September 2 through December 20, 2009

Remember? Photographs before Digitization provides an opportunity to enjoy the qualities of photography that get lost in reproduction. Digital photographs are ubiquitous on the internet and counted in the billions, and this show reminds contemporary viewers of the allure of original photographic prints produced by laborious processes in the darkroom. The exhibition of approximately 90 photographs offers an overview of art photography in Colgate University’s holdings, drawn from the collections of the Picker Art Gallery and Case Library. It includes daguerreotypes, albumen prints, and silver gelatin prints from the mid-nineteenth century to the present day. Canonical masters such as Edward S. Curtis, Berenice Abbott, Claude Cahun, Bret Weston, and Lee Friedlander are among the artists represented. The exhibition demonstrates how each photograph, by tracing light, embraces its roles both as a record of the visible world and of artistic expression.
CHECKLIST | PRESS RELEASE