What Can Photographs Say in a World Full of Images?
An exhibition at the Wellin Museum of Art at Hamilton College examines how artists utilize serial configurations of pictures and text to prompt questions about seeing.
Photographer Milton Rogovin captured residents of Buffalo's working-class Lower West Side neighborhood during the 1970s. He photographed them twice more, each time a decade later, creating a visual record of change over time. Families grew, losses occurred, and the surrounding architecture transformed. Rogovin's series served as a time capsule, an ode to the community in transition.
To explore how photographers use series of images, sometimes with text, to construct new narratives, the Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art at Hamilton College is hosting "Storytelling: Photographers Making Meaning." The exhibition features Rogovin's Lower West Side Revisited alongside nine other series and an installation by photographer Keisha Scarville.
Tracy L. Adler, the Museum's Johnson-Pote Director, notes that we're constantly inundated with images, and the exhibition aims to deepen our critical engagement with visual stimuli. Lorna Simpson's work "Details" (1996) demonstrates how text and images can be combined to tell stories. Elizabeth Shannon, Collections Curator, has long admired how Rogovin used images and text to create impactful projects.
Her exhibition highlights lesser-known works from Hamilton College's collection, potentially inspiring further research and appreciation for these artists.
Written by urgent.news from Hyperallergic's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
