Vernacular Photography Collection Tour
Thursday, October 22, 2020, 4:00pm (Pacific time)
![Unknown American Artist, [Suffragettes smoking and drinking with alligators], 1880s-1900s, gelatin silver print, the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, the Barbara Levine and Paige Ramey Collection, Museum purchase funded by the Carline Wiess Law Accessio…](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5c19279945776e1e5ff687f5/1602200244625-RGVU3X2I1BVOQKAH1OFL/Screen+Shot+2020-10-08+at+4.36.49+PM.png)
Unknown American Artist, [Suffragettes smoking and drinking with alligators], 1880s-1900s, gelatin silver print, the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, the Barbara Levine and Paige Ramey Collection, Museum purchase funded by the Carline Wiess Law Accessions Endowment Fund
On Thursday, October 22 at 4:00pm Pacific time we welcome collector Barbara Levine and curator Lisa Volpe (Associate Curator of Photography at Museum of Fine Arts Houston) for a virtual tour of the Barbara Levine and Paige Ramey Photography Collection—an extensive and spectacularly diverse group of vernacular photographs recently acquired by the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. The collection contains powerful examples of individuals captioning their own lives, physically altering photographic prints, using photography to tell stories, and more. A few of the major themes of the collection include African American Studio Portraits; LGBTQ Life; Mexico and the Border; and Altered and Manipulated Images.
Although many items in the collection were originally mass-produced for the public, they have become extremely scarce over time and cannot be found in any other private or public collection—join us for a first look at these wonderful and significant pieces and hear about this groundbreaking acquisition.
Vernacular
“Vernacular” generally refers to photographs not strictly made as fine art, and can include anything from personal snapshots to mass-produced souvenirs; mourning jewelry to mugshots; and everything in between. Attendees will learn about vernacular traditions that define a unique and important history of photography and predate many contemporary techniques of image manipulations, like embroidery on photographs.
Vernacular photography is fundamentally accessible in its potential to offer equity and inclusion—from serving as source materials for artists, to offering museums the ability to be more representational in their collections through vernacular acquisitions.
Its history, as expressed in everyday terms, is available to all if we open our eyes to look for it. And this virtual collection tour will do just that!