Unmasked & Anonymous

Posted by Craig | Filed under exhibits

This past weekend I had the fortune to visit the Milwaukee Art Museum. Architecturally, the museum is amazing and their collection is rock solid. If you’re in the area you must check it out.

I was lucky to be there to see the Unmasked & Anonymous exhibit.

Wisconsin photographers John Shimon & Julie Lindemann make use of antique cameras, modern lens technology, artificial light, and contemporary pop culture to create portraits of the people in their native state. This exhibition juxtaposes 43 of their original photographs and a multimedia installation with 54 portraits from the Museum’s Collection (including daguerreotype portraits, as well as photographs by Alfred Stieglitz, Diane Arbus, Sally Mann, and Larry Clark, among others) to present new perspectives on one of the oldest artistic genres—portraiture.

My favorite photo in the collection, and one that was receiving lots of attention from everyone there was Sally Mann’s “Candy Cigarette.”


© Sally Mann

The exhibit runs through November 30 and is well worth checking out. If you can’t make it, check out the online gallery.

Permalink | September 10th, 2008

2 Responses to “Unmasked & Anonymous”

  1. Laura W. Says:
    September 10th, 2008 at 6:35 pm

    John Shimon & Julie Lindemann are Lawrence professors. I think they won, hands down, for being the coolest people on campus. It is rural Wisconsin, you know. Unfortunately, I never took their classes (my inability to focus on my subject is just a natural talent).

  2. Kong Says:
    September 11th, 2008 at 12:50 pm

    Cool photos. I like the one with the three young boys the best, though Candy Cigarette is great too. I actually like it more for the lighting contrast and her expression than the subject matter, but that’s probably just me.

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