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In this episode of State of the Arts, artists photograph the world, from an African-American village in Israel, to the clubs and garages that men call their own, to a 30 year portrait of Paterson, New Jersey.
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Friday, May 2, 2008 @ 8:30 pm & Wednesday, May 7, 2008 @ 11:30 pm
 Preview
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| paterson II |
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According to George Tice, he was looking for an old industrial city to photograph when chance brought him one day in 1967 to Paterson, New Jersey. Founded by Alexander Hamilton, Paterson is an historic city with a remarkable natural setting of a waterfall and mountains, but even then it was past its prime. Over the next few years, the young photographer created a portrait of urban decline that was both bleak and beautiful. Tice’s photographs were shown at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1972 in an acclaimed show and published in a book, “Paterson.”
Thirty years later, George Tice returned to Paterson to create a new book, “Paterson II.” The city is now full of new immigrants, and the old buildings have new facades. Yet the play between the depressed urban landscape and its natural surroundings remains much as it was. Tice used an 8x10 inch view camera, the same one he used for the first “Paterson” book. This camera’s large negatives allow for the clarity of detail that is one of the hallmarks of Tice’s masterfully composed prints. In fact, the beauty of his prints is frequently at odds with their subject matter: neglected and rundown shops, littered streets, abandoned lots. As Tice tells State of the Arts producer Susan Wallner, he can find formal beauty almost anywhere – even in an old weed tree growing out of a wall. Sometimes his views of Paterson’s natural scenes are pristine – taken after he removed the plastic forks. At other times, his nature images are made even more poignant by the litter left along the paths.
George Tice is a tenth generation native of New Jersey (he was born and raised in Newark). He has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. His prints are in major collections including the Museum of Modern Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Newark Museum, which originated this exhibit. 
See a 1984 State of the Arts interview with George Tice
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George Tice with view camera
Car for Sale, Cliff Street, April 1969
The Passaic Falls, June 2003
Factory Façade, Spruce Street,
May 2003
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| village of peace |
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Celebrated photographer Wendel A. White has created a series of images capturing the everyday lives of African Hebrew Israelites from the "Village of Peace," located in the town of Dimona, in the southern part Israel. State of the Arts producer Eric Schultz speaks with White about his path to Israel and his fascination with this unusual community. Schultz also speaks with New Jersey-born novelist Emily Raboteau, whose essay about the community appears in Transition Magazine accompanied by Wendel White’s photographs.
The African Hebrew Israelite community of Dimona, Israel was established more than 35 years ago by a group of African Americans from the Chicago area. They left the U.S. in 1967, lived in Liberia for more than two years, and settled in Israel's Negev desert.
"Pictures from a New World: An African American Village in Israel" is an extension of White’s other works that address the historical traditions of African American communities including: “Small Towns, Black Lives: African American Communities in Southern New Jersey” and “Schools for the Colored: Up-South, Between the Mississippi River and the Atlantic Ocean.” Wendel A. White has received Guggenheim and New Jersey State Council on the Arts fellowships. He is currently Professor of Art at Richard Stockton College of New Jersey.
See a 2003 State of the Arts story about White's "Small Towns, Black Lives" photos
 See White's "African Hebrew Israelite" photos
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Woman and Yellow Wall
Three Boys in the Schoolyard
Bakery
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| where men hide |
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Photographer and educator Ken Ross is fascinated by the dark and often dirty places men go to find comfort, camaraderie, relaxation, and escape. He teamed up with author James Twitchell to explore this phenomenon in a book, “Where Men Hide,” a spirited tour of these traditional and contemporary male haunts, such as bars, barbershops, lodges, pool halls, strip clubs, garages, deer camps, megachurches, and the basement Barcalounger.
State of the Arts producer Amber Edwards talks to Ross, who says that for centuries men have met with each other in underground lairs and clubhouses to conduct business or, in the case of strip clubs and the modern rec room, to bond and indulge in shady entertainments. In these secret dens, certain rules are abandoned while others are obeyed. However, writer James Twitchell sees this less as exclusionary behavior and more as the result of social anxiety: when women want to get together, they just do it; when men get together, it's a production. By blending together anecdote, research, and keen observation, Ross and Twitchell bring this little-discussed and controversial phenomenon to light.
Ken Ross’ photography has been displayed in numerous exhibits and featured in the New York Times and Esquire magazine. He has been awarded a Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation Grant and a New Jersey Artist Fellowship for the photographs seen in “Where Men Hide”.
- where to see
“Ken Ross: Where Men Hide”
April 6 through May 4, 2008
The Hunterdon Museum of Art, 7 Lower Center St, Clinton, NJ
908-735-8415 • www.hunterdonartmuseum.org
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Ken Ross
Al's Car Barn, NJ
Deer and Beer, NJ
My Father's Chair, NJ
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| weston’s west |
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Many of the most iconic images of the American west were made by photographer Edward Weston in the 1930s. After years of subsidizing his art with commercial work, Weston was granted a Guggenheim, the first photographer ever to receive one. He and his companion took an ambitious road tour, during which Weston began to experiment with landscape as never before. Whether in the canyons of Death Valley, the snowfields of Yosemite, or the forests of the Pacific Northwest, these travels had a liberating, energizing effect on Weston. State of the Arts producer Amber Edwards focuses on the work created during Weston’s “Guggenheim Project.”
“Edward Weston: A Legacy”, was a 2005 exhibit at the Montclair Art Museum that included 80 photographs by this master of twentieth-century photography. His name evokes images of anthropomorphic still lifes, striking nudes, dramatic coastal landscapes, and stark dunes that embody the brilliant compositions, sharp focus, and exquisite tonalities of the Straight Photography movement. Weston's belief in the purity of natural form and the transcendent beauty in the commonplace led him to create some of the most indelible images in the history of the medium.
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Edward Weston
Juniper. Sierra Nevada, 1937
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