Through Four Pairs of Eyes
The Newport Arts Museum presents “Focus on Four,” an exhibit of four American photographers who worked in Rhode Island at different times between 1899 and the 1970s. The show highlights the photographers’ varying approaches to the medium. During the summers of 1899 and 1903, Gertrude Käsebier (1852-1934) spent the season in a rural part of Newport. Her photographs contributed to her recognition as the most important woman of the pictorialist movement. Lewis Hine (1874-1940) worked in Rhode Island briefly in 1909 and in 1912 with the National Child Labor Committee and the Consumers’ League of Rhode Island. He photographed child labor as well as the conditions in New England textile mills. Charlotte Estey’s three-part series for the Providence Journal’s Rhode Islander about the South Main Street community offers a window into the Providence of 1952. Aaron Siskind, an abstract photographer, came to Rhode Island School of Design in 1971 and secured his position as one of the 20th-century’s most influential photographers.
LOCATION: Newport Art Museum, 76 Bellevue Ave., Newport. Friday, Oct. 30, 5 to 7 p.m. reception. Show continues through Janurary 18. $10 nonmembers; free for members; to register for the reception, call (401) 848-8200, ext. 109.