(Above: New York photographer Eric Kunsman did a photographic and sociological study of the relic known as the payphone.)

Edited by Randi Bjornstad

The Maude Kerns Art Center has just opened a new exhibit of photography, titled, Shifting Focus: Photography at Oregon Invitational.

Bakalarova, is part of her series, Mythos, creating images from a collage of previous images.

The show, which will be on display through June 7, includes work by eight artists, including three from Oregon: Barbora Bakalarova and Sarah Grew of Eugene and Nolan Streitberger of Albany. The others are Tracy Barbutes of Groveland, Calif., Rob Hammer of Raleigh, N.C., Eric Kunsman of Rochester, N.Y, Willie Osterman of Canandaigua, N.Y., and Osceola Refetoff of Los Angeles, Calif.

The work on display takes form in a wide variety of digital and analog photography processes, including collodion wet plate, cyanotype, infrared, and pinhole photography as well as topics addressing time, culture, environment, and technology:

  • Bakalarova’s work includes pieces from her series, Mythos, featuring manipulated photographs that may be layered, colored, torn and rephotographed.
  • Barbutes, known for wildfire photography, displays images of California’s Sierra Nevada mountains, wildlife, and fire.
  • Grew uses historic printing techniques to examine the fragility of an Earth threatened by climage change via an installation of cyanotype images of plankton.
  • Hammer portrays the daily lives of working male and female cowhands through details of that American Western subculture.
  • Kunsman’s display, a series called Life-Lines, examines a technological relic, the payphone, and its place in society.
  • Osterman, with Masking, includes portraits taken of masks in private collections around the world.
  • Refetoff uses infrared and pinhold photography to create images that examine humanity’s relationship to the physical world.
  • Streitberger’s 1850s photographic technology retells the history of Oregon’s “Trail of Tears,” which in February-March 1856 forced more than 325 Native Americans to travel on foot from Southern Oregon’s Table Rock Reservation to the Grand Ronde Reservation in Yamhill County.

An hour-long talk with artists is scheduled for 1 p.m. on Saturday, June 1, at the Maude Kerns Art Center.

Shifting Focus: Photography at Oregon Invitational at Maude Kerns Art Center

When: Through June 7, 2024

Where: 1910 E. 15th Ave., Eugene (corner of 15th and Villard streets)

Gallery hours: 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Friday; noon to 4 p.m. during exhibits

Information: Telephone 541-345-1571 or online at mkartcenter.org

Osceola Refetoff’s photograph of the stark, Brutalist-style Saint Madeleine Sophie Barat Roman Catholic Church, completed in 1958, reflects the challenges of living in the harsh California desert.

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