Personas: Color Portraits, 1979-1985 ~ Cincinnati Art Museum ~ 3/24/17

This exhibition contained the works of three photographers (Neal Slavin, Stephen Milanowski, and Ron Gilbert). All photos were taken between 1979 and 1985 – when color photography was just becoming more common. The photos focus on people of different “groups” (like co-workers, cheerleaders, twins, etc). They show a peak into the lives of these people/groups.

Something that inspired me about the exhibition was that the photos were of normal, everyday people, but showing them in not-necessarily-everyday situations (even though for them, it is normal). They didn’t have to be shown doing anything extraordinary in the typical sense, but it was still interesting. I hope this will affect my work by reminding me that not every photograph has to be “the best” as long as it evokes an interest.

One weakness I thought the exhibition had was that there were only 14 photos total and was in one room. I would have liked to have seen more. It was also kind of hard to find – the room was back surrounded by where mostly paintings (old ones, too) were, so it took a while to find and didn’t feel like it was in the right spot. Each photographer’s photos were not in any sort of order, either. I think it might have been better if they had each person’s work grouped together rather than intermixed. I think if there were more photos and it was organized and located somewhere else it could be more successful. It felt like it was too short/small of a visit to that room for it to be an exhibition.

When I first started looking at the exhibition, I felt a little disappointed; the photos didn’t seem necessarily special. As I kept looking though, I started to appreciate it more. Even though some of the photos maybe didn’t seem technically overwhelmingly good, I started feeling like I was looking at an old family photo album and catching a glimpse into the past or wondering what was happening when the photo was taken and if there was some story about it that I’d get to hear from my Aunt or Grandma or someone. I think that feeling is really important, so that made up for the initial disappointment. While some of the photos were less interesting, there were a couple that really caught my attention – my favorite was Neal Slavin’s “International Twins Association, Muncie, Indiana” (1976).