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23/9/2005

Regarding the Rural

Mass MoCA, North Adams

(North Adams, Mass.) Among contemporary photographers, several are working to breathe new life into a distinctly American genre: rural photography. The act of documenting people and places in rural America is not new – during the New Deal era, government organizations such as the Farm Security Administration (FSA) sponsored photographers such as Walker Evans and Dorothea Lange to record the impact of the Great Depression on rural communities. The resulting photographs, which were widely distributed in newspapers and magazines, served as a way to “introduce Americans to America” as well as drum up support for New Deal rural programs. While the political and social context has changed, this tradition continues today in the work of William Christenberry, Matthew Moore, Julie Moos, Paul Shambroom, and Alec Soth, the artists that comprise MASS MoCA’s newest exhibition Regarding the Rural. The exhibition opens on Saturday, September 24, 2005, and will run through the end of December 2005.

Through their use of color photography and depiction of present-day society, these artists infuse the tradition of rural photography with distinctly contemporary issues. Rather than demonstrating the plight of Depression-era farmers, the artists of Regarding the Rural document town meetings, photograph the new face of corporate American farmers, address development and the loss of farmland, and turn the spotlight not just on people but on place as well. In an era of “red” states and “blue” states, the artists in Regarding the Rural neither glorify nor condemn contemporary rural America. Rather, they raise important and timely questions about our connection to the land, to our government, and to each other.

William Christenberry was born in Hale County, Alabama, in 1939, the year Walker Evans and James Agee began photographing and documenting the lives of three Hale County families. Evans’ and Agee’s collaboration later resulted in the landmark book Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, a text that inspired Christenberry to take another look at his community through the lens of his own brownie camera. His series of sixteen photographs titled Red Building in Forest, 1974-2001, documents one such building over the course of 25 years.

Matthew Moore, a farmer and artist based outside Phoenix, Arizona, has been watching the landscape around his family farm transform from farmland to suburban neighborhoods overnight. In Rotations – Single Family Residence (2004) Moore used a 20-acre field of barley (tilled entirely by hand) as a canvas to create an enlarged floor plan of a model home. Moore documented the action with photographs taken both aerially and on the ground.

Born in Ottawa, Canada, Julie Moos now lives and works in Birmingham, Alabama. Well-known for her portraits with paired sitters, Moos’ style documents the complexity of human relationships. In 2002, Moos photographed Missouri and Illinois farmers for her series called Monsanto. The portraits show pairs of people standing against the backdrop of their farmland; their unifying characteristic is that they all grow genetically altered crops developed by Monsanto.

For his Meetings series, Paul Shambroom traveled around the country documenting town council meetings in rural communities. His photographs, which are nearly life-size, show town officials behind a table in the midst of the political decision-making process. By putting the viewer face to face with the people who make decisions on the local level, Shambroom attempts to break down seemingly overwhelming and abstract power systems. One of the two Shambroom photographs in Regarding the Rural was taken at a town council meeting in Buckland, Massachusetts, which lies about 20 miles east of North Adams in the Berkshires.

Alec Soth’s photos come from a project called Sleeping by the Mississippi and document his five-year trip down the length of the Mississippi River. Following in the tradition of Walker Evans and Robert Frank, Soth’s journey began in his home state of Minnesota and led him all the way down to Louisiana’s Gulf Coast. His photographs of buildings, landscapes, people, and interiors give the viewer a glimpse into the lives of people and communities along the Mississippi River.

MASS MoCA’s galleries are open from 11 – 5, closed Tuesdays. Admission is $10 adults, $8 students, $4 children 6 -16 and free for children 5 and under. Members are admitted free at all times. More information on MASS MoCA and the exhibition is available at www.massmoca.org or by calling 413. 662. 2111.

MASS MoCA, the largest center for contemporary visual and performing arts in the United States, is located off Marshall Street in North Adams on a 13-acre campus of renovated 19th-century factory buildings.

Lenora Farrington
Marketing Coordinator
MASS MoCA
413.664.4481 x8111

Contact: Katherine Myers
(413) 664-4481 x8113
katherine@massmoca.org

Massmoca
87 Marshall Street
North Adams

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