Resonance: Recent Acquisitions in Photography

"Pictures are sure. They remain fixed in the moment they were seized; their reading is as always ambiguous, subject to the changing perceptions and intuitions bred by delusion or by experience."

-- Larry Fink, Martins Creek, May 2001

Taken between 1963 and 2015, these photographs bear witness to a finite time and place—be it an image of a fleeting encounter or an endured reality—that is contingent upon memory, interpretation, and re-interpretation.

The photographers—Kristin Capp, Larry Fink, Ken Heyman, Walter Iooss, Joel Meyerowitz, and Lou Stoumen—knew nothing of the Covid-19 pandemic, the near global quarantine, nor the social justice movements that would rise amidst it all. They were unaware of the impending isolation from loved ones or the nostalgia for simple pleasures like watching a game in a crowded stadium, attending a concert, or feeling the thrill of a lover’s touch. Pandemic essential workers had not yet longed for a quiet dinner with family. Parents and caregivers had not been thrust suddenly into the role of educator while simultaneously struggling to provide. The unexpected moments of happiness, love, fulfillment, or mindful contemplation that could arise from these especially fraught circumstances did not yet exist.

This exhibition explores the act of interpretation through the seemingly opposing themes of isolation and togetherness, loss and shared joy, and fear and courage, among others. The photographs on display, all recent gifts to the collection, were selected for the ways in which they resonate with the unprecedented realities and profound emotions experienced by many during 2020. No two experiences are the same; as a result, viewers may find meaning in the images themselves or in the tensions created between them.

This exhibition has been made possible through the generous support of the Massey Charitable Trust.