Finding Solace in the Soil
An Archaeology of Gardens and Gardeners at Amache
“A masterwork of place-specific art history and a master class in how the story of the second half of the twentieth century can be discovered in the details of cultural activity—in this case, photography in Colorado. Judicious and deeply researched, the book fills in the blanks about the 1951 Aspen photography conference, an unprecedented gathering of photography luminaries, about the Center for the Eye, Cherie Hiser’s legendary but little understood summer workshop, and much else. In addition, Rupert Jenkins brings overdue recognition to the accomplishments of photographers Myron Wood and Burnis McCloud, galleryist Hal Gould, and artist-teachers Barbara Jo Revelle and Ellen Manchester, among many others. The wide selection of photographs accompanying Jenkins’s text is icing on the cake.”
—Andy Grundberg, George Washington University, author of How Photography Became Contemporary Art
"This wonderful book reveals a lively and important photography community that thrived in the Midwest. It's a great story."
—Sandra S. Phillips, Curator Emerita of Photography, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
"A pioneering effort to create a definitive account of Colorado’s unique place in the history of modern fine art photography in the second half of the twentieth century. Jenkins has woven a complex story of the varied ways in which Colorado photographers absorbed and participated in the great international currents of the then-contemporary photographic art of their times. Outside Influence is a must-have for anyone interested in the development of fine art photography in one of the most photogenic locales on earth."
—Michael Paglia, Denver-based art critic and art historian
—Michael Paglia, Denver-based art critic and art historian
“An exceptionally good read and an important contribution to the still nascent and incomplete field of photographic history.”
—Thom Sempere, Associate Curator of Photography at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art
Outside Influence: Photography in Colorado,1945–1995 is the first detailed account of the state’s history of post–World War II expressive photography. Outside Influence alludes to the historic presence of the natural landscape as subject and also to the transformative impact of out-of-state artists and educators. Their arrival in Colorado beginning in the 1960s galvanized interpretive photography by introducing innovative concepts, nontraditional materials, and emergent digital technologies to students, peers, and their audience-at-large.
Throughout the book’s nine chapters, Rupert Jenkins contextualizes Colorado photography’s postwar development with a social, political, and cultural abstract that encompasses national events and trends, the emerging presence of women and photographers of color, and institutional leadership. Drawing from more than 120 personal interviews, Jenkins identifies the medium’s principal in-state creators, mentors, and advocates from the modernist era of film processing to the emergence of interdisciplinary digital practice. Jenkins answers fundamental questions about the people and work of this era: Who generated this significant body of innovative, noncommercial photographic work? Where did they come from? Who inspired them, and who in turn did they inspire?
As Eric Paddock, curator of photography at the Denver Art Museum, discusses in his foreword, by looking at the schools, workshops, galleries, and museums that supported these artists, Jenkins stresses the importance of collaboration and community to any successful venture. Crucially, in examining the lives and careers of photographers like Robert Adams, Walter Chappell, Albert Chong, Cherie Hiser, Barbara Houghton, Winter Prather, Mark Sink, Melanie Walker, Myron Wood, and numerous others, Outside Influence seeks to affirm the medium’s legacy within Colorado’s fine arts canon.
