Photography’s Last Century: The Ann Tenenbaum and Thomas H. Lee Collection Exhibit at the Jepson Center
Written by Hailey Feller. Photo courtesy of Hailey Feller.
As a photography student, I heavily enjoyed the Ann Tenenbaum and Thomas H. Lee Collection exhibit at the Jepson Center. It was interesting to see photographers I have learned about over the years and some new names I can now add to my list. The exhibition is 100 years of work, starting in 1916 and ending in 2018. As the Telfair Museum website notes, “This selection is particularly notable for its breadth and depth of works by women artists, its sustained interest in the nude, and its focus on artists’ beginnings.”
While walking around the exhibit, you can listen to the “Exhibition Soundtrack” to optimize your experience. David Por Jonsson, an Icelandic composer, wrote and produced an improvisational musical component for the exhibition. The music helps set the pace for the audience as they view the art. As I walked, I examined each piece and analyzed how they were grouped. Various works with different styles, techniques and themes exist within the exhibit’s walls. The pieces were paired by similarities or artist, so the viewer could compare and contrast them.
It was interesting to see how different photographers experimented over the years. In the mix of many outstanding works, two pieces that stood out to me were “Untitled”, 1998, by Peter Fischli and David Weiss, and “Guest 12:38 pm 8th November 1996 (MB)” by Christopher Bucklow. The collaborated work of Fischli and Weiss was made by double-exposing film. One photographer took pictures of flowers in a suburban garden, while the other captured images in a city park in Zurich.
Christopher Bucklow’s piece “Guest 12:38 pm 8th November 1996 (MB)” is a silver dye bleach print of a man made out of light. Bucklow photographed the sun using a pinhole camera; the aperture he constructed is in a pattern of a man, specifically Matthew Barney, an American visual artist and filmmaker.
If you are still looking for an ELO opportunity, this would be an excellent exhibit to go to for an art history or photography class. The museum is open from 10 to 5 p.m. daily, and student tickets are $17.50 (members get in for free with a $25 annual payment). The exhibition is happening until May 21st, so you have plenty of time to check it out!
