Lithuanian Photographers’ Association together with The Print Center (Philadelphia, PA, USA) is pleased to invite you to the exhibition opening at “Prospekto” Phototgraphy gallery (Gedimino pr. 43, Vilnius) on 18th of October at 5.30 p.m.
At the reception will be present Gintaras Česonis (Head of Lithuanian Photographers‘ Association), Eglė Deltuvaitė (Head of Creative Europe Desk in Lithuania) and Heather E.Steil (US Embassy in Vilnius).
This exhibition is the first part of an exhibition exchange project between the Lithuanian Photographers’ Association and The Print Center. In December, a Lithuanian photography exhibition titled “Every Day Life” will be exhibited at The Print Center in Philadelphia. According to Eglė Deltuvaitė, who was integral to the organization of this project, it was born from a collaboration the two groups have enjoyed since 2013. The friendship with The Print Center, which recently celebrated its 100th Anniversary, offers the opportunity to exchange exhibitions, photo books and share photography stories with the communities in Vilnius and Philadelphia. It also brings these stories to smaller towns and communities in Lithuania.
The exhibition will stay open for visitors till the 12th of November.
The exhibition Streets of Philadelphia: 1970-1985 is the first overview of street photography made in Philadelphia during an era, which was critical in forging the city’s contemporary identity. Capturing an era that began with jubilant preparations for the Bicentennial and ended with the tragic MOVE bombing, the show reveals the city at a time that is distinctly different than today. The exhibition brings together the work of over fifteen widely celebrated photographers and features many excellent works that have not been shown publicly in nearly thirty years. The more than fifty images displayed in Streets of Philadelphia: 1970-1985 create a diverse and complicated portrait of the city.
While photography has been used to document life in the street since its invention, by the 1970s street photography had become a richly diverse and critically acclaimed genre of its own, with a number of recognized masters. During that decade, many photographers focused on the familiar, everyday details of the street and subject matter that seemed commonplace and unremarkable. The 1970s was also the first decade in which color photography began to receive attention as a legitimate artistic medium. There has been a recent resurgence of interest in American street photography from that time and the aesthetic of these works continues to wield significant influence on contemporary fine art photography as well as having a pervasive presence in advertising imagery.
Many of the photographs in the exhibition depict Philadelphia as a harsh, alienating and challenging place. Other photographs in the exhibition capture the raucous exuberance of the city during those years. A sense of irony and satire pervades much of other works.
ABOUT THE PRINT CENTER
For more than a century, The Print Center has encouraged the growth and understanding of photography and printmaking as vital contemporary arts through exhibitions, publications and educational programs. The Print Center has an international voice and a strong sense of local purpose. Free and open to the public, it presents changing exhibitions which highlight established and emerging, local, national and international contemporary artists. It mounts one of the oldest art competitions in the country, now in its 91st year and the Gallery Store offers the largest selection of contemporary prints and photographs available for sale in Philadelphia.
Curator
John Caperton, Jensen Bryan Curator, has curated more than forty exhibitions for The Print Center since 2007.
Recent publications include Emma Wilcox: Where it Falls, Edna Andrade: Color Motion and Demetrius Oliver: Canicular. He was on the curatorial team of and a contributor to the publication of Philagrafika 2010: The Graphic Unconscious, an international contemporary art festival. Caperton received his BA in Art History at the University of Chicago.
This project is partly funded by Lithuanian Cultural Foundation.