The Phippen Museum is opening its first ever juried photography exhibit, Fresh Eyes, on Saturday, January 14th. The exhibit runs through April 15 and features a collection of contemporary photographers of the American West, plus established photographers Ron Evan, Michael Collier, Jay Dusard, LeRoy DeJolie, and Fredrick Sommer. The Museums hours of operation are Tuesday through Saturday 10:00am to 4:00pm, Sundays 1:00pm to 4:00pm. Admission is $5.00; $4.00 for seniors, students, AAA members; children under twelve are free. Guided tours and group rates are available.
Fresh Eyes is really two exhibits in one," says Phippen Museum Collections Manager, Helena Howell. "Talented photographers of today next to a juried selection of emerging photographers that represent tomorrow's talent: the 'fresh eyes' of our exhibit." The Juried portion of Fresh Eyes is a showcase of largely unknown photographic artists that explores their views of the west in two categories: the natural world and the man-made world. The other part of the exhibit will feature the works of respected photographers who have in their time offered the world a "fresh" look at the American west:
Ron Evans, a talented professional photo-journalist, has appeared in such magazines as Rolling Stone and Cycle World. He has combined his love of rock climbing with photography to capture some of Arizona's marvelous vistas. Using the process of Giclée printing he is able to reproduce the true colors of the Southwest.
Michael Collier is a true renaissance man: a professional photographer, geologist, medical doctor, and pilot. He combines these seemingly disparate vocations into photographic art. In his beloved Cessna 180 he captures magnificent landscapes that celebrate how the land shapes people and how they in turn shape the land.
Jay Dusard is a self taught photographer who prefers punching cows to punching clocks. Jay was the recipient of a 1981 Guggenheim fellowship, several book awards and has studied and taught with Ansel Adams. His landmark book The North American Cowboy raised the bar in silver print portraiture. Jay taught photography for seven years at Prescott College and still conducts many workshops.
LeRoy DeJolie, who was recently featured on the Today Show, is one of the most successful Native American photographers. His photography has been influenced by the passion of his father and the techniques of Ansel Adams. Carrying the same large format camera as Adams he climbs atop rocky buttes and hikes sandstone canyons like his father, also an avid photographer, looking for "that 45 seconds in a day when the sun casts a very warm tone on the monuments and the majestic mesas," to memorialize the sacred places of the Navajo people.
Fredrick Sommer, who died in January of 1999 at the age of 93, was a longtime Prescott resident. He has been variously described as eccentric, offensive, and a photographer's photographer. His distinctive and sometimes controversial surrealist collages, horizonless landscapes, and cameraless abstractions have influenced generations of modern photographers.
Click here to see the Fresh Eyes Award Winners.
This series of lectures and workshops are $5.00 per person for non-members, Museum members are free, and include admission to the Museum and refreshments. Space is limited so pre-registration is recommended. To register for any "Conversation" please call the Museum at (928) 778-1385.
North Window, photo, by LeRoy DeJolie
Sunrise over Sand Springs, photo, by LeRoy DeJolie
