COVER STORY
Zoom in on photography
Around Kenmore Square
For the visually hyper, Kenmore Square is where it's at. It looks like a photograph - a surreal, dysfunctional urban intersection of three wide streets (Commonwealth, Beacon, Brookline) with an architectural hodgepodge of brownstones, storefronts, a looming Barnes & Noble, Boston University students on cell phones, frank-eating fans from Fenway Park, and above it all, the neon Citgo sign glows. The Charles River and the flexible boughs of willow trees on the riverbank are a block away.
There's a lot to see inside, too: the motherlode of the Photographic Resource Center, the New England School of Photography, and BU's Mugar Memorial Library.
Photographic Resource Center, 602 Commonwealth Ave., Boston. 617-353-0700. (Get directions).
The Photographic Resource Center is one-stop shopping for the photo buff. The nonprofit organization offers changing exhibitions (generally two at a time), a library, lectures, classes, and a bi-monthly newsletter, "In the Loupe," that alone is worth the annual $45 membership. The September/October edition features everything from articles on exhibitions and background on workshops, to announcements about members' shows and books.
You can time-travel through the Center's current exhibitions, both running through Dec. 17. "Photography in Human Experience: Photographs from the Collection of the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities" features century-old photos of families, including artfully posed gatherings on special occasions that reveal how people wished to be remembered. "Gathering Information: Photography and the Media," which opens tomorrow (reception tonight, 5:30-7:30 p.m.), zeroes in on how information overload numbs us to images of violence, tragedy, and suffering. Guest curator Susan Erony invited 11 photographers, including Lee Barron and Nadine Boughton of Boston, to contribute work.
Boston University Mugar Memorial Library, BU Department of Special Collections, 771 Commonwealth Ave., Boston. 617-353-3696. (Get directions).
Boston University's Mugar Memorial Library, courtesy of BU's Department of Special Collections, is a kind of mini-Smithsonian close to home. Anything interesting and imaginative goes - from Dennis the Menace to Gertrude Stein (and that was just September). Starting Nov. 18, "Bradford Washburn: Papers of the Eminent Cartographer, Explorer, Photographer," begins an extended run. Washburn, 89, director of the Museum of Science for four decades, is a mountaineer.
New England School of Photography, 537 Commonwealth Ave., Boston. 617-437-1868. (Get directions).
Back in the automotive mayhem of Kenmore Square, visit the sprawling New England School of Photography, often called NESOP ("knee-sop"). The building's humdrum exterior leads to a lively interior. Over 100 full-time students are enrolled in NESOP's two-year Professional Photography Program. Scores of others take workshops like basic photography, platinum printing, and advanced color darkroom.
Explore NESOP's Gallery One, where photography shows change every six weeks. Keep an eye on the school's lecture schedule, too; sometimes the authors are photojournalists such as Marilyn Root, who recently presented her book on women and their cars, while other readers are poets, essayists, preachers.
The gallery's current show, "Creatures" (through Dec. 10), showcases the black and white photography of Henry Horenstein - enigmatic, elegant, organic forms of animals in zoos and aquariums. The creatures are captive, often artificially lighted, and convey an eerie quality. Horenstein is professor of photography at the Rhode Island School of Design.
The Art Institute of Boston, 700 Beacon St., Boston. 617-262-1223. (Get directions).
Just west of Kenmore Square, visit the Art Institute of Boston - now officially known as the Art Institute of Boston at Lesley College - for its impressive gallery offerings and visiting artists lecture series, as well as to learn about degree and non-degree photography programs. The institute is a four-year college offering degrees in design, illustration, fine arts, and photography, but that's just the tip of the iceberg. The school's gallery mounts changing exhibitions, including those of historic and contemporary photography.
"Stamps, Cinderellas & Artistamps," a show on alternative stamps (they won't go through the mail, but they're offbeat, inventive, and a lesson in small-scale composition) opens Nov. 12 (reception Nov. 18, 5-7 p.m.).
In February, just as the MFA's new "Pharaohs of the Sun" exhibition closes, the Art Institute's gallery will show "19th and 20th Century Photographic Views of Giza" (Feb. 3-March 19).
The school's far-ranging duPont Lecture Series features sculptors, photojournalists, designers, and photographers, often using BU venues to gather an eclectic audience. On Nov. 18, you'll likely find people interested in art, anthropology, drama, and photography at a presentation by Korean artist Hae-Won Won; it will be 7-9 p.m. at BU's Photonics Center, 8 St. Mary's Street.
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