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Curator's Corner

Pioneering Photographer: Frances Benjamin Johnston

Monday, June 9, 2025 | Karl Cole

It’s high time we celebrate the art of photographer Frances Benjamin Johnston. She is considered by most art historians to have been the first “press photographer,” photographing fam ...

Curator's Corner

Artist Birthday: William H. Jackson

Friday, April 4, 2025 | Karl Cole

Jackson took photographs of Shoshone Falls numerous times from every conceivable angle. Like the other photographers who were early chroniclers of the Western territories, Jackson's photographs emphas ...

Curator's Corner

Documenting Child Labor: Jacob Riis

Monday, March 25, 2024 | Karl Cole

If we think that only adult women have played an important role in American history, then we are sadly mistaken. Before child labor laws were passed in the United States (1 September 1916), young wome ...

Curator's Corner

Women's History Month: Lucretia Mott

Monday, March 11, 2024 | Karl Cole

The beginnings of the women’s rights movement in the United States occurred at the same time as early developments in photography in this country. To celebrate Women’s History Month, I pre ...

Curator's Corner

Martin Luther King Jr. Day: Dean Brown

Monday, January 15, 2024 | Karl Cole

This year, Martin Luther King Jr. Day falls on the actual birthday of this great American leader. To mark the day, I will show you the work of photographer Dean Brown. The artist died way too young pu ...

Curator's Corner

The Intangible in Japanese Photography

Monday, October 30, 2023 | Karl Cole

Traditional reverence for nature—a mainstay in most Japanese art forms throughout art history—continues in the work of contemporary Japanese artists. After a couple of beautifully foggy mo ...

Curator's Corner

Art about Working People

Tuesday, September 5, 2023 | Karl Cole

The earliest ideas about a day to honor working Americans came about from labor unions in the 1880s. In fact, the idea of a national holiday is thought to have come from labor union officials in New Y ...

Curator's Corner

Women's History Month: Lucy Ashjian

Monday, March 20, 2023 | Karl Cole

In the first half of the 1900s, there were numerous pioneering women documentary photographers who defined the genre. This was particularly true during the Great Depression (1929–1940), the seve ...

Curator's Corner

Pride Month 2022: Robert Mapplethorpe

Monday, June 27, 2022 | Karl Cole

Part of a glittering gay culture of New York in the late 1970s and 1980s, Robert Mapplethorpe is most remembered for his photographs of male nudes. However, his body of work was not restricted to any ...

Curator's Corner

Pride Month 2021 II: Berenice Abbott

Monday, June 7, 2021 | Karl Cole

By the time of the severe world economic downturn of the Great Depression (1929–1940) in America, many women artists were professional photographers and extremely successful in the field of ...

Curator's Corner

Pride Month: Zanele Muholi

Monday, June 15, 2020 | Karl Cole

My Pride Month celebration continues with photographer Zanele Muholi. ...

Curator's Corner

Art of Libraries

Monday, April 20, 2020 | Karl Cole

April 20th through 27th is National Library Week. We all like libraries. Like museums, they have such a special ambience. In order to celebrate that in an art historical manner, let’s look at so ...

Curator's Corner

Artists and Refugees: Lewis Hine

Monday, July 14, 2014 | Karl Cole

It often astounds me how little we learn from history (and by “we” I mean we human beings: any culture on this planet!). If you need reminding, I mention the massive immigrant/refugee cris ...

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black and white photography

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Pioneering Photographer: Frances Benjamin Johnston

Artist Birthday: William H. Jackson

Documenting Child Labor: Jacob Riis

Women's History Month: Lucretia Mott

Martin Luther King Jr. Day: Dean Brown

The Intangible in Japanese Photography

Art about Working People

Women's History Month: Lucy Ashjian

Pride Month 2022: Robert Mapplethorpe

Pride Month 2021 II: Berenice Abbott

Pride Month: Zanele Muholi

Art of Libraries

Artists and Refugees: Lewis Hine

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