, personal journals, diaries, calendars and other original material from a number of photographers.One photographer featured was Wynn Bullock. The exhibit revealed his philosophical approach to photography by emphasizing space and time. "The space of the room becomes a property of the room just as real as the room itself. . .space being an independent property of all containers," I noted while reading from his journal.
The exhibit also displayed actual contact sheets from Gary Winogrand (1928-1984), showing how he marked on each sheet his choices for printing and publishing. One of his favorite collections contained photos of women in public places. He wrote a letter to the University of Texas art department (1975), which was on display at the exhibit, and I noted his comments:
"Whenever I've seen an attractive woman, I've done my best to photograph her. . . I don't know if all of the women in the photographs are beautiful, but I do know that the women are beautiful in the photographs."
The exhibit from W. Eugene Smith was my favorite. For Life Magazine, he suggested shooting an essay of Albert Schweitzer. The Nobel Peace Prize winner founded the the Lambaréné Hospital in Gabon, west central Africa. Smith traveled to Africa and photographed Schweitzer in his office and elsewhere over a few days. The exhibit contained some of Smith's contact sheets, his journal, and his personal calendar from the trip that noted the photos he wanted to take.
Another great exhibit was the "pepper" display from Edward Weston. Weston began to take photos of "assorted peppers" in 1930. In a handwritten letter they had on display, he said he
delighted in shooting ". . . a pepper, but more than a pepper: abstract, in that it is completely outside subject matter. . . (and it) takes one into an inner reality." It was also amusing to see that he was finacially struggling as well, when he states, "We have been living on deposits from sittings, more than I ever had in a given period of time."Other photographers featured included Frederick Sommer and Ansel Adams.
