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Thank you
Bob Bogdan

For Immediate Release
8/15/03

For More Information Contact:

Susan Feightner

Public Relations Director

Everson Museum of Art

401 Harrison St.

Syracuse, NY 13202

315-474-6064

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Adirondack Vernacular: The Photography of Henry M. Beach

Opens at Everson

September 19 – February 22, 2003

Memorial Gallery

Opening Lecture & Reception September 19, 2003


Syracuse, NY - The Director and Trustees of the Everson Museum of Art  are proud to present Adirondack Vernacular: The Photography of Henry M. Beach to open September 19, 2003—February 22, 2004. An opening lecture and reception will be held at the museum Friday, September 19, beginning with the lecture at 5:30 pm, followed by the reception from 6 pm – 8 pm.

Henry M. Beach (1863-1943) was one of the most prolific, but least known photographers of his time. He devoted his entire career to postcard photography, documenting Adirondack life and culture during a time of unprecedented change. Armed with a camera, Beach witnessed the rise of the automobile and the fall of the horse-and-buggy, the prosperity of the Great Camps and the struggle of family hotels, and an explosion in tourism that brought modern challenges to a previously untamed wilderness.

Beach was a self-taught photographer well known in the Adirondack community

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for his postcards, which were quite popular among tourists as well as locals throughout the 1910s and 1920s. As an “insider” to the people and places he photographed, Beach skillfully portrayed his subjects in a vernacular style: an outsider could not appreciate them without understanding the culture and context in which they were taken. He specialized in Adirondack scenic views, photomontage advertisements, and “freak cards” composed of exaggerated images combined for humorous effect: a favorite was the local fisherman struggling with a catch three times his size.

In this exhibition, some of Beach’s best photographs, which in many cases, no longer exist in original postcard format, have been reproduced from his original glass-plate negatives. The modern reprints emphasize the aesthetic qualities of Beach’s photography—a secondary consideration to quantity in postcard production—and clarify visual details that provide added insight into Beach’s subjects, his surroundings, and his humor. In addition to more than five thousand postcard images, Henry Beach produced an interesting array of oversized panoramic images depicting grand landscapes, Great Camps, community gatherings, and the ever-popular group portraits.

Adirondack Vernacular: The Photography of Henry M. Beach, based on a book written by sociologist Dr. Robert Bogdan, presents the work of this important and relatively unknown photographer for the first time. By exhibiting the photographs in a museum environment, viewers are encouraged to consider postcard images beyond their ephemeral nature and question their significance on multiple levels: as a passing trend in American popular culture as well as a valid art form with social, historical, and aesthetic merit.   

        Bogdan, Distinguished Professor of Sociology and Cultural Foundations of Education, Syracuse University, will discuss his original research for his book and share his expertise on Henry Beach, at 5:30 pm in Hosmer Auditorium. Book signing to follow.

A Cirkut No. 10 panoramic camera demonstration will be presented at 7 pm by Todd Gustavson, curator of technology at the George Eastman House International


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Museum of Photography and Film in Rochester, NY. The Cirkut No. 10 camera was used by Henry M. Beach to shoot his panoramic photos.

Presentation of Adirondack Vernacular: The Photography of Henry M. Beach
was made possible with funds from a New York State Legislative Grant under the auspices of Senator John DeFrancisco, M&T Bank, and New York Council for
the Humanities.
The opening reception for the exhibition will immediately follow the lecture from 6 pm – 8 pm. Museum members are admitted free of charge to the reception. Cost for non-members is $10. Cash bar and hors d’oeuvres will be available, catered by Carnegie Catering. Adirondack musician Scott Adams will provide the musical accompaniment.  For more information, call 474-6064.    

RELATED PROGRAMS

Barnes & Noble Postcard Party!
        Saturday,  September 13
1:00 – 2:00  PM
Barnes & Noble, DeWitt
       

Fall Teacher Workshop
Wednesday, October 1, 3:00 PM – 5:30 PM
Gallery walks, education packets, curator lecture. Registration required.

Postmarked New York: The Postcard in American Life
Wednesday, October 1, 6:30 PM, Hosmer Auditorium
Lecture by Cynthia Elyce Rubin, PhD, author and Visual Culture Specialist. Free.

Henry Beach Family Day!
Saturday, October 18, 12:00 PM – 3:00 PM

Winslow Homer in the Adirondacks
Wednesday, November 12, 6:30 PM, Hosmer Auditorium

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