Photography Matters at the San Diego Museum of Art

In just 11 short days, our exhibition of Richard Avedon’s photographs, Portraits of Power, will be closing. It will be hard for me to say goodbye to those large format works exploring every part of the grey scale. Avedon gets his subjects to wear their hearts on their sleeves and I am definitely going to go for one last look at all the lines, creases, cracks, wrinkles, visible disappointments and palpable emotion expressed in his sitters’ faces before September 6. But I’m also going to make sure to view our other photography exhibition, Unerring Eye: Recent Gifts of Photography from Joseph and Elaine Monsen, which also closes on September 6. This show is in one of the most often overlooked spaces at the Museum-Gallery 6. On the first floor, behind the staircase, in between the restrooms and probably under your radar, Gallery 6 is devoted to displaying small exhibitions of photography from the permanent collection and local collections. Unerring Eye features work by Kenro Izu, Anne Hamilton, Joe Deal and other important modern and contemporary photographers.

Which brings me to one of my favorite contemporary photographers-Jason Evans. Usually a day does not pass by without me checking out The Daily Nice, Evans’ project that exists only in the non-space of the Internet at www.thedailynice.com. Evans loads a single photograph onto the website each day. None of the photographs are ever archived and exist for a mere 24-hour period before they are replaced by the successive image. Each post is a snapshot, an entry in Evans’ visual diary, rather than a ‘finished’ photograph. Make the site your homepage and bring a new photo into your life every day. Better yet, while you’re staring at Jason’s work, be reminded of photography at the San Diego Museum of Art. Be reminded that you have a space locally where important photography is always on view.