Paul Berger • September 24, 2004
Thoroughbred Hall, Lexington Convention Center

Robert Fichter • November 5, 2004
Worsham Theater, UK Student Center

Joel Sternfeld • February 18, 2005
Worsham Theater, UK Student Center

Carrie Mae Weems • March 25, 2005
Recital Hall, Singletary Center for the Arts

All lectures are at 4 p.m.


Links to:
2003 - 2004 May Lecture Series

Paul Berger
September 24, 2004
Thoroughbred Hall, Lexington Convention Center

Although trained in a classical photographic tradition, Paul Berger became interested in digital imaging technology in 1981, when he acquired his first computer. In 1985, he started teaching digital imaging classes at University of Washington School of Art, where he is currently chair of the photography department. In his numerous series, Berger has remained interested in how the mind adapts to and is manipulated by the visual imagery of photography, television, and computers. Berger engages the camera and the computer as machines that not only produce predictable results, but also act autonomously. He creates complex arrangements of digitized images from various media embracing the surrealist notion of chance combinations of disparate elements. The resulting collages demand that we, the viewers, question how we “read” what we see.

Berger’s appearance in the University of Kentucky Art Museum’s Robert C. May Photography Endowment Lecture Series is in coordination with Lexington’s ideaFestival 2004, a conference that explores ideas and innovations across and at the intersections of diverse fields of study.

Biography: Born in The Dalles, Oregon, 1948. Studied at UCLA, B.A. 1970, and Visual Studies Workshop, Rochester, New York, M.F.A. 1973. In 1978, co-founded photography program at University of Washington School of Art, where he has taught for 26 years. Received numerous awards, including two NEA grants, 1979 and 1986. Publications include Seattle Subtext (Visual Studies Workshop and Real Comet Press, Seattle, 1984). Work featured in solo exhibition (1990) at the Seattle Art Museum with accompanying catalogue, Paul Berger: The Machine in the Window (1991). His newest publication, Paul Berger: 1973-2003, was published in conjunction with the 2003 retrospective exhibition organized by Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago. Currently lives in Seattle, Washington.

Above Image:
PAUL BERGER American, born 1948
VEG, 2000
(c) Paul Berger
Courtesy of the artist

Robert Fichter
November 5, 2004
Worsham Theater, UK Student Center

Robert Fichter’s photographs, prints, books, and computer images are lush, dense works that deal with sociopolitical issues concerning humankind and its interaction with the natural environment. A persistent theme in his work is the revenge of nature against the capricious behavior of man. He sets up elaborate tableaux of objects and images and photographs these assembled scenarios with whatever is on hand – a 4x5 view camera, a Diana plastic camera or a Polaroid 20 x 24. During the revival of printing media and non-silver photography in the 1960s, Fichter began using cyanotypes or blueprints, a photographic print with white images printed on a blue background – a common proofing medium for Secessionist photographers working in the early years of the twentieth century. Preferring to describe himself as an “image-maker” rather than a photographer, Fichter is also known as a “photographist” who paints and draws on his photographs and creates etchings and lithographs using photographic processes.

Biography: Born in Fort Myers, Florida, 1939. Studied painting and printmaking at University of Florida, Gainesville, B.F.A. 1963, and photography and printmaking at Indiana University, Bloomington, M.F.A. 1966. Visiting artist and teaching positions at UCLA, Cranbrook Academy of Art, and Florida State University, where he is presently professor of art. Awards include two NEA fellowships, 1979 and 1984, and his work is frequently exhibited throughout the U.S. Currently lives in Tallahassee, Florida.

Above Image:
ROBERT FICHTER
Lassie Puzzle Piece, 1979
Cibachrome (c) Robert Fichter
Courtesy of the artist

 

Joel Sternfeld
February 18, 2005
Worsham Theater, UK Student Center

Like many street photographers working in the 1970s, Joel Sternfeld created images using a 35mm camera because of its unique ability to capture a fleeting moment. His goal was finding that distinctly American moment. Rush Hour (1976) is a series of informal color prints that communicate the immediacy of the “snapshot” aesthetic; blurred images, truncated figures, awkward shadows, and off-kilter compositions lend credence to the photograph as a “real” document that holds some “truth” about American life. The influence of the color photography of William Eggleston led Sternfeld to change the course of his photographic representation. Using an 8x10 view camera, he deliberately evoked the artistic conventions of painting—such as the grander scale often associated with history painting—carefully organizing his compositions, and paying close attention to color, light, and detail. His goal was “to find beauty and harmony in an increasingly uniform, technological and disturbing America.” The resulting large-format photographs were published in American Prospects (1987), a landmark book that brings to mind previous photo essays on the national mood: Walker Evans’s American Photographs (1938) and Robert Frank’s The Americans (1958). In recent years, Sternfeld’s attention has shifted to portraiture. His 2003 series Strangers Passing combines the immediacy and familiarity of the snapshot with carefully staged images.

Biography: Born in New York City, 1944. Studied at Dartmouth College, B.A. 1966. Received numerous awards, including two Guggenheim fellowships, 1978 and 1982; an NEA grant, 1980; and the 1990-91 Prix de Rome. Published seven books of his work, including American Prospects (Distributed Art Publishers, Inc., 1987), Walking the High Line (Steidl Publishing, 2001), and Stranger Passing (Bulfinch Press, 2001). His works have been exhibited internationally, including the 2001 solo exhibition Stranger Passing at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Currently teaches photography at Sarah Lawrence College, Bronxville, New York.

Above Image:
JOEL STERNFELD American, born 1944
Wet 'n Wild Aquatic Theme Park, Orlando, Florida, September, 1980, 1980
Dye transfer print, 14 7/8 x 19”
(c) Joel Sternfeld
Courtesy of the artist

Carrie Mae Weems
March 25, 2005
Recital Hall, Singletary Center for the Arts

With both reverence and daring, Carrie Mae Weems challenges the conventions of photography and how those conventions shape attitudes toward race, gender, and identity. Her first major series, Family Pictures and Stories (1978-84), is a personal and political examination of how the representation of African Americans in documentary photographs—traditionally bound to describing the “other”—have shaped our perceptions of race. And 22 Million Very Angry and Tired People (1992) exposes the conventions of documentary style of Farm Security Administration photographers by adding textual interpretation to the images. In From Here I Saw What Happened and I Cried (1995-96), Weems questions the narrative found in traditional portraiture of daguerreotypes, tintypes, and ambrotypes; with dissonant juxtapositions of photograph, text, and color, she renders the implicit explicit. Recent works continue to dispute the assumption of “photographic truth.” In The Hampton Project (2000), Weems combines archival images from the Hampton Institute in Virginia with poetry and prose from writers and theorists for her biting commentary on the college’s mission to assimilate African and Native Americans. Throughout her career, Weems has forced us to re-examine the history and role of photography in America.

Weems’s appearance at the University of Kentucky Art Museum’s Robert C. May Photography Endowment Lecture Series is in coordination with the 2005 Kentucky Women Writers Conference at the University of Kentucky.

Biography: Born in Portland, Oregon, 1953. Studied at California Institute of the Arts, Valencia, B.F.A. 1981, University of California, San Diego, M.F.A. 1984, with additional graduate work in the folklore program. Received several awards, including a grant from the Pollack Krasner Foundation (2002) and the NEA (1994), and artist residencies at the Visual Studies Workshop, Rhode Island School of Design, and the Art Institute of Chicago, among other institutions. Her work is featured in several publications, including Carrie Mae Weems: Recent Work, 1992-98 (Norton, 1999) and In Real Life: Six Women Photographers (Holiday House, 2000). Currently lives in Syracuse, New York.

Above Image:
CARRIE MAE WEEMS, American, born 1953
The Armstrong Triptych
From The Hampton Project, 2000
Ink on canvas, three panels
A: 59 x 72 1/2 in., B: 67 3/4 x 92 in., C: 59 x 72 1/2 in.
The Speed Art Museum
Gift of the New Art Collectors