You must see these ... in Mint Museum’s newest exhibition
We buttonholed Dr. Kathleen Jameson last week to try to force her to choose three key photos in the new “Here & Now: 80 Years of Photography at the Mint.” Jameson, president of the Mint, had a difficult time choosing three – unsurprising, since she also curated the show: a first for her at the Mint – but she took a stab at it.
1. The wall of Egglestons. These works by William Eggleston “may look kind of like snapshots that you might take: They’re intended to look that way. They’re very much supposed to look like casual, almost accidental images, and I love that ... But they’re really highly composed. He was exploring color and geometry and really questioning art in the process.”
3. Barbara Morgan’s five. “She was a trailblazing American photographer ... who photographed street images but also very artistic images, images of dancers (and of) scientists working.”
A few other tidbits from her media-day presentation (and if you’re a geek for more info, try the Mint wiki at bit.ly/211dnyh):
▪ On a pairing of Ansel Adams work with that of Berenice Abbott: She wanted to “try to put some of Adams’ work in context by asking the work to have a conversation with a contemporary of his, and a female contemporary ... I really wanted these two American masters to have a conversation in this room, and perhaps throw out some different thinking about Adams.”
▪ “It’s awfully hard to hang a photography show without it being this monotonous line of images, so we really tried to lay this out in a way that helps you avoid some of that photo fatigue.”
▪ Look for several other “conversations” that are set up by how photographs are hung in relation to each other: Two George E. Joseph works; Carolyn Blackwood’s and the photographs on each side of it; and the Inge Morath image of a woman and her chauffeur contrasted with the children in the adjoining photographs.
‘Here & Now: 80 Years of Photography at the Mint’
When: Through Sept. 18
Where: Mint Museum Uptown, 500 S. Tryon St.
Tickets: $12 plus $6 for special exhibition.
Details: 704-337-2000; www.mintmuseum.org.
This story was originally published April 19, 2016 at 2:41 PM with the headline "You must see these ... in Mint Museum’s newest exhibition."