In The Darkroom at National Gallery of Art, group outing 11/14/2009

[TheFlyingCamera]

http://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/darkroominfo.shtm

There's an exhibit at the National Gallery of Art on historical photographic processes. I'm organizing a group outing to go see the show. We're going to meet up in the morning to see the show and then grab lunch nearby. Please RSVP here and/or in the Washington DC social group forum here to get included in the loop for directions/times/locations.

 

[TheFlyingCamera]

Ok- update on schedule:

Meet at the exhibit entrance in the lower level of the West building at 10:30 AM. Then progress to lunch in the Gallery Place/Chinatown area Noon-ish. Please RSVP so I can keep an eye out for you.

 

[Barry S]

Scott--I'm still planning on coming and will see you at 10:30 on Sat. at the exhibit entrance.

 

[c6h6o3]

Let's also plan to see the Robert Bergman exhibit, also in the West Building, which looks to be awesome.

http://artknowledgenews.com/2009-10...xhibition-of-robert-bergmans-photographs.html

http://nymag.com/arts/art/features/61728/

to quote NY Mag: "This is the National Gallery’s first artist’s debut show ever."

that's certainly worth a look

 

[c6h6o3]

Ok- update on schedule:

Meet at the exhibit entrance in the lower level of the West building at 10:30 AM. Then progress to lunch in the Gallery Place/Chinatown area Noon-ish. Please RSVP so I can keep an eye out for you.

do you have a particular place in mind for lunch?

 

[TheFlyingCamera]

I'm thinking maybe District Chophouse, but I'm open to just about anything in the neighborhood from Qdoba to Chinese to Clydes to Rosa Mexicano.

 

[Barry S]

District Chophouse? That's kind of hardcore! My favorite nearby lunch spot is Teaism. It's close, the atmosphere is great, good selection of healthy food , local art/photography on the walls--and killer tea + salty oat cookies. If the weather is crummy, the NGA cafeteria isn't bad, although it's expensive.

 

[c6h6o3]

Both In the Darkroom and Robert Bergman were quite disappointing, although ITD had some magnificent prints by Roger Fenton and Negre.

However, we ate lunch in Chinatown, and since it was but a stone's throw from the National Portrait Gallery, we stopped there on the way back. WOW! They had two marvelous shows up: one called Faces of the Frontier and the other the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition Awards. Although the Portrait Competition was only about 10% photography, the 1st place winner was a photograph.

There's so much photography on the walls around here that it seems to me that these two venerable institutions are trying to outdo each other with photo shows. If that's the case, the NPG certainly wins as far as I'm concerned. Don't miss these shows if you're anywhere near here. Gallery Place Metro.

BTW, one of the entries in the Portrait Competition was a large C-print by Michael A. Smith from his Maricopa Co. jail inmate project. Quite impressive. Click on the 2nd link above to see it.

 

[Christopher Walrath]

Glad you guys had a great time. Steve (Sirius Glass) and I had a small gathering in Harford County for a quick meet up and shoot. Keep us updated when more stuff pops up.

 

[Barry S]

I thought In the Darkroom was a gem of a show that included a nice sampling of diverse photographic processes by masters of photography. It would have been nice if the show had been five times the size and more comprehensive, but it was drawn exclusively from the NGA's collection. Definitely worth seeing if you have any interest at all in historical photographic processes.

 

[c6h6o3]

I thought In the Darkroom was a gem of a show that included a nice sampling of diverse photographic processes by masters of photography. It would have been nice if the show had been five times the size and more comprehensive, but it was drawn exclusively from the NGA's collection. Definitely worth seeing if you have any interest at all in historical photographic processes.

Typical NGA survey show. As Scott pointed out while we were all standing next to the one, solitary dye transfer print (by Irving Penn, superb) this exhibition left a lot out, especially when it came to color work. There were no Autochromes, no carbro prints. I had seen most of the 19th Century work in other exhibitions and all of the Stieglitz prints a zillion times. And none of the Stieglitz work in the exhibition was anywhere near his best work.

Amble on over to the NPG next time you're downtown and you'll be blown away.

 

[Barry S]

Jim-- I'll definitely check out the NPG exhibits you mentioned when I have some time--they have consistently great shows. I agree that the show had some gaps (a bromoil transfer, but no bromoils?), but I still enjoyed most of the prints that were included. The show got short-changed for having to share the galleries with the Bergman show, but maybe the curator only proposed a small show. There was a second dye transfer print--by Eggleston--but it wasn't a particularly great example of his work.

 

[c6h6o3]

Jim-- I'll definitely check out the NPG exhibits you mentioned when I have some time--they have consistently great shows. I agree that the show had some gaps (a bromoil transfer, but no bromoils?), but I still enjoyed most of the prints that were included. The show got short-changed for having to share the galleries with the Bergman show, but maybe the curator only proposed a small show. There was a second dye transfer print--by Eggleston--but it wasn't a particularly great example of his work.

Doh! Shows you where my brain is at. How could I walk by an Eggleston print and not remember that he only did dye transfer? It was a good one, too.

The Bergman exhibition was way overhyped. Technically amazing, but I couldn't help as I looked at each print wishing that the photographs had been made with a bigger camera. Also, I found the colors garish. I suppose that's what's supposed to make them painterly.

On the other hand, that contest winner over at the NPG was a true work of art. No Flemish master painter (of whom the work reminded me) ever made a better portrait.

 

[TheFlyingCamera]

I agree about the Bergman exhibit. That's probably why he's been undiscovered until now - not that much to discover, really. The American West Portraits over at the NPG was an amazing show- probably six rooms of photos in varying sizes and media, most pre-1900. If you like looking at daguerreotypes, they had a really great sampling of some very rare images, including some rather famous ones. The show is up through January 24, so there's still some time to go check it out. I was also very pleased that they didn't try to keep the rooms so dim you couldn't really tell what you were looking at, which has been a problem in the past for shows over at the NGA.