Will
Agar & Jerry Mathiason
ICEBOX GALLERY presents:
Will Agar and Jerry Mathiason are two Minnesota photographers
with a shared interest in photographing aged and crumbling buildings
with large format cameras. Both photographers take you inside places
that may no longer exist, showing with great detail the fascinating
effects of weathering on businesses that have been deemed useless. Agar
and Mathiason have pursued this subject matter independent of each other
for a number of years and there seemed to be a strong connection between
the two bodies of work. This connection precipitated the idea of a joint
show. See a selection from the exhibit.
Will Agar and Jerry Mathiason
All the photographs are produced from large format cameras
and are concerned with the photograph’s ability to work with tone,
detail and texture. The subject of abandoned places is a traditional
magnet for photographic artists, inspiring such luminaries as Edward
Weston, Aaron Siskind, Wynn Bullock, and many more. The visual qualities
of these places, once fresh and new but now subject to the march of
natural forces, are a rich resource for photography’s ability to
invoke a sense of time and space.
Both Agar and Mathiason teach photography at North Hennepin Community
College, and Agar teaches at the University of Minnesota as well. Mathiason
also maintains a freelance photography studio that includes historic
architecture documentation work.
The exhibit is funded in part by a grant
from the Minnesota State Arts Board
Jerry Mathiason:
In my case, I have photographed historic buildings over a period of
years for the Historic American Building Survey (HABS) and the Historic
American Engineering Record (HAER). These are two federal level programs
that generate documentation of historically significant sites for inclusion
in the Library of Congress archives. For these projects, I have photographed
sites as diverse as a large meat packing complex in Iowa to a public
housing project in Minneapolis. The photography for these projects tends
to be very descriptive in nature, and the end results are in the public
domain, available to researchers at the Library of Congress or the Minnesota
Historical Society. At most sites, there are also photographs that I
take for my artistic interests which speak to the more elusive qualities
of place, space and time.
Will Agar:
Along with photography, I've always had an interest in history and the
way things were. This show is a collection of my photographs that document,
in a poetic way, places and things either gone or fast fading. I have
included scenes from the Metro area, out-state rural Minnesota, Wisconsin
and North Dakota, the Canary Islands and Spain. All images were made
and inspired by the use of natural light.
I have been active in the making and exhibiting of photographs since
the early 1970s. My work is found in the local collections of the Minneapolis
Institute of Arts, Weisman Museum, Minnesota State Historical Society,
and in the national collection of the George Eastman House in Rochester,
New York. I’ve exhibited as far away as Romania and have work in
the Museo de Pontevedra in Galicia, Spain. I’ve taught photography
at North Hennepin Community College since 1975 and am also an adjunct
member of the University of Minnesota.
OPENING RECEPTION:
Saturday November 10, 8:00 PM - 12:00 PM
Exhibit continues through December 22, 2001.
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