Saturday, September 18, 2010

Collector's Choice Exhibition

Another project that kept me busy this past spring, was a series documenting Jacksonville art collectors. The series accompanied a collector's exhibition at the Cummer Museum of Art and Gardens. The curator and director of the Cummer interviewed gave each collector the choice of which pieces to show in the exhibition and interviewed the collectors about the role of art in their lives. I photographed the collectors during this conversation about art. One of the fascinating parts of this project for me was seeing the large variety of art collected right here in Jacksonville. We met with collectors of Renoir paintings, modern sculpture, Shaker furniture, African masks and photography, and pottery made by African American slaves. Another interesting part of this project for me was that I was shooting this concurrently with the Off the Grid series--such an interesting juxtaposition of artists creating art and their impact on a community and those who collect and value that art.