Barbara Bosworth

Barbara Bosworth (born 1953) is an American artist, educator, and photographer. Bosworth works primarily with a large-format, 8x10 view camera and focuses on the relationship between humans and nature. Her works have been included in magazines, journals, books and permanent collections, and shown in solo exhibits nationally and internationally.

Life and career

Bosworth was born in 1953 in Cleveland, Ohio and grew up in Novelty, Ohio.[1] She studied at Bowling Green State University, where she received her B.A. in Fine Arts in 1975. She earned an M.F.A. in photography at Rochester Institute of Technology in 1983.[2]

Bosworth worked briefly as a visiting instructor at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio, before joining the photography faculty at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design in Boston, Massachusetts in 1984.[2] In 1985, Bosworth won a Guggenheim fellowship for her photographic work.[3] She has been professor and Chair of the Photography Department at Massachusetts College of Art.[4]

Bosworth grew up surrounded by trees, plants, and the outdoors. She creates her views of the natural world using a large-format film camera, exploring subtle relations between humans and landscapes, "unfolding a personal and spiritual connection to the world around us."[5] According to Andy Grundberg, writing in Grand Street, her peers in landscape photography include Laura McPhee, Lois Connor, Terry Evans, Linda Halverson, and Mary Peck, among others.[6]

Work
External video
“Barbara Bosworth - Slow Looking”, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

Much of Barbara Bosworth's photographic work focuses on landscapes and trees.[7] She spent several months intensively photographing the New England Trail,[8] and over fourteen years visiting and photographing large trees from the National Register.[7]

In other photographs such as Indigo Bunting she captures fleeting moments of connection between birds and humans, "incredibly intimate moment[s] of contact"[9] with the tiny creatures appearing "exceptionally vulnerable."[10] Bosworth documents the American landscape[11] and how it is affected by humans.[7]

Bosworth captures details using a view camera, and she often creates diptychs and triptychs from a set of exposures, expanding the area of her images.[12] In her series Birds and Other Angels,[13] the triptych format places her photographs of birds and humans within the wider scope of the forest surrounding them.[14] Although Bosworth works in color, she also frequently shoots in black and white, intentionally limiting the image to forms shown in tones of grey, undistracted by color.[7] In her twenty-year retrospective Natural Histories: Photographs by Barbara Bosworth, about three quarters of the photographs are in black and white and one quarter were in color.[15]

In a San Francisco MoMA interview, Bosworth asserts that her processes are slowed down due to the use of film, and that the care and thoughtfulness put into her work increases with that time. She takes her time carefully studying the landscapes, which primarily consists of forests, birds, and the people her work has crossed paths with.[16] Like other landscape photographers, Bosworth's asserted interest is in exploring the world at her own pace and appreciating what nature puts in front of her.[17] She believes that observation is necessary to the artistic process and end product.[18]

Although she examines what appears before her in the natural world, Bosworth's chosen subject matter remains very personal and depicts specific moments that she has experienced.[18] Her first photographs in and around her home in Ohio were taken from her rectangular living room window, looking out into the Ohio forest.[17] Although her earliest photographs rarely included humans, she increasingly focused on people's connection to and effects on the surrounding environment,[12] and she often mentions her parents and her upbringing as influences. Bosworth's mother developed Parkinson's disease and dementia, while her father passed away from old age. Bosworth was able to channel these experiences into her work, drawing on them as an inspiration for her book Behold (2014):[19] "Photography is our validation that we were there."[16]

Behold

Bosworth's work was exhibited in the fall of 2014 at the Datz Museum in SinSeong Gol, Gwangju, Gyeonggi Province, South Korea. This work was collected and bound by the museum's Datz Press, into the book Behold.[20] Bosworth's photographs connected tall, ancient tree stands with people, animals, streams that seem to flow through nature with time. The exhibition had its opening reception on October 11, 2014.[19]

About Behold, Bosworth states:

When my mother was suffering from Parkinson’s disease and a bit of dementia, she would often reach out her hands into the air. As if she was trying to catch something from heaven. A few years ago, when my father was dying, our family gathered around his bedside. When my mother reached for something in the air, I asked her what she was reaching out for and she replied, "Oh, the birds!" I knew then, my bird photographs were for my mother and father. About holding on and letting go. About the moment the bird flies away.[19][17]

New England Trail
External video
“NET Artist-in-Residence: Barbara Bosworth”, New England National Scenic Trail

In the fall of 2012, the New England National Park Service hired Bosworth as Artist-in-Residence to take pictures along the New England Trail.[16] Her photos were shown at the exhibition To Be at the Farther Edge: Photographs along the New England Trail at Amherst College in Massachusetts and later throughout New England.[21] This work is her tribute to the genre of Hudson River School style paintings, which have inspired her, and her piece View of the Oxbow from Dry Knob (2012) is a particular tribute to Thomas Cole’s famous painting The Oxbow.[8]

Trees : national champions

Many of Barbara Bosworth’s photographs focus on the landscapes of trees.[11] She explored Holden Arboretum as a child and as an adult with her family.[22] Bosworth says trees "are rooted solidly in the earth but point ethereally toward the sky."[11] "Champion trees" are notably the largest trees of each species according to the National Register of Big Trees,[23] and are found in many different locations including backyards, street sides, mountains, and forests. In Trees: national champions, Bosworth documents the genera of the trees and also shows how their landscape changes from place to place.[11]

Voyage of the Charles W. Morgan

In the summer of 2014, eighty-five people from various backgrounds were invited to sail on the Charles W. Morgan ship from Mystic Seaport in Mystic, CT, to produce creative projects for Mystic Seaport.[24][25] Bosworth was chosen because, "While all of her projects remind viewers that we shape nature, but nature also shapes us."[26] The trip was one day and one night long.[25] During that evening, Bosworth created Nocturnal Voyage: The Morgan Series, which consists of five images of the dark sea.[24]

The Meadow

In 2015, Bosworth collaborated with photographer Margot Anne Kelley to photograph an area of land in Carlisle, Massachusetts, situated among a variety of landscapes with pathways and abandoned areas. The resulting book The Meadow includes a log documenting the daily life of the previous landowner to reinforce the connection between humans and the land, and incorporates photographs in scrap-book form with fold-out booklets and embellishments. The project has been described as "a meditation on the shifting perspective that occurs when one repeatedly sees the same place through new eyes."[27]

Notable exhibitions

Solo exhibitions
  • Heaven, Wind, Stars and Poems: Photographs by Barbara Bosworth, Datz Museum, South Korea, 2017[28]
  • Barbara Bosworth: Quiet Wonder, Denver Art Museum, March 13, 2015 - September 20, 2015[29][18]
  • Flow, Datz Museum, October 11, 2014 to February 5, 2015
  • Natural Histories, Photographs by Barbara Bosworth (twenty-year retrospective), Peabody Essex Museum, April 14, 2012 to May 27, 2013[30]
  • Earth and Sky: Photographs by Barbara Bosworth, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Renwick Gallery, June 20, 2008 - November 20, 2008, donated by Haluk Soykan and Elisa Frederickson and supported by Bernie Stadiem Endowment Fund[31][5]
  • Human Nature: the Photographs of Barbara Bosworth, Phoenix Art Museum, April 19, 2008- July 27, 2008[32][33][34]
  • Photographs by Barbara Bosworth (ten-year retrospective), The Art Museum, Princeton University, March 14 through June 18, 2000[35]
  • Meeting Places: Photographs by Barbara Bosworth, Missoula Museum of Art, Missoula, MT, 1996
  • Centric 29: Barbara Bosworth, University Art Museum, California State University, Long Beach, CA, 1987[36]

Group exhibitions
  • The Singing and the Silence: Birds in Contemporary Art, October 31, 2014 – February 22, 2015, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC: Show included twelve "major contemporary American artists"[37][38][39]
  • America's Uncommon Places: Sites from the National Register of Historic Places: Seventeen photographers were selected for an exhibition sponsored by the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
  • Crossing the Frontier, organized by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, traveling exhibition[40]
  • The Altered Landscape, organized by the Reno Museum of Art, traveling exhibition; Bosworth is one of the artists included in the accompanying book.[41][42][43]

Awards and honors

Books
  • Bosworth, Barbara; Kelley, Margot Anne (2015). The Meadow. Santa Fe, NM: Radius Books. ISBN 9781934435960.
  • Bosworth, Barbara (2015). Betula Populifolia. Boston, Mass.: Firefly Press.
  • Bosworth, Barbara (2015). Summer Days: And Some Nights, the Water's Edge. Fiddlehead Press. ISBN 9780991159505.
  • Bosworth, Barbara (2014). Behold. Seoul, Korea: Datz Press. ISBN 978-8997605095.
  • Bosworth, Barbara (2013). Natural Histories. Santa Fe, NM: Radius Books. ISBN 9781934435601.
  • Bosworth, Barbara; Bodman, D'Anne; Kristesen, John; Petrie, Marie-Louise Bodman (2010). Elsewhere. Boston, Mass.: Firefly Press.
  • Bosworth, Barbara; Nickel, Douglas R.; Stilgoe, John R. (2005). Trees : national champions. Tucson, Ariz.: Center for Creative Photography, University of Arizona. ISBN 978-0262025928.
  • Bodman, D'Anne; Bosworth, Barbara (2002). Chasing the light. Carlisle, Mass.: Nightwood Press.[4]

References
  1. "Barbara Bosworth". MassArt. 2017-01-27. Retrieved 2017-03-30.
  2. "Barbara Bosworth". Society for Photographic Education. Retrieved 21 April 2017.
  3. "John Simon Guggenheim Foundation | Barbara Bosworth". www.gf.org. Retrieved 2017-04-24.
  4. "Barbara Bosworth CV". Barbara Bosworth. Archived from the original on 2018-04-03. Retrieved 20 April 2017.
  5. "Earth and Sky: Photographs by Barbara Bosworth". Smithsonian American Art Museum. Archived from the original on February 23, 2009. Retrieved 2017-03-30.
  6. Grundberg, Andy (2002). "Virginia Beahan and Laura McPhee". Grand Street (70): 24–30. doi:10.2307/25008579. JSTOR 25008579.
  7. Licata, David. "Photographer Barbara Bosworth – Interview March 26, 2013". A Life's Work. Retrieved March 26, 2013.
  8. McQuaid, Cate (October 22, 2013). "Photographer Barbara Bosworth is a trail gazer She takes a cue from 19th-century painters to frame New England trails". Boston Globe. Retrieved 20 April 2017.
  9. Stamberg, Susan (2010). "Beautiful Bird Exhibit Spotted At Smithsonian". NPR. Retrieved 21 April 2017.
  10. Jenkins, Mark (December 18, 2014). "Art review: 'The Singing and the Silence' at Smithsonian American Art Museum". Washington Post. Retrieved 21 April 2017.
  11. "Trees". MIT Press. Retrieved 2017-03-30.
  12. "Artist Lecture: Barbara Bosworth". University of New Hampshire (UNH). April 4, 2015.
  13. "Birds and Other Angels". Barbara Bosworth. Retrieved 2018-04-03.
  14. "Barbara Bosworth". Muybridge’s Horse. Retrieved 21 April 2017.
  15. Feeney, Mark (April 18, 2012). "Barbara Bosworth's photographs show nature and family". Boston Globe. Retrieved 22 April 2017.
  16. "Barbara Bosworth's nature trail photographs tell a story that's beautiful and insightful - The Boston Globe". BostonGlobe.com. Retrieved 2017-03-30.
  17. "Barbara Bosworth looks slowly and observes the landscape". San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA). Retrieved 2017-03-30.
  18. Messenheimer, Micah (February 27, 2015). "The Creative Benefits of Taking Your Time—Q&A with Photographer Barbara Bosworth". Denver Art Museum.
  19. "Books". Barbara Bosworth. Archived from the original on 2017-04-18. Retrieved 2017-03-30.
  20. "::::: 닻미술관 Datz Museum of Art ::::: - 닻미술관 전 안내". www.datzmuseum.org (in Korean). Retrieved 2017-03-30.
  21. Redington, Pete (November 19, 2013). "Trail With A View". Valley Advocate. Retrieved 22 April 2017.
  22. "Trunk Show: BARBARA BOSWORTH". Popular Photography. Retrieved 2017-04-24.
  23. Miller, Daegan (3 October 2016). "Reading Tree in Nature's Nation: Toward a Field Guide to Sylvan Literacy in the Nineteenth-Century United States". Archived from the original on 2018-04-02.
  24. "Barbara Bosworth: Nocturnal Voyage". The 38th Voyage of the CHARLES W. MORGAN. Retrieved 22 April 2017.
  25. Gilbert, Lisa (Fall 2014). "Uncharted Waters". Williams Magazine.
  26. "Voyagers". 38th Voyage. 2015-06-30. Retrieved 2017-03-30.
  27. Pryor, Charles. "REVIEW: The Meadow by Barbara Bosworth and Margot Anne Kelley". Musee. Retrieved 22 April 2017.
  28. "Heaven, Wind, Stars and Poems: Photographs by Barbara Bosworth". Datz Museum. Retrieved 20 April 2017.
  29. "Barbara Bosworth: Quiet Wonder Mar 13, 2015–Sep 20, 2015". Denver Art Museum. Retrieved 20 April 2017.
  30. "PEM's Year of Photography spotlights influential Boston-area artist : Natural Histories, Photographs by Barbara Bosworth". Peabody Essex Museum. April 5, 2012. Archived from the original on 24 June 2016. Retrieved 20 April 2017.
  31. "Earth and Sky: Photographs by Barbara Bosworth June 20, 2008 – November 11, 2008". Smithsonian American Art Museum. Retrieved 20 April 2017.
  32. "Landscape Photographs by Barbara Bosworth on view at the Phoenix Art Museum". Art Daily. Retrieved 20 April 2017.
  33. Carr, Mindi. "PHOTOGRAPHY EXHIBITION OFFERS A CONTEMPORARY VIEW OF OUR PLACE IN NATURE Human Nature: The Photographs of Barbara Bosworth Opens April 19 , 2008". Phoenix Art Museum. Retrieved 20 April 2017.
  34. "Human Nature: the photographs of Barbara Bosworth". Phoenix Art Museum. Retrieved 20 April 2017.
  35. "Photographs by Barbara Bosworth at Princeton University Art Museum". News from Princeton University. 2000. Retrieved 21 April 2017.
  36. "Photos on Display Centric 29: Barbara Bosworth". The Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles, California. 79. September 20, 1987. Retrieved 21 April 2017. Photos on Display Centric 29: Barbara Bosworth, a photographic documentation of the ancient burial mounds and sacred circles of Native American cultures, will open Tuesday and continue through Nov. 1 at the University Art Museum at California State University, Long Beach, 1250 Bellflower Blvd. For the past decade, Bosworth has been photographing these earthworks, which range from 2 feet to more than 60 feet high, to preserve part of the culture of the Adena and Hopewell Indians.
  37. "Exhibitions The Singing and the Silence: Birds in Contemporary Art". Smithsonian American Art Museum. Retrieved 21 April 2017.
  38. Naseem, Saba (November 6, 2014). "The Threatened Birds in These Artworks Might One Day Go the Way of the Dodo". Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved 21 April 2017.
  39. Goukassian, Elena (October 30, 2014). "'The Singing and the Silence: Birds in Contemporary Art' at the Smithsonian American Art Museum celebrates avian inspirations". The Washington Post. Retrieved 21 April 2017.
  40. Zimmer, William (June 1, 1997). "A Not So Pretty Picture of History". The New York Times. Retrieved 22 April 2017.
  41. Wolfe, Ann M. (2011). The altered landscape : photographs of a changing environment. New York: Skira Rizzoli Publications, Inc. ISBN 9780847836833.
  42. "Exhibitions April 10 – May 30, 2004 Co-curated by Diane Deming and Bill Jeffries The Altered Landscape". Presentation House Gallery. Retrieved 22 April 2017.
  43. The Altered Landscape, Carol Franc Buck Collection, organized by the Reno Museum of Art. OCLC 829969511.
  44. "The 2016 PhotoBook Awards Shortlist". The Photobook Review. Aperture. Retrieved 21 April 2017.
  45. "Recent Grantees". The Pollock-Krasner Foundation, Inc. Archived from the original on 2010-02-03. Retrieved 21 April 2017.
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