Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Burk Uzzle at the Florida Museum of Photographic Arts



Distinguished North Carolina photographer Burk Uzzle is having a show of his work at the Florida Museum of Photographic Arts, running from September 17 through Saturday, November 7th, 2009. This show, entitled "Burk Uzzle's Woodstock and other Americana," features Uzzle's iconic images of he Woodstock Festival as well as other images documenting life in rural and small-town America. He recently has had a show of this body of work at the Lawrence Miller Gallery in NYC.

A native of Raleigh, Uzzle has had a distinguished career as a photographer, working for Life and serving as a member (and president) of Magnum. He locates himself in the grand tradition of American (and Southern) documentary photography running from the FSA days of Walker Evans and Dorothea Lange, with its regard for honesty and engagement with the subject of rural and small-town America.

Uzzel says in a recent interview that "Art photography . . . means fine work representing the same values of devotion to quality of feeling, seeing, craft, and artistic presentation as documentary work." He advises, "Be honest to yourself and to your subject, respect your subject matter, and pay as little attention as possible to what other people think, or how they want to apply definitions and categories to what they perceive is important in your work."

Sounds wise to me.

He currently is engaged in a long-term project photographing rural Applachia with an 8x10 view camera. Since 2006, he has had a studio in Wilson, NC.

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