THE MATERIAL IMAGE: Surface and Substance In Photography

Currently at the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art at SUNY New Paltz is the exhibition The Material Image: Surface and Substance In Photography. 

"Most of us spend more time looking through photographs than looking at them." An engaging new exhibition, The Material Image: Surface and Substance in Photography, seeks to quiet the instrumental and/or narrative impulse that underscores the making and consumption of most photographs. Through a comprehensive survey of photographic processes drawn from the SDMA permanent collection and CPW's collection on extended loan to the Museum – from cyanotype and daguerreotype to platinum and gelatin silver – some hand-tinted, others solarized, still others classic 'straight' images - visitors to the exhibition will be challenged to reflect on the physical nature of the medium and the specific visual and formal effects that have historically been enabled by these photographic processes, with an eye toward the way emerging digital technologies are changing the way we comprehend traditional analogue, emulsion-based works. (from SDMA Press Announcement)

Curated by Beth C. Wilson, this exhibition prominently features a large number of works from the Center's Permanent Print Collection including pieces by David Maisel, Harry Callahan, Kuníe Sugiura, Katharine Kreisher, Martin Munkasci, Andrea Modica, Larry Fink, Alison Hunter, Stephen Shore, amongst others!

The exhibition runs till August 7, 2005. For more information and directions to the Samuel Dorksy Museum of Art, click here.

Also on view is The Maverick Festival: An Exhibition on the Centennial of the Maverick Art Colony curated by Dr. Jaimee Uhlenbrock,   

This exhibition organized on the occasion of the Centennial Celebrations of the Maverick Festival, presents the Gaede/ Striebel Archive of photographs, text, and ephemera documenting the Maverick Festivals founded by Hervey White.

To view the exhibition online, click here
ABOUT THE COLLECTION RECENT ADDITIONS
Since 1980, CPW have collected contemporary prints, video works, audiotapes, and slides in keeping with the Center’s Mission. 

This includes a permanent collection of Contemporary Photography (CPW defines contemporary as "living or up to ten years after deceased"). Work is collected for educational programs. The Collection includes the Jean Gaede/ Fritzi Striebel Archive, an historical archive of photographs and audio tapes focused on the Woodstock Maverick Festivals. 

The Center’s Permanent Collection of over 1,000 contemporary photographs had been assembled through the generous gifts of artists, individual donors, and since 1996 through a special fund set aside for purchase of works in CPW exhibitions to enhance the collections.

The Collection contains photographs by such luminaries as: Shelby Lee Adams, Ruth Bernhard, Gaye Chan, Howard Henry Chen, Albert Chong, Bruce Davidson, Jed Devine, Larry Fink, Charles Gatewood, Robert Heineken, Kenro Izu, Christopher James, Antonin Kratochvil, Nina Kuo, Elliot Landy, Stephen Marc, Sheila Metzner, Andrea Modica, Bill Owens, Gilles Peress, Jose Picayo, Sylvia Plachy, Lilo Raymond, Eugene Richards, Stephen Shore, Lorna Simpson, Marla Sweeney, William Wegman, Edward Weston, and many others.
Ruth Bernhard, Leaf, 
1976, Gelatin Silver Print
Carol Pfeffer, Untitled, 2003
 from the series “Containing Complexity: Surface Interface Dynamics”, C-Print

William Wegman, Suitcase, 
1996, Gelatin Silver Print
Marla Sweeney, Untitled, 
2002, C- Print

Platon, Yoko Ono, 
2000, C-Print
Robert Flynt, Untitled (embrace), 
2000, Fuji C-Print,

OUR PARTNER - THE SAMUEL DORSKY MUSEUM OF ART

In 1995, the Center's permanent print collection was transferred to the Samuel Dorsky Museum at SUNY New Paltz on a long-term extended loan. The collection has been developed over a period of almost 20 years and includes nearly 1,000 contemporary photographs.

The Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art at SUNY New Paltz opened in fall 2000 in the newly expanded and renovated College Art Gallery (founded in 1964) under the direction of Museum Director, Neil Trager. The museum occupies more than 17,000 square feet of new and renovated facilities, making it one of the largest art museums within the State University of New York.

For almost 35 years, the College Art Gallery has provided direct support to the academic programs at SUNY New Paltz, and has served the surrounding community as a significant cultural resource.

"The urge to collect is thought to be instinctive. We only have to look at the gatherers of nature, and the history of humankind to observe this ubiquitous phenomenon. Collections, whether private or public, are created with different motivations and serve different purposes. Most museums collect to preserve objects of apparent value that otherwise might be lost to the future. Museum collections bring together objects so that they may be used, interpreted, and enjoyed. It is the collection that makes a museum unique."

- From the article, Archival Matters: The Photography Collections at the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art 
by Neil C. Trager, featured in  PHOTOGRAPHY Quarterly #72.