Kentucky native to discuss gift in Nov. 17 public
lecture at MTSU
MURFREESBORO,
Tenn. — Award-winning environmental portrait photographer Shelby Lee Adams
will create at Middle Tennessee State University a special archive of his works
that explore rural Appalachian family life.
Adams, whose friendship
with MTSU professor Tom Jimison led to the creation of the archive, will
provide a significant portion of his photographic collection to the Baldwin
Photographic Gallery in the College of Media and Entertainment.
Adams will discuss the
gift during his appearance on the MTSU campus at 7 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 17, for
a lecture on his career and works. The event, which is free and open to the
public, will be held in Room 221 of the Ned McWherter Learning Resource Center,
1558 Military Memorial.
The Eastern Kentucky
native will allow MTSU to keep part of the proceeds from sales of prints of his
compelling portfolio of powerful images created from more than four decades of
visiting, photographing and collaborating with families in Appalachia.
“An artist of the magnitude of Shelby Lee
Adams will raise the stature of the Baldwin gallery and raise the consciousness
of students and scholars looking to understand the conditions and quality of
life in Appalachia,” said MTSU President Sidney A. McPhee.
“We are honored that Mr. Adams has entrusted
our university to ensure the legacy of his work and allow it to educate and
inform our students and our communities,” McPhee said.
Adams met Jimison in
1980, when Jimison asked the photographer to exhibit his work at the University
of Dayton, where Jimison was teaching. “It was my first one-person exhibition,”
Adams recalled. “We became fast friends and we have continued our
relationship.”
Also, it made sense for
MTSU to house the archive, Adams said, because of the “proximity of MTSU to the
people in the mountains of Eastern Kentucky I have photographed and the fact
the people I have photographed will receive a portion of the print sales.
“They will also be able to come to the archive
and enjoy the photographs — and receive digital photocopies of my work.”
A selection of Adams’
work can be found at a special exhibit in the Baldwin gallery that opened Oct.
24 and will run through Jan. 19. The gallery, located on the second floor of
the Bragg Media and Entertainment Building, is free and open to the public.
Check baldwinphotogallery.com for hours.
A Kirkus review of a book
of Adams’ 1993 work, “Appalachian Portraits,”
described his photographs as “frank, unsentimental but often affectionate.” His
photographs, the review said, show the effects of poverty but also “a resilience
and grace….
“These black-and-white
photographs of families gathered on the porches or in the crowded rooms of
their hardscrabble, venerable homes show a remarkable crispness of detail.”
Adams, 66, graduated from
the Cleveland Institute of Art in 1974 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts, then
earned master’s degrees in photography from the University of Iowa in 1975 and
a Master of Fine Arts from the Massachusetts College of the Arts in 1989.
He was one of seven
photographers selected by the National Endowment for the Arts in 1978 to
collectively make images in Kentucky for a publication, “Appalachia: A
Self-Portrait” and he received an NEA fellowship in 1992.
In 1989, he was selected
for the Massachusetts Artist Fellowship Program and, from 1989 to 1992, earned
artist support grants from Polaroid Corp. He received the Guggenheim
Photography Fellowship in 2010.
Adams said his
perspective was shaped by growing up in Appalachia during President Lyndon B.
Johnson’s “War on Poverty” program.
“Many of the media
representations of the people of the mountains of Eastern Kentucky were
disappointing or embarrassing,” he said. “I decided then to dedicate my life to
photographing the people of the mountains in a way that was both honest and
accepted by the subjects.”
A special limited-edition
print of the photograph “The Brothers Praying” (1993) will be offered to
initiate the archive’s funding. The printing of 12 images will be offered for
sale by MTSU. The negative will be permanently retired after this printing.
The Baldwin gallery, part
of the Department of Electronic Media Communication, is named for Professor
Emeritus Harold Baldwin, who established MTSU’s photography program in 1959 and
established the gallery five years later to expose the university community to
work by leading photographers. Jimison has curated the gallery since 1991.
The gallery, renamed in
1996 to honor Baldwin, grew from a hallway in the MTSU Ned McWherter Learning
Resource Center to a 1,300-square-foot facility in 2014 with museum-quality
lighting in the Bragg building, thanks to a $100,000 gift from Baldwin to
enhance the facility.
For off-campus visitors
interested in the Adams lecture and/or visiting the gallery, a searchable
campus parking map is available at http://tinyurl.com/MTSUParkingMap. Those visiting the
Baldwin gallery during normal business hours should obtain a special one-day
permit from MTSU’s Office of Parking and Transportation at http://www.mtsu.edu/parking/visit.php.
The College of Media and
Entertainment, first established as a department in 1972, then elevated to
school and finally college status by 1989, has focused on preparing students to
perform every facet of communicating news and information within their
specialties: journalism, electronic media and the recording industry.
Kentucky native to discuss gift in Nov. 17 public
lecture at MTSU
MURFREESBORO,
Tenn. — Award-winning environmental portrait photographer Shelby Lee Adams
will create at Middle Tennessee State University a special archive of his works
that explore rural Appalachian family life.
Adams, whose friendship
with MTSU professor Tom Jimison led to the creation of the archive, will
provide a significant portion of his photographic collection to the Baldwin
Photographic Gallery in the College of Media and Entertainment.
Adams will discuss the
gift during his appearance on the MTSU campus at 7 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 17, for
a lecture on his career and works. The event, which is free and open to the
public, will be held in Room 221 of the Ned McWherter Learning Resource Center,
1558 Military Memorial.
The Eastern Kentucky
native will allow MTSU to keep part of the proceeds from sales of prints of his
compelling portfolio of powerful images created from more than four decades of
visiting, photographing and collaborating with families in Appalachia.
“An artist of the magnitude of Shelby Lee
Adams will raise the stature of the Baldwin gallery and raise the consciousness
of students and scholars looking to understand the conditions and quality of
life in Appalachia,” said MTSU President Sidney A. McPhee.
“We are honored that Mr. Adams has entrusted
our university to ensure the legacy of his work and allow it to educate and
inform our students and our communities,” McPhee said.
Adams met Jimison in
1980, when Jimison asked the photographer to exhibit his work at the University
of Dayton, where Jimison was teaching. “It was my first one-person exhibition,”
Adams recalled. “We became fast friends and we have continued our
relationship.”
Also, it made sense for
MTSU to house the archive, Adams said, because of the “proximity of MTSU to the
people in the mountains of Eastern Kentucky I have photographed and the fact
the people I have photographed will receive a portion of the print sales.
“They will also be able to come to the archive
and enjoy the photographs — and receive digital photocopies of my work.”
A selection of Adams’
work can be found at a special exhibit in the Baldwin gallery that opened Oct.
24 and will run through Jan. 19. The gallery, located on the second floor of
the Bragg Media and Entertainment Building, is free and open to the public.
Check baldwinphotogallery.com for hours.
A Kirkus review of a book
of Adams’ 1993 work, “Appalachian Portraits,”
described his photographs as “frank, unsentimental but often affectionate.” His
photographs, the review said, show the effects of poverty but also “a resilience
and grace….
“These black-and-white
photographs of families gathered on the porches or in the crowded rooms of
their hardscrabble, venerable homes show a remarkable crispness of detail.”
Adams, 66, graduated from
the Cleveland Institute of Art in 1974 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts, then
earned master’s degrees in photography from the University of Iowa in 1975 and
a Master of Fine Arts from the Massachusetts College of the Arts in 1989.
He was one of seven
photographers selected by the National Endowment for the Arts in 1978 to
collectively make images in Kentucky for a publication, “Appalachia: A
Self-Portrait” and he received an NEA fellowship in 1992.
In 1989, he was selected
for the Massachusetts Artist Fellowship Program and, from 1989 to 1992, earned
artist support grants from Polaroid Corp. He received the Guggenheim
Photography Fellowship in 2010.
Adams said his
perspective was shaped by growing up in Appalachia during President Lyndon B.
Johnson’s “War on Poverty” program.
“Many of the media
representations of the people of the mountains of Eastern Kentucky were
disappointing or embarrassing,” he said. “I decided then to dedicate my life to
photographing the people of the mountains in a way that was both honest and
accepted by the subjects.”
A special limited-edition
print of the photograph “The Brothers Praying” (1993) will be offered to
initiate the archive’s funding. The printing of 12 images will be offered for
sale by MTSU. The negative will be permanently retired after this printing.
The Baldwin gallery, part
of the Department of Electronic Media Communication, is named for Professor
Emeritus Harold Baldwin, who established MTSU’s photography program in 1959 and
established the gallery five years later to expose the university community to
work by leading photographers. Jimison has curated the gallery since 1991.
The gallery, renamed in
1996 to honor Baldwin, grew from a hallway in the MTSU Ned McWherter Learning
Resource Center to a 1,300-square-foot facility in 2014 with museum-quality
lighting in the Bragg building, thanks to a $100,000 gift from Baldwin to
enhance the facility.
For off-campus visitors
interested in the Adams lecture and/or visiting the gallery, a searchable
campus parking map is available at http://tinyurl.com/MTSUParkingMap. Those visiting the
Baldwin gallery during normal business hours should obtain a special one-day
permit from MTSU’s Office of Parking and Transportation at http://www.mtsu.edu/parking/visit.php.
The College of Media and
Entertainment, first established as a department in 1972, then elevated to
school and finally college status by 1989, has focused on preparing students to
perform every facet of communicating news and information within their
specialties: journalism, electronic media and the recording industry.
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