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Relative Closeness: Photographs of Family and Friends

June 11 - August 8, 2007

Todd Deutsch, Day 325 - July 29, 2004, 2005

Harry Callahan, Eleanor, c.1947

Sally Mann, Candy Cigarette, 1989

Work by:
Harry Callahan
Jen Davis
Todd Deutsch
KayLynn Deveney
Deanna Dikeman
Ben Gest
Cynthia Greig and Richard H. Smith
Alice Hargrave
Vince Leo
Sally Mann
Hrvoje Slovenc
Aleksandra Vajd

Since its inception, photography has been enthusiastically embraced as a means to create images of family members and loved ones. In the mid-1800s photographic portraiture was all the rage, daguerreotype studios were set up in major cities and people were fascinated by the technology’s ability to capture accurate likenesses of people.

Extremely powerful in its capacity to “capture a moment,” photography has long been considered an excellent tool in helping to bridge distances and freeze memories from our personal lives.

Relative Closeness presents the work of artists who focus their cameras on their own friends, families, and homes. These artists explore their immediate environments and the people who anchor them, as a way to reflect upon their own mortality. Ranging from affectionate portraits to psychologically challenging images, these works investigate and often question universal ideas of the sweetness and sanctity of family life. Some of the artists probe the very meaning of “family,” others turn to friends, themselves, or even old family photographs to examine their need for human connection and sanctuary.

Relative Closeness presents the work of artists who focus their cameras on their own homes and families. By recording their children, spouses, friends, and parents, these artists explore their immediate environments and the people who anchor them, as a way to reflect upon their past, anticipate their future and, perhaps, their own mortality. Ranging from affectionate portraits to psychologically challenging images of people inhabiting the same space but clearly not connecting, this exhibition presents works that reflect the universal sweetness, sanctuary, and stresses of family life.
This exhibition showcases works from the Midwest Photographers Project and permanent collection of the Museum of Contemporary Photography at Columbia College Chicago. The museum’s permanent collection of more than 8,000 photographs and photographically-related objects made since 1936 reflects the medium’s diverse capacities for artistic expression and documentation. An overriding emphasis is placed on the power of photography as art and idea.

The Midwest Photographers Project (MPP) is the museum’s rotating archive of works by artists living and working in the midwestern United States. Inaugurated in 1982, the MPP includes recent portfolios by prominent and emerging photographers from Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio, and Wisconsin. Spanning a diverse array of media, subject matter, and style, MPP is a unique and expansive resource. It includes over 1,000 photographs by 75 photographers, with new portfolios introduced almost every month.