December 16, 2008 – March 15, 2009 —
Focusing on the photographs and photographers connected to Nebraska that were created throughout the last 125 years, this exhibition was selected primarily from the permanent collection of the Museum of Nebraska Art (MONA). Favorite artists Solomon Butcher, William Henry Jackson, and Wright Morris along with contemporary photographers such as Roger Bruhn, Paula Day, Larry Ferguson, Charles Guildner, and John Spence are included. Within this large group of works are examples of various printing techniques that provide an overview of not only the advances in the medium, but the changing styles and approaches of the artists.
When thinking about Nebraska photography, the late 19th century work of Solomon Butcher and the mid 20th century work of Wright Morris initially come to mind. Both of these artists are not only significant in Nebraska’s history, but are also of national and international importance.
Solomon Butcher is renowned for his documentation of pioneer life on the Plains. Born in Virginia and raised in Illinois, Butcher arrived in Custer County, Nebraska, in 1880 where he and his father both staked homestead claims. He returned to Illinois for some months, arriving back in Nebraska with only three days left to build and occupy a house on his claim. Two weeks later, Butcher gave it up and turned his land back to the government, soon leaving for Minneapolis. Within two years, newly married Butcher returned to Nebraska with his wife. It was not until 1886 that he had the idea to produce a photographic history of Nebraska’s Custer County. From this time until 1912, he took over 3,000 photographs of the families who settled the Nebraska prairie. The task was laborious and difficult. Butcher often had to traverse poor roads, if there were any at all, and survived by accepting food and lodging in exchange for a print. Today, the information provided to us in these images is invaluable. A pivotal time in our nation’s history, the stately and formal portraits of the families record their way of life. The objects of their lives, their homes, and their livestock are present and visually inform of the homesteading experience.
Wright Morris, well-known writer and photographer, was born in Central City, Nebraska, in 1910. His mother, Grace Osborn Morris, died within days of his birth, leaving Morris “half an orphan.” His father, Will Morris, was a traveler and “wanderer” who often left Morris in the care of neighbors or family. At the ages of 9 and 14 while living in Omaha with his father, Morris spent two summers on his Uncle Harry and Aunt Clara’s farm near Norfolk, Nebraska. Years later, Morris revisited his past by returning to the farm in 1942 and then again in 1947 to take photographs for his photo-text books. The black and white images of rural Nebraska impart Morris’s sense of dignity of his native land and capture its fleeting, quiet nature. With books such as The Home Place, Morris introduced the photo-text – a novel with interspersed images of places and objects that held the essence of and reaffirmed what was being expressed with the author’s words. Coupling these disciplines created a new and challenging experience for both the literary and art world, and staked a place for Morris’s work in the history of American literature and photography.
Nebraska Photography and Photographers offers an opportunity to experience the depth and dimension of MONA’s photography collection and to add further insight into Nebraska’s artistic history through this medium.
