After photography’s inception in the early 1800s, the camera quickly became a desirable mechanism for portrait making, and humans an endlessly fascinating subject on which to focus the lens.
Much more than documentation of a moment in time, portraiture’s aim is often to capture something significant about the sitter. From carefully composed scenes to spontaneous snapshots, the portrait photograph tells a story, contrived or truthful. Seventeen gelatin silver prints and one color photograph highlight the individuality of the subjects – including rare and intimate portraits of Marlon Brando, Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin – as well as the distinctive artistic perspectives of the photographers. Artists on exhibit in “Striking Poses” include Mary Ellen Mark, Anne Noggle, Abigail Perlmutter, Berni Schoenfield, Bert Stern, Brett Weston and Edward Weston.
“Striking Poses” is on view through January 26 in the second-floor Preview Gallery.
(pictured, top: “Buster Keaton on the Set of Limelight,” 1952, Berni Schoenfield (American, 1922-1999), Gelatin silver print, Gift of Marjorie M. Cheatley and Marcia Koblos Shattuck.)
(pictured: “Yolanda,” 1978, Anne Noggle (American, 1922-2005), Gift of the Anne Noggle Foundation.)