Charlie and Violet pose on their houseboat in Jersey City, N.J., with the New York City skyline in the background, a river flows through the Cascade Mountains on a misty afternoon and a little boy sprawls across the floor of a church during the choir performance. These scenes, a small sampling of many photos, will hang together in unison on the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art’s main floor until they’re auctioned off Saturday afternoon.
Proceeds from the museum’s 30th annual auction will benefit Photography at Oregon, which funds photography exhibits and lectures at the museum.
“The premise of the auction is fairly democratic,” said Lawrence Fong, associate director and curator of American and regional art at the museum. “It was a broad reach to active photographers across the country who… advocate for photography as an art.”
A variety of subjects printed in a variety of developing techniques, the photographs don’t have a common theme, though many of the 40 donating artists are local.
Jasmine Mylan Tran is a member of Portland’s Inner Light Photographic Society, Justin Williams focuses primarily on the landscapes of western Oregon, Pauline Rughani is the Broadway Gallery’s curator and Dan Powell teaches photography in the University’s art department.
“What I love about it is it’s just kind of broad appeal to what I feel is being able to communicate both an aesthetic within photos, but also, through photography, subjects and themes that are relevant,” Fong said.
One of his favorite pieces in the auction is “Clusters at Lacock Abbey, England,” shot in 2006 by Rich Bergeman, a journalism and photography professor at Albany’s Linn-Benton Community College.
“It’s a fabulous piece if you love church photography, but it has all the nuances of what I think makes a good photograph: wonderful texture, a range of textures, a range of catching lighting in an interior,” Fong said.
This year, proceeds will partially go toward purchasing a selection of Japanese post-World War II art from private collections. Raising a total of $8,500, last year’s auction went toward exhibits by Randall Tosh, a Salem attorney who holds a photography degree from the University of Iowa, and Frank Miller, a publications photographer at Willamette University.
“It’s kind of fun to get the opportunity to purchase art,” said Debbie Williamson-Smith, the museum’s public relations, marketing and membership coordinator. “It’s a great event for novice collectors and expert collectors. I love photography. I wouldn’t consider myself a collector by any means, but I’ve definitely been inspired to purchase art. It’s a nice opportunity to introduce someone to the world of collecting.”
Williamson-Smith, whose favorite photo is that of Charlie and Violet in New Jersey, said that since the auction benefits Photography at Oregon, it gives University students the chance to learn more about photography, which University photography professor Camilla Dussinger agrees is important.
“It’s so prevalent in our world now,” said Dussinger, whose work has appeared in previous museum auctions. “Images are everywhere and photography is the main way images are viewed. It’s part of our art, our culture, our life, and it’s always changing.”
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