The Weight of the World

Thanks to its new addition, the Saint Louis Art Museum in Forest Park (314-721-0072 or www.slam.org) has enough space to display more of its holdings. Case in point is the new exhibition The Weight of Things: Photographs by Paul Strand and Emmet Gowin. More than 70 prints by these American photographers span galleries 234 and 235, providing a deep overview of their careers. Both photographers had an interest in people and outdoor spaces, but their similar interests produced different results. Strand spent time in small villages and settlements around the world, while Gowin took to aerial photography of landscapes both natural and those scarred by the works of man. Strand's candid portraits of people on New York City streets were taken without his subjects' awareness; Gowin photographed first his wife and child, then later captured his expanded family. Both men took particular care with their printing methods, striving for dense prints that contained the mass and force of the real world. The Weight of Things is open Friday, November 8, through Sunday, February 16, 2014; the gallery is open every day except Monday, and admission is free. Image Credit: Emmet Gowin, American, born 1941; Nancy, Danville, Virginia, 1969; gelatin silver print; image: 5 1/4 x 6 1/4 inches. Collection of Sam and Betsy Fentress © Emmet Gowin; courtesy Pace/MacGill Gallery, New York
Tuesdays-Sundays. Starts: Nov. 8. Continues through Feb. 16, 2013