LIFELONG PROJECTSINVALUABLE COWANS AND SILVER PHOTOS AT FAIRFIELDSPOTLIGHT MUSEUM

13 WAYS OF LOOKINGAT LANDSCAPE:LARRY SILVER’SCONNECTICUTPHOTOGRAPHSMARCH 25 THROUGHJUNE 18
ADGER COWANS:SENSE ANDSENSIBILITY
THROUGH JUNE 18
FAIRFIELD
UNIVERSITY ART
MUSEUM
1073 NORTH BENSON
ROADFAIRFIELD,
CONNECTICUT
Larry Silver, Man and Walker, Compo Beach, Westport, CT., 2020.
© Larry Silver. Courtesy Bruce Silverstein Gallery, New York.

When New Englanders talk about summer getaways,
few mention Connecticut as a destination point, seeminglyMuscle Beach, which provide proof that the Los Angeles

unaware of its breathtaking shorelines and winding roads

destination was a real way of life in the middle of the 20th

hugging its seawalls or the old-time camp feel based aroundcentury and not a made-up term created for mass consumption.

its approximately 3,000 ponds, lakes and reservoirs.
Since 1973, when he relocated to Westport, Connecticut,
from Greater New York, Larry Silver has been photographingThose experiences have served him well during his almost
half-century living in Connecticut.
The Fairfield exhibition is curated by Leslie K. Brown,and documenting his home state, in what he calls, “A lifelong

who specializes in the history of photography and modernproject.” Highlights from that work will be on view in “13and contemporary art, and who previously had curated aWays of Looking at Landscape: Larry Silver’s Connecticut

photographic exhibition on the landscape of New England for

Photographs,” which will be on view from March 25 throughthe Photographic Resource Center in Boston.

June 18 at the Fairfield University Art Museum.

“After viewing his work, I was struck by Silver’s focus —He dedicated himself to being a lifetime photographer as

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The same can be said of his 1954 images from California’slong term — on the Connecticut landscape as well as thea teenager. At the age of 15, as a photography student at thepoetic and lyrical nature of his photographs,” Brown said.

High School of Industrial Art (now the High School of Art“Silver is perhaps best known for his street photography, asand Design) in New York City, which he attended from 1949a photographer associated with New York’s Photo League,to 1953, Silver found himself captivated by “the influence ofbut since his move to Westport in 1973, his perspective,

the New York Photo League — a group of photographers wholiterally and metaphorically, shifted. This was a focus andcombined personal expression and social activism to expose

facet of his work that I wanted to bring to the fore.”the political and social issues of the day.” His own photographs

The show takes the viewer through almost a half-century

from this time period have come to be invaluable for theirof development in Silver’s work. “When he first moved there —documentation of Manhattan during those years.

the earliest Connecticut images from the show are from 1973

MAR/APR 2022

OPPOSITE PAGE:
TOP: Larry Silver, Anytime
Farm , Fairfield, CT., 1982. ©
Larry Silver. Courtesy Bruce
Silverstein Gallery, New York.
MIDDLE: Larry Silver, Three
Kids on Dock, Westport, CT.
© Larry Silver. Photo by Paul
Mutino.
BOTTOM: Adger Cowans, TheCat, ca.1960s, silver gelatin
print. Courtesy of the artist
and Bruce Silverstein Gallery,New York. © Adger Cowans.

— his work was a little more matter of fact, although you can see theseeds of later explorations and inspirations,” Brown said. “Overtime, his work grew more ethereal and abstract, but he still did
explore urban landscapes, such as in Bridgeport, where his eye forform and shape still ruled.
“His work from 2000 is very experimental — including incredible
darkroom experiments and close-up abstractions — which at somepoint deserves a show unto themselves.
“The most recent work in the exhibition is from 2020, with a few
digital prints from other series printed just a couple weeks ago. For
the 2020 color series, “Window at Beach,” he situated himself before
an opening in a brick structure and proceeded to capture people as
they walked past the “aperture.”
Brown said that the show is bookended by the modern-day“rückenfigur” image of the woman sitting at water’s edge, inviting you
to look and stare, and a suite of four color pieces from the window seriescloses the show, hopefully inspiring visitors to go out and see Connecticut with new eyes.
Indeed, for those of you who normally only experience the state via its mega
highways, Silver’s images of its agrarian and water-based lifestyle and economy will
be a pleasant surprise, and his capturing of its quiet backroads and active boardwalks
will not only make you want to see more of his work, but travel to see and experiences
his subject matter first hand.
“Connecticut is a place that I personally haven’t gotten to know very well, until recently,”
Brown said. “Driving around the area near Silver’s home, I am struck by how rural it is, stone
walls are scattered about, and how it blends a variety of “-scapes,” fields and beaches.”Towards the end of a YouTube video, “Larry Silver’s Connecticut,” the photographer notes,“The best years of my life have been spent in Westport. Raising my family and creating anddocumenting the rich fabric which is Connecticut!”
The Fairfield University Art Museum is concurrently exhibiting the works of Adger
Cowans, a founding member of the Kamoinge Black photographers’ collective whose
ongoing mission is to “Honor, document, preserve, and represent the history and cultureof the African Diaspora with integrity and respect for humanity through the lens of Black
Photographers.” The group was formed in 1963.
“Adger Cowans: Sense and Sensibility” features over 50
images from the civil rights movement, jazz musicians,
landscape and Cowans’ artistic studies of the human form,
water and light. Curator Halima Taha, PhD, has compiled
a collection to show how he’s used his photography, “as avehicle to articulate beauty within the human condition, andthe world in which we live.” The images cover his career as aphotographer of portraiture, landscape and film.
At a time when some states’ leaders are looking to rewrite theirhistory books to fit their own personal and political agendas, andsome feel threatened by the thought that “Black Lives Matter,”these images are an important documentation of a time that newgenerations need to learn about and a reminder that the Blackhistory of the United States is all of our history.
If you’re not able to make it to Fairfield, the museum’s website
provides the exhibition’s brochure along with an accompanying
soundtrack, including music from John Coltrane, Cannonball Adderley,
Bill Evans, Johnny Hartman and Miles Davis, also curated by Taha,
that’s accessible at fairfield.edu/museum/adgercowans/.						Brian Goslow

MAR/APR 2022

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