Eyes on the West- Photography and the Contemporary West

For my Museum/Gallery report on a photographic exhibition, I planned to visit Beinecke Library in Yale. It’s one of the beautiful libraries that I have ever seen. I went to see “Eyes on the West- Photography and the Contemporary West” exhibit to document what the contemporary

West looks like as well as the influence of photography on West America. I found the exhibit to be very impressive, representing the range of work being done in the west by many talented photographers in the field.

The exhibition presents the beautiful work of 20 contemporary photographers of the West, including Harry Adams, Abe Aronow, Marion Belanger, and many more.

For the exhibition, 158 photographs were on display, which were selected from the more than 7,500 images from the work of twenty photographers. In addition to these if you like to view the original photos, the library provides a digital extension of the exhibition. On the first-floor, library offers the high-definition touch screen display, the opportunity to explore more about the photographer and view more than three hundred images of their work and to explore the collections in depth.

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In my opinion, you cannot have a collection about the West without aggressively collecting photography. The Eye on the West also showcases beautiful replicas of 34 photographs, as well as a brief essay by George Miles and by the artists themselves, about how photography continues to reflect and shape our understanding of West America.

Photography came to America in 1840s and it has served a strong base to explore the understanding and perception of the west since then.

The exhibition showcased wide range of work done since 1960 to present date describing about the contemporary west. From history to people, from land to infrastructure, from society to culture, encouraging viewers to think how the photos gaps a bridge between the regions and serve the medium of record and art. The photos made since then serves as a reliable source to know about the land, people, society and culture. Things changes with time so is the west, through out the exhibition you will observe the west from 1960 to till date documenting growth, development, history, happiness, sadness, conflict and activism.

The exhibit also showcases the work of several photographers documenting their own communities and homes, discovering and restoring the history of the regions in which they lived. Some deliberately went for historic photographic projects to draw attention to what is brief and what endures in the West and in its people.

In this era of globalization where the society is noticeably dominated by the mass-media, chain stores, communication technology and social networking, do the communities and landscapes of the North American West present distinctive stories or represent particular issues that enhance our understanding of American history and culture? To answer this, vary question, twenty photographers whose photographs are showcased in Eye on the West have responded in various ways to this question and to the challenge of making original work about the West. Their work is rooted in specificity and anchored in the concrete. Their images present us with opportunities to see people, places, or events outside our field of vision, to see something we have overlooked, or, perhaps, to see differently a scene we have viewed without comprehension. As artists, they do not copy the world; they create an intervention that stands between us and the world, an intervention that encourages us to see, feel, and think differently about the world as the result of seeing the image they have created

As I walked through the collection, I was so amazed by the range of work done. Black and white to color, historic to contemporary, play of soft form to bold form molded by light. The photographs on the ground floor are organized by broad themes: The Land, Marks on the Land, Working, Ceremony, Family, Development, Infrastructure, Activism, Conflict, Recreation, Destruction, Remnants, and Regrowth. And on the first floor at the head of the stairs we can see the curved big cases, dedicated to portraits: Faces of the West and Children of the West. The exhibit also holds 36 photobooks as well as seventeen large-format photographs, displayed on the first floor. The photobooks explain the observation made by contemporary photographers of the west and their point of view and comment on the people, places and culture as well as the ways in which new technologies have revolutionized the creation.

The photos I was intrigued are black and white photo by 2 different photographers.

The very first photo I got astonished was a black and white photograph, titled Running Man, Galisteo Basin, New Mexico by contemporary photographer David Grant Noble (20th/21st Century). David Grant Noble is especially known for his interest in American Southwestern history and archaeology, photographing ruins, Rock Art, and landscapes.

, I planned to visit Beinecke Library in Yale. It’s one of the beautiful libraries that I have ever seen. I went to see “Eyes on the West- Photography and the Contemporary West” exhibit to document what the contemporary

West looks like as well as the influence of photography on West America. I found the exhibit to be very impressive, representing the range of work being done in the west by many talented photographers in the field.

The exhibition presents the beautiful work of 20 contemporary photographers of the West, including Harry Adams, Abe Aronow, Marion Belanger, and many more.

For the exhibition, 158 photographs were on display, which were selected from the more than 7,500 images from the work of twenty photographers. In addition to these if you like to view the original photos, the library provides a digital extension of the exhibition. On the first-floor, library offers the high-definition touch screen display, the opportunity to explore more about the photographer and view more than three hundred images of their work and to explore the collections in depth. In my opinion, you cannot have a collection about the West without aggressively collecting photography. The Eye on the West also showcases beautiful replicas of 34 photographs, as well as a brief essay by George Miles and by the artists themselves, about how photography continues to reflect and shape our understanding of West America.

Photography came to America in 1840s and it has served a strong base to explore the understanding and perception of the west since then. The exhibition showcased wide range of work done since 1960 to present date describing about the contemporary west. From history to people, from land to infrastructure, from society to culture, encouraging viewers to think how the photos gaps a bridge between the regions and serve the medium of record and art. The photos made since then serves as a reliable source to know about the land, people, society and culture. Things changes with time so is the west, through out the exhibition you will observe the west from 1960 to till date documenting growth, development, history, happiness, sadness, conflict and activism.

The exhibit also showcases the work of several photographers documenting their own communities and homes, discovering and restoring the history of the regions in which they lived. Some deliberately went for historic photographic projects to draw attention to what is brief and what endures in the West and in its people.

In this era of globalization where the society is noticeably dominated by the mass-media, chain stores, communication technology and social networking, do the communities and landscapes of the North American West present distinctive stories or represent particular issues that enhance our understanding of American history and culture? To answer this, vary question, twenty photographers whose photographs are showcased in Eye on the West have responded in various ways to this question and to the challenge of making original work about the West. Their work is rooted in specificity and anchored in the concrete. Their images present us with opportunities to see people, places, or events outside our field of vision, to see something we have overlooked, or, perhaps, to see differently a scene we have viewed without comprehension. As artists, they do not copy the world; they create an intervention that stands between us and the world, an intervention that encourages us to see, feel, and think differently about the world as the result of seeing the image they have created

As I walked through the collection, I was so amazed by the range of work done. Black and white to color, historic to contemporary, play of soft form to bold form molded by light. The photographs on the ground floor are organized by broad themes: The Land, Marks on the Land, Working, Ceremony, Family, Development, Infrastructure, Activism, Conflict, Recreation, Destruction, Remnants, and Regrowth. And on the first floor at the head of the stairs we can see the curved big cases, dedicated to portraits: Faces of the West and Children of the West. The exhibit also holds 36 photobooks as well as seventeen large-format photographs, displayed on the first floor. The photobooks explain the observation made by contemporary photographers of the west and their point of view and comment on the people, places and culture as well as the ways in which new technologies have revolutionized the creation.

The photos I was intrigued are black and white photo by 2 different photographers.

The very first photo I got astonished was a black and white photograph, titled Running Man, Galisteo Basin, New Mexico by contemporary photographer David Grant Noble (20th/21st Century). David Grant Noble is especially known for his interest in American Southwestern history and archaeology, photographing ruins, Rock Art, and landscapes.