March Issue 2000
Halsey Gallery in Charleston, SC, to Host Two Views of Vietnam War
The Halsey Gallery at the College of Charleston's
School of the Arts, in Charleston, SC, will host an exhibition
entitled Re: Visioning Vietnam featuring the works of photographers
Larry Burrows and Craig Barber through Mar. 22.
Barber is a Vietnam veteran who was stationed as a combat marine,
from Apr. 1966 to Dec. 1967, in the central region between Da
Nang and Chu Lai. Though not a photographer during his tour of
duty, he has returned to Vietnam every year since 1995 to photograph
in an effort to better understand what happened there. He works
with homemade pinhole cameras constructed out of cardboard and
tape, and his finished negatives are made into platinum prints.
Barber's technique evokes the look of 19th century photographs.
The inherent blurriness of the image produces imprecise scenes,
which mimic a dreamstate or dimly recalled memories.
A resident of Brooklyn, NY, Barber has shown at the Oravska Galeria, Slovakia, and the SE Museum of Photography, Daytona Beach, FL, as well as in Seattle, New York, and San Francisco. He received a B.A. in Photography from State University, New York and has since given workshops nationally.
On assignment for Life magazine, Englishman Larry Burrows spent nine years as a combat photographer in Vietnam, until his death in a helicopter crash in 1971. He was the first photographer to photograph war extensively and satisfactorily in color. Burrows wrote, "It is not easy to photograph a pilot dying in a friend's arms and later photograph the breakdown of the friend. I didn't know what to do. Was I merely capitalizing on someone else's grief?"
Burrows' photographs illustrate the escalating role of the United States in Vietnam - from advisors in 1962, to full combatants in 1968. His series of images, The American Intervention, is a potent legacy, leaving open a window to a place in time, Vietnam, where human folly and frailty were often unmasked and ambiguity was the order of the day.
Recipient of the Order of Iron Mike (U.S. Marine Corps) 1967, Magazine Photographer of the Year, 1966, British Press Pictures of the Year, 1965,1966, and the World Press Photo, The Hague, 1966; Burrows' photographs have been published in Life, Time, Newsweek, London Sunday Times Magazine, London Telegraph, Paris- Match, Stem, Quick, etc.
For further information check our SC Institutional Gallery listings or call the gallery at 843/953-5680.
Mailing Address: Carolina Arts, P.O. Drawer
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