Visions of Society:
The Photographic Insight of Ruth-Marion Baruch
Self-Portrait, Ruth-Marion Baruch
June 9th: 2PM @ The Breman
An enlightening panel discussion on Ruth-Marion Baruch’s influential work and her role in the California School of Photography. This event, chaired by Bob Yellowlees and featuring Jennifer McFarland and Teresa Mora, was held at The Breman. Jennifer McFarland presented a personal look into Ruth-Marion’s life and her poetic expressions, drawing from Baruch’s archived collections. Teresa Mora, from her vast experience at UC Santa Cruz, discussed the significant bodies of work featured in the exhibition. The session will transition into a moderated discussion, emphasizing the themes presented, and conclude with an audience Q&A.
Ruth-Marion Baruch was a visionary photographer known for her poignant and deeply empathetic portrayals of various communities in San Francisco during the 1960s. Her works, were on display at The Breman, alongside her husband Pirkle Jones, capturing the essence of social movements and everyday life, making her a pivotal figure in the California School of photography.
Jennifer McFarland met Ruth-Marion and Pirkle Jones in the early ’70s, and their friendship spanned nearly four decades. Jennifer, having previously worked in heavy industrial construction, later dedicated thirteen years to archiving Jones and Baruch’s collections, contributing significantly to the preservation and understanding of their works.
Teresa Mora, Head of Special Collections & Archives at UC Santa Cruz, manages the Ruth-Marion Baruch and Pirkle Jones archive. Her commitment to making these collections accessible reflects her broader dedication to archival preservation and education.
The exhibition was an opportunity to explore the legacy of Ruth-Marion Baruch and her contributions to the California School of Photography.
Dorothea Lange – Grab A Hunk Of Lightning
7 PM • Thursday March 21st
Booth western Art Museum – Cartersville GA
An intimate discussion on Dorothea Lange and her work with guests Dyanna Taylor (Lange’s granddaughter and maker of the 2014 film Dorothea Lange: Grab a Hunk of Lightning for PBS American Masters) and Elizabeth Partridge (Lifetime Lange family friend and author of the book Dorothea Lange: Grab a Hunk of Lighting) . The program featured images and clips from Taylor’s film biography and personal insights and memories.
Booth Museum – Art For Lunch
The California School:
Decades of Photographic Innovation
The California School – Two Decades of Photographic Innovation – Dorothea Lange to Edward Weston and Ansel Adams to Pirkle Jones. Collector and Lumière founder Robert Yellowlees explored the unique personal and professional synergies leading to iconic photographs of a Golden Period from the 1930’s-1950’s and beyond. Also discussed will be, Imogen Cunningham, Wynn Bullock, Brett Weston, Cole Weston, Ruth-Marion Baruch and Philip Hyde they pushed limits and created new movements still influencing the art.
Below is a video for you to view the talk posted on the Booth Museum’s YouTube page.
Total Run length: 59:54
Death Of A Valley – Opening Events
Featuring photographs by two of the 20th century’s most important photographers, Death of a Valley is a nearly 70-year-old story full of contemporary issues such as water policy, private property rights, land conservation and local governance vs. state and federal jurisdiction.
The exhibition runs from November 11, 2023, through June 9, 2024. A Special Booth Members took place on Saturday, November 18, 4-7 pm, with gallery walks, a reception and two guest speakers. Pirkle Jones’ archivist, Jennifer McFarland, and Jessica Pigza, Associate Director of the Arts Library Special Collections at Yale University. Below is video of the opening event.
Born to Be Wild: A Dennis Hopper Mini Fest
Saturday & Sunday October 14th & 15th
@ the TARA Theatre, 2345 Cheshire Bridge Road N.E.
Purchase Tickets Here
The Breman and Tara Theatre will present Born to Be Wild: A Dennis Hopper Mini Fest hosted by Dr. Eddy Von Mauer, featuring screenings of three films starring the edgy character actor, at the Tara Theatre on Saturday and Sunday, October 14-15, 2023. The screenings are being presented in conjunction with The Breman’s exhibition ICONS: Selections from The Portrait Unbound, Photography by Robert Weingarten.
The Tara, Atlanta’s beloved art house movie theater, located at 2345 Cheshire Bridge Road N.E.
Tickets: $13 matinee, $15 evening, Purchase Tickets Here.
Breman members use the promo code BREM for a 15% discount.
An actor, director, screenwriter and photographer, Hopper rose to fame as a countercultural icon in the 1960s and later developed into a character actor noted for inhabiting characters with a dark side. The actor’s intensity will be well displayed in Born to Be Wild: A Dennis Hopper Mini Fest. Here are capsules of the three films:
Blue Velvet (8:00 p.m. Saturday October 14th): The discovery of a severed human ear found in a field leads a young man on an investigation related to a beautiful, mysterious nightclub singer and a group of criminals who have kidnapped her child.
Hoosiers (4:30 p.m. Sunday October 15th): Also released in 1986, this is a more conventional and sentimental film than Hopper’s usual, a winning sports movie about a small-town Indiana high school basketball team that competes in the state championships in the 1950s. Hopper plays the alcoholic assistant coach, aiding Gene Hackman’s head coach with a spotty past. Hopper was recognized with an Academy Award nomination for best supporting actor.
Easy Rider (7:30 PM on Sunday October 15th): A cross-country trip to sell drugs puts two hippie bikers on a collision course with small-town prejudices.
PHOTOGRAPHY TALK – Pushing Boundaries
Sunday September 10th, 2 PM @ the Breman Museum
Robert Weingarten & Shannon Perich
Register for Your Free Tickets Here
Robert Weingarten provides an Overview of The Portrait Unbound
Self Portrait of Robert Weingarten from the Portrait Unbound
An illuminating discussion on the development of photographic portraiture that led to Robert Weingarten’s groundbreaking work now on view at The Breman. Join photographer Robert Weingarten and Shannon Perich, associate curator in the Photographic History Collection at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History and author of The Changing Face of Portrait Photography: From Daguerreotype to Digital.
Sports Talk – Hank Aaron
Sunday August 13th, @ 1 PM with Zack Klein & Jeff Schultz
HANK AARON: Portrait of the Player and the Man
Hank Aaron
Zach Klein, sports director for Channel 2 Action News, and Jeff Schultz, senior writer for The Athletic, discussed the amazing highs and sobering challenges that were never far apart in “The Hammer’s” world.
Hank Aaron reached the pinnacle of Major League Baseball when he broke Babe Ruth’s home run record in 1974, but getting there was not easy for reasons that went well beyond the field of play. The estimated 900,000 letters the Atlanta Braves outfielder received in 1973 was reported to have contained many hundreds of racist attacks and death threats. It wasn’t the first time that Aaron had prevailed in the face of racism. He started his career in the segregated Negro American League as an 18-year-old in 1951, and when he made it to the Majors in 1954, he often slept in railcars in which the Milwaukee Braves traveled since most of the hotels where his teammates stayed were white only. Aaron radiated dignity in public, but the inequities and threats were a burden he carried into his successful post-playing career in Atlanta, the self-promoted “City Too Busy to Hate.”
In The Breman program “Hank Aaron: Portrait of the Player and the Man,” Zach Klein, sports director for Channel 2 Action News, and Jeff Schultz, senior writer for The Athletic, explored the amazing highs and sobering hardships that were never far apart in “The Hammer’s” world.
The program was another in a series focused on photographer Robert Weingarten’s biographical portraits, including one of Aaron, in The Breman’s current photography exhibition “ICONS: Selections from the Portrait Unbound.” “ICONS” curator Tony Casadonte was in the gallery to discuss Weingarten’s groundbreaking portraits before and after the talk.
DANCE TALK: In Step with Baryshnikov
Sunday July 16th, @ 2 PM
John Heginbotham & John Welker
One of the subjects of Robert Weingarten’s “biographical portraits” in The Breman’s exhibition ICONS, Selections from The Portrait Unbound is Mikhail Baryshnikov.
In a perfect afternoon for visual and performing arts lovers, enjoy Robert Weingarten’s exhibition of biographical portraits, then sit back and enjoy a stimulating conversation between dance company artistic directors John Heginbotham (New York’s Dance Heginbotham) and John Welker (Atlanta’s Terminus Modern Ballet Theatre) as they discuss Heginbotham’s work with the legendary dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov and compare notes on the always-on-the-move world of choreography.
During the 2 pm to 3:30 pm program, Welker will serve as moderator as Heginbotham discusses working with Misha (Baryshnikov) and how he as a choreographer creates stories through movement.
During another program segment, Heginbotham will get the audience itself moving with a phrase of movement he choreographed for Baryshnikov.
Q&A will conclude the program.
After the program, enjoy our free Something Special Sunday Presented by Marilyn Ginsberg Eckstein reception featuring baked treats and lemonade, meet fellow audience members and take a look at the ICONS exhibition with curator Tony Casadonte in the gallery to share insights and answer your questions.
Previous Events at the Breman Museum – ICONS
Sunday June 25 – Kendall Rae Johnson
Connecting “aGROWKulture” with Arts & Culture
Kendall Rae Johnson the amazing 8-year-old along with her mother Ursula present the story of how 6-year-old Kendall became the youngest certified farmer in the State of Georgia. They will give tips on growing your own edible garden for urban to suburban gardens.
aGROWKulture pronounced as (ay, grō /ˈkəlCHər/), is the first urban farm located in the soul of Southwest Atlanta specializing in ag-education within conservation and sustainability. It’s owned by “The Youngest Certified Farmer In the state of Georgia” Kendall Rae Johnson and operated by her mom and dad.
This program is inspired by the portrait of Alice Waters, an American chef famous for her role in creating the farm-to-table restaurant movement, and founder of the Edible Schoolyard Project, an organization dedicated to the transformation of public education by using organic school gardens, kitchens, and cafeterias to teach both academic subjects and the values of nourishment, stewardship, and community, in the ICONS, Selections from The Portrait Unbound, Photography by Robert Weingarten currently on display.
Sunday June 25
Rip, Snip, Glue – Collage Art Workshop
Discover the collage photography of Robert Weingarten, then create your own colorful collage art.
For parents and children aged 6+.
Starting at 1 PM your instructor, Jane Leavey will take participants through the ICONS Selections from The Portrait Unbound, Photography by Robert Weingarten exhibition and encourage everyone to discover the images in the collage portraits. She will then provide materials and guide the class in the creation of their own colorful collage portraits.
Press for ICONS @ The Breman Museum
The exhibition: ICONS: Selections from the Portrait Unbound, featuring the photography of Bob Weingarten, has received glowing press and exposure. Below are descriptions and links to the content from local public radio WABE, ArtsATL and the Atlanta Journal and Consitution and an earlier review from Rough Draft Atlanta.
WABE – City Lights
Bob Weingarten speaks with Summer Evans in this 24 minute interview. Discussing his personal history and his work currently on-view at the Breman Museum in Midtown Atlanta. To hear the entire discussion follow this link the the WABE website.
ArtsATL and The Atlanta Journal and Constitution
A review of the exhibition, written by Robert Stalker can be found on the ArtsATL website (May 11, 2023) and also republished on the Atlanta Journal and Constitution website (May 12, 2023 – Paywall to view AJC content)
Rough Draft Atlanta
An additional review of the exhibition, written by Isadora Pennington can be found on the Rough Draft Atlanta website (April 12, 2023) at this link.
ArtsATL
A preview of the “Dance Talk” was published July 12th in ArtsATL.org. The program led by John Weljer with special guest John Heginbotham discuss their upcoming conversation about ballet great Mikhail Baryshnikov. ArtsATL website (July 12, 2023).
Season’s Greetings
Wishing Everyone A Happy Holiday Season
We hope you enjoy these winter images from gallery artists:
Rex Naden
Berenice Abbott
Julieanne Kost
Robert Glenn Ketchum
Bob Kolbrener
Peter Essick – New Book
Fernbank Forest – by Fall Line Press
The book is the result of a commission from Fernbank Museum to document Fernbank, a 65 acre old-growth forest in Atlanta proper, during a period of restoration. Essick photographed the forest over a two-year period with the goal to produce a personal vision of this natural ecosystem that can coexist with a large metropolitan city. The book contains an insightful essay by Janisse Ray, an American author whose work grapples with the beauty, intricacy, and heartbreak of the biosphere. She tells the story of how Emily Harrison worked to preserve the forest beginning in the 1930s.
Purchase a copy from Fall Line Press.
Fernbank Forest has also been featured in the following publications:
LenS/cratch
South By Southeast Photomagazine
Atlanta Journal and Constitution
Telfair Museum Features Edward Weston
On March 2nd the Telfair Museum in Savannah GA opened an exhibition titled: Bonaventure: A Historic Cemetery in Art, it will run until September 23, 2018. Lumière was pleased to loan a photograph of the iconic cemetery taken by Edward Weston for the exhibition.
In May of 1941 Weston and his recent bride Charis Wilson began a trip working on a commission to illustrate a new edition of Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass. The journey would cover 20,000 miles through 24 states, after the attack of Pearl Harbor in December they curtailed the project and returned to California. During this trip Weston took between 700 and 800 8×10 negatives as well as dozens of Graflex portraits.
Edward Weston – St Bonaventure Cemetery, Savannah, GA, 1941
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Rondal Partridge (1917 – 2015)
With sadness we announce the passing of Rondal Partridge on June 19, 2015. Ron was truly a unique individual and will be missed by all who had the good fortune to know him. Additional bio information, a selection of his images, and a clip from the film: “Outta My Light” can be found on his artist page. Links to several obituaries can be found below.
Rex Naden • Featured in American Lifestyle Magazine
We are pleased to call attention to a recently published profile on photographer Rex Naden.
Emerald Isle, 2012
Jon Kolkin – Comments on his Tide Pool series
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Al Weber Collectors Edition Portfolio Now Available
Lumière is pleased to announce the addition of a portfolio by photographer Al Weber, to the Collectors Edition Portfolios.
This portfolio, selected in consultation with the artist, represents work from a 2011 exhibition of his photographs at the Center for Photography Arts in Carmel California. Al Weber’s career in photography spans six decades. The subjects of his work run the gamut from aerial and architectural photography to portraits, abstracts, and imagery of the American Southwest. E-MAIL for more information.
Photography as Propaganda
Politics and the Utopian Dream
Lumière
The exhibition illustrated how artistic expression and creativity can coexist with photography’s ability to abstract time and space, providing a potent vehicle with which to communicate a point of view.
Whether migrating a nation to a utopian social and economic order or framing public policy debates, the power of the photographic image was used effectively in the 20th Century by both totalitarian and democratic leaders.
This exhibition illustrated its’ power to inform and influence. It reminded us of the future impact potential of imagery to amplify ideas using an array of new electronic technologies.
Including photography by: Boris Ignatovich, Dorothea Lange, Yevgeny Khaldei, Peter Sekaer, Ivan Shagin John Gutmann, Alexandr Ustinov, Rondal Partridge, Max Alpert & Georgi Zelma
Previous Exhibition – Summer Selections
July 15 – September 2, 2011
Selections from 6 master photographers, images displayed a wide diversity of subject, process, and styles.
View the Exhibition.
Henri Cartier-Bresson . . . In Context
This program was the second in the series. It complemented the Museum of Modern Art, (NY) major retrospective: Henri Cartier-Bresson, The Modern Century, exhibited at the High Museum of Art, Feb. – May 2011.
The images were selected from Lumière’s collection and featured master photographers of the twentieth century whose work overlapped that of Henri Cartier-Bresson. Including work by: André Kertész, Helen Levitt, Yevgeny Khaldei, John Gutmann, Marc Riboud, Bert Hardy, Dorothea Lange, Boris Ignatovich and Edward Weston.
Peter Sekaer . . . In Context – Collector’s Gallery
Featuring the exceptional photography of Peter Sekaer in the context of other notable artists of the period.
Berenice Abbott Arnold Newman Alexander Rodchenko
Dorothea Lange John Gutmann Rondal Partridge
Sekaer, born in Copenhagen, Denmark, in 1901, immigrated to the United States in 1918. After successfully operating a printing business in New York City producing posters, advertisements and window displays, he enrolled in the Art Students League in 1929 to study painting.
By 1934 Sekaer had left painting behind to study photography with Berenice Abbott. Through his friendship with Walker Evans he secured contracts from 1936 to 1943 to work on assignment as a photographer for various government agencies.
“Sekaer’s photographs show an outsider’s objectivity and detachment coupled with an insider’s commitment and concern for the subject.”
Julian Cox, Curator of Photography, High Museum of Art
The exhibition was organized to compliment the High Museum of Art’s exhibition, Signs of Life: Photographs by Peter Sekaer.
A Review on Arts Critic ATL can be read HERE.
The New York Times review (6/3/10) of the High Museum exhibition can be read HERE.
