Trio of Humanistic Photography Exhibits at Hallmark Museum

Starting March 20, and running through June 15, 2008, three photography exhibitions will open at the Hallmark Museum of Contemporary Photography, each covering a unique and often unknowable way of life. In Gallery 56, Linda Butler will present "Meditations on Simplicity," a visual contemplation of the legacy of the Shakers, a religious society with its peak in the Eastern United States more than a hundred years gone; Lili Almog will present "Perfect Intimacy," an exploration of three Carmelite female monasteries in Maryland, Israel, and Bethlehem; and in Gallery 85, Stella Johnson presents "AL SOL," a series assembled from two decades' worth of photography among the rural people of Mexico, Nicaragua, and West Africa.

The Museum's featured galleries will be open for longer than usual on the day of the reception on March 29, and Almog and Butler will give talks, then sign copies of their books. A seperate reception for Johnson will be held later, on April 26. The Hallmark Institute of Photography Educational Center will host an artist's talk after the reception. It seems curious to push the reception back on the calendar, until you consider Stella's globespanning assignments and photographic outreach projects.

The emphasis of this exhibition is on the human condition, and all three photographers are superb examples of expression by camera of a people's way of life. For example, Johnson travelled to Mexico in 2006 as a Fulbright Senior Specialist, teaching documentary photography and possibilities for the archiving of cultures in visual forms at (deep breath) the Regional Center for Multidisciplinary Research of the National Autonomous University of Mexico, (CRIM-UNAM) in Cuernavaca. Almog's portraits have appeared in the most respected photography journals in the United States, Britain, and Germany. Butler has had more than 50 solo exhibitions in the US, Canada, and Japan.

To learn more about these photographers, their names are linked to their personal websites, all with excellent galleries. Hallmark Museum's information is still anemic, but that is bound to change soon as the premiere draws closer. Click here to go to the Museum's website.