John B. Hurford 60 Humanities Center

through June 1, Faculty Seminar Exhibit:
Framing Photographs: Contexts & Transpositions
in Magill Library

Members of the John B. Hurford ’60 Humanities Center at Haverford College’s 2007-08 Faculty Seminar “Photography, Modernism, and Post-Modernism” will hold a gallery conversation on Wednesday, April 23 from 4:30-6 p.m. about their new exhibit “Framing Photographs: Contexts & Transpositions.” This exhibit is on view and open to the public in Sharpless Gallery, Magill Library on the Haverford Campus through June 1, 2008.

Held annually, the Hurford Humanities Center’s Faculty Seminar focuses this year on an exploration of film and photography in relation to the historical disciplines and other fields. From the College’s Special Collections the seminar participants have selected three canonical photographs (Berenice Abbott’s James Joyce, Robert Capa’s Loyalist Militiaman at the Moment of Death, and Dorothea Lange’s Migrant Mother) and a single painting, a St. Sebastian donated to Haverford in 1942, and have displayed them with an eclectic mix of supplemental materials: other photographs, various books from Magill, video clips, stamps, letters, merchandise, and posters. Attending to the production, circulation, and display of these works challenges viewers to examine how changing frames and diverse media affect the meaning of photographs and how those photographs resist those very efforts at interpretation

Led by Professor James Krippner (History), the Faculty Seminar’s participants include Haverford professors Kim Benston (English), Laurie Hart (Anthropology), Graciela Michelotti (Spanish), Debora Sherman (English), Gus Stadler (English), Christina Zwarg (English), and John Muse (Fine Arts), Mellon Post-doc Fellow 2007-09, whose expertise made this exhibit possible.

Haverford’s Library is open daily and the exhibit may be seen between 8:30 a.m. and 11:45 p.m., Monday through Thursday, 8:30 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. Fridays, 10:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. Saturdays, and 10:00 a.m. to 11:45 p.m. Sundays.

Plans for 2008-09 are in the works. Please check back for updates.

Responses to Clarissa Sligh's
"Jake in Transition":
Click here to read comments from the recent round table discussion about "Jake in Transition", an exhibit by photographer Clarissa Sligh sponsored by the Hurford Humanities Center (February-April, 2008). The exhibit chronicles a female-to-male transition. Over the course of the year Deborah becomes Jake, the metamorphosis evoked for photographer Clarissa Sligh generations of African Americans who passed for white as they sought freedom.

Events are free and open to the public.
Additional details may be found by following the links.