I’m writing this post in between closing my Outside Influence exhibition at the Vicki Myhren Gallery in Denver (April 28) and opening an abbreviated version of it at the Anderson Ranch Arts Center in Snowmass (June 3). The Myhren Gallery show was two years in the making and the first tangible manifestation of eight years research into Colorado photography’s post-WWII / pre-21st century history.
Being my first curatorial project in quite a while, the installation required quite a bit of muscle memory! We began unwrapping and laying out work about ten days before the March 13 opening. The pictures below show gallery manager Lauren Anuszewski, who led a crew that was mostly composed of work study students from the Art & Art History department. You’ll see that Lauren’s shirt is covered in strips of the blue tape; this was not some new fashion statement but evidence of a technique used by experienced installation people to mark the placement of hooks and nails without damaging the wall surface. It’s a surprisingly difficult skill and something I’ve never learned to do; consequently, Lauren’s walls were clean beneath the images, whereas mine were studded with pencil marks and errant nail holes - clear evidence of my amateur status as an installation technician.
As I look at the sequence of in-process images below, I have to marvel at how systematic the installation process can be when it’s well organized (thanks Lauren). With Outside Influence that involved not just hanging pictures but also ordering a vinyl banner to hang outside the building, choosing a color for the MidCentury display wall, and ordering a vinyl mural of a Syl Labrot image from 1959 (seen at the center of the third image). As I explained to visitors, the wall color and mural originally featured in a 1960 exhibition at MoMA in New York that was replicated by the Tate Modern in London a few years ago, which I happened to see. The shows included the same Syl Labrot image and several by Walter Chappell, who lived in Denver in the early-to-mid 1950s. (Both artists are featured in previous posts on this site.)
After unpacking and laying out all the work I panicked - did I have enough? Or too much? Was it cohesive and balanced? And wait, what happened to the [expletive, fill in the blank]? I realize that until that moment I hadn’t fully visualized the show - the proverbial trees had until them hidden the forest - and I was struck by the amount of color that jumped off the walls, particularly in the portrait sections. Perhaps until then I’d thought of the project in monochrome. Chronologically, color became prominent in the 1970s; prior to that time, most of the works were gelatin silver prints or variations of monochrome processes. To actually see color bursting out of the gallery walls revealed the profound impact of color on modern analog practice, and also prompted a quick re-imagining of my book’s contents and sequencing before the design was locked down.
To show the impact that color had in the gallery, here are a few of my favorite walls: in sequence moving left to right they show the gallery entrance with images by David Sharpe (left) and Cal Sparks (right); Barbara Houghton’s Unsportsmanlike Conduct, which filled the wall opposite the entrance; and R. Skip Kohloff’s embossed screenprint titled El-A-Phant next to two of Houghton’s early digital prints and her Dress and Socks cyanotype collage. The Denver Salon wall naturally had to be arranged salon-style. Close by, early prints and videos by Gary Emrich were displayed next to a large Albert Chong print (stretched in this image - apologies to Albert!). Albert’s image led to a portrait wall - one of three in the gallery - that featured works by (l-r) Ray Beasley, John Bonath, Vidie Lange, and Daniel Salazar.
Once the show was installed, all that remained was signage. Here, I admit, I ran into problems of how to convey the many connections and intersections linking artists and artworks. The concept of mentors and institutions is inherent to the entire project, and I realized how hard it is to represent that in the gallery without mapping the gallery space with QR codes or red string. I hadn’t given enough thought to the issue, and my attempts to create a comprehensible gallery guide linking A to B to C ultimately proved unsuccessful. When it debuts in June, the rewritten guide for Anderson Ranch will hopefully be a lot clearer!
I’m pleased to say the Myhren gallery reception was packed with artists and friends (photos by Mark Sink below) and (with one notable, unnamed exception) the show was well received. Art critic Ray Mark Rinaldi wrote a very positive review (here) in the Denver Post, and a gallery talk between myself and Albert Chong, Natascha Seideneck, and Ellen MacFarlane raised a lot of talking points not just about the show but about photography in general.
At its next iteration in Snowmass, the show will be smaller yet will include several works by Aspen-based photographers not in the Denver show. I that way, I hope to emphasize many of the Aspen region’s connections to our photo history, including the 1951 Aspen conference on photography, Cherie Hiser’s Center of the Eye workshop, and John Schoenwalter’s Lower East Side Gallery, all of which were located at the Hotel Jerome. For information about the Anderson Ranch show, click here.
My book will be published by the University Press of Colorado in September and is currently in the final design and proofreading phase. The cover design above by Tina Kaschele features our signature image by Cherie Hiser paired with a detail of Stoney Pass, San Juan National Forest, Colorado, 1997, a superb landscape by Willy Sutton. Thematically, the images convey a fine sense of the communal influence and outdoor allure that run through the book’s narrative.
In future weeks I’ll be sending out notices about where and how to buy the book, as well as information about book signings. I hope you’ll be able to join me at one or more of them.
Thanks for reading! Rupert
Please leave a comment or question, and thanks for your interest in our regional photo history!
The Colorado Photo History blog is the online presence for “Outside Influence: Photography in Colorado 1945-1995,” a University Press of Colorado book by Rupert Jenkins. Forthcoming September 2025.
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