Pure Photography @ Photo Basel 2023 – 20th Century Floral Masterworks – Special Exhibition

Pure Photography

20th Century Floral Masterworks

Photo Basel 2023

13 – 18 June, 2023

Ansel Adams

«Leaves» (1942)

© Ansel Adams Publishing Rights Trust. 

All rights reserved

Don Worth

Agave victoriae reginae, 1975 

© Don Worth Photography Trust

All rights reserved

Wynn Bullock

Child in the Forest, 1951

© Wynn Bullock Photography LLC

All rights reserved

In cooperation with WBB GALLERY (Zurich), photo basel 2023 presents the curated special exhibition "Pure Photography. 20th Century Floral Masterworks" with photographs by Ansel Adams, Imogen Cunningham, Brett Weston, Edward Weston, Don Worth and other photographers. The works are from a Swiss private collection.

The term "Pure Photography" was shaped by the legendary Group f/64, which was active in the greater San Francisco area from 1932. The photographers of this grouping opposed the prevailing pictorialism, which attempted to bring the "artist's hand" into photographs through elaborate printing techniques and the manipulation of negatives and photographs, in order to establish the medium of photography as a fully-fledged means of artistic expression. The representatives of the Group f/64 wanted to free black-and-white photography from the pictorialist approach and manipulation. Their goal was authenticity and purity, as well as technical perfection in the darkroom. The creation of the finest grayscales and deep blacks led to a photographic language whose aesthetics often took on abstract features and made the smallest details visible. The pioneers of the time fundamentally changed the perception and understanding of photography. Their contribution inspired generations of photographers, even today, and led to photography as a medium being elevated to the status of art for the first time.

Photographers exhibited in «Pure Photography»: Imogen Cunningham (1883 – 1976) • Edward Weston (1886 – 1958) • Ansel Adams (1902 – 1984) • Wynn Bullock (1902 – 1975) • Willard Van Dyke (1906 – 1986) • Brett Weston (1911 – 1993) • Morley Baer (1916 – 1995) • Don Worth (1924 – 2009) • Paul Caponigro (*1932) • Bob Kolbrener (*1942) • Robert Mapplethrope (1946 – 1989) • Michael Miner (*1949) • John Sexton (*1953) • Roman Loranc (*1956)

PHOTO BASEL 2023

Volkshaus Basel

Rebgasse 12, 4058 Basel

www.photo-basel.com

Wynn Bullock: Seeking Answers, de Saisset Museum, Santa Clara University

Wynn Bullock: Seeking Answers

de Saisset Museum, Santa Clara University

April 12 – June 30, 2013

The de Saisset Museum at Santa Clara University explores the work of one of California’s most significant 20th-century photographers in Seeking Answers, a new exhibit of images by WYNN BULLOCK (1902-1975). The show includes six never-before-seen photographs.

Best known for his striking black-and-white photographs of landscapes and figures in nature, the  career of the Carmel-based photographer was marked by experimentation and a quest for deeper understanding. “As long as I can remember, I have been filled with a deep desire to find a means of creatively interacting with the work, of understanding what is within and around me,” he once said. “When I photograph, what I’m really doing is seeking answers to things.”

Though he was active alongside well-known California photographers Ansel Adams, Imogen Cunningham, and Edward Weston, Wynn Bullock’s interest in developing and working with new photographic techniques set him apart from the “straight” photography of his peers. In the 1940s, he investigated solarization, eventually earning a patent for his distinctive process. In the 1960s, he began to work with color and light, experimenting with the elements to see how they would react and interact with one another. His investigations resulted in a suite of vibrant, colorful images at a time when color photography was in its early stages. By the 1970s, Wynn Bullock was using various techniques, like negative reversals and flipped images, to enhance the photographs taken with his camera.

This exhibition features approximately 50 black-and-white photographs and six color light abstractions that speak to the breadth of works within Wynn Bullock’s portfolio. “He always wanted to push the boundaries and develop new ways of working,” said Lindsey Kouvaris, curator of exhibits and collections at the de Saisset Museum. “This exhibition illustrates that on many levels. Six never-before-seen photographs that will be paired with the artist’s final prints to demonstrate his unique working process.”

The works featured in the show not only highlight his interest in experimentation, but call out a lesser known facet of his work—his inclination toward abstraction. Together the photographs illustrate Wynn Bullock’s ongoing journey to self-discovery and his search for a means of communicating nature’s mysteries through the printed image. “Searching is everything—going beyond what you know,” he said. “The test of the search is really the things themselves, the things you seek to understand. What is important is not what you think about them, but how they enlarge you.”

DE SAISSET MUSEUM

Santa Clara University

500 El Camino Real, Santa Clara, California 95053

www.scu.edu