Between Past and Present: The Homer Studio Photographic Project

In conjunction with the opening of the Winslow Homer Studio in September 2012, the museum commissioned five contemporary photographers to reflect on this historic structure and its setting with works that combined the latest digital technologies with a variety of historic processes available during Homer’s lifetime. They employed both historic, large-plate cameras and modern digital cameras, and a variety of print processes. The earliest method of making images of the real world with light—the camera obscura—is the technique explored by Abelardo Morell with his unique tent camera. Alan Vlach specializes in salted paper prints, the first form of prints made from negatives, introduced in England in the 1840s. Keliy Anderson-Staley developed her collodion prints outdoors at Prouts Neck using a portable darkroom, much like 19th-century portrait photographers. And the gum bichromate and platinum prints, produced by Brenton Hamilton and Tillman Crane, represent the type of fine art photography most used during Homer’s day. These historical processes in the hands of today’s photographers simultaneously evoke the past and capture the present.

Museum hours: Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday, Sunday: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Friday: 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.