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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE January 6, 2006
Information Contact : Stacey McCarroll, 617-353-4672
A Photographic Portrait of Boston, 1840-1865February 10, 2006 – April 2, 2006 Opening Reception: Thursday, February 9, 2006, 6-8 pm
**See Several of Boston’s Important Historic Photographs for the First Time** Boston—A Photographic Portrait of Boston, 1840-1865 explores the history of Boston in the years before and during the Civil War through a focused survey of images from four major local historic archives: the Boston Athenaeum, the Boston Public Library, Historic New England, and the Massachusetts Historical Society. The exhibition presents over one hundred and forty images—several important works are presented here publicly for the first time—and highlights a variety of early photographic formats including daguerreotypes, salt prints, and cartes de visite. Also included are advertisements for various studios and trade cards. Photographers in the exhibition range from the notable teams of Southworth & Hawes and Whipple & Black, to lesser-known yet important photographic pioneers such as Asa White, Lorenzo G. Chase, Edward M. Tyler and others. The photographs are divided into three major groups: Portraits from Life, The City and The Civil War. A 72-page illustrated catalogue, with an essay by Anna Lee Kamplain, exhibition curator and Jan and Warren Adelson Fellow in American Art at Boston University, accompanies the exhibition. For centuries, artists and viewers conceived of portraits as representations of living persons, especially of the countenance. Once considered an exact likeness, the portrait came to be defined by the subject’s expression, by the artist’s ability to reveal the sitter’s “inner nature.” As early as the 1860s, viewers began to recognize that a portrait might reveal many facets of a sitter. A Photographic Portrait of Boston, 1840-1865 provides a composite portrait of Boston in the middle of the nineteenth century and aims to recover a photographic vision of mid-century Bostonians and their city. The exhibition focuses on photographic portraits taken by Boston photographers of Bostonians; it tells not only the tales of those before the camera but also the stories of those behind the camera. Also included are photographic portraits taken during the Civil War (1861-1865), highlighting Boston’s role in the distant struggle. In addition to traditional portraits of people, this exhibition includes, under the concept of “portraiture,” photographs of Boston landmarks and locations, monuments, parks, and city streets, views not commonly considered portraits. Considering Boston itself as a personality the exhibition encourages an investigation of not only the history of photography in America but also Boston’s own history. PUBLIC PROGRAMMINGOPENING RECEPTION:
GALLERY TALKS:
ALL EXHIBITIONS AND EVENTS ARE FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
IN CONJUNCTION:
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Please call the gallery or visit the BU Art Gallery website at www.bu.edu/ART for events and programming information during the season. All exhibitions and events are free to the public.
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