By Paul Tuthill
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wamc/local-wamc-991574.mp3
Amherst, MA – Hampshire College in Amherst Massachusetts is paying tribute this weekend to one of its founding professors, Jerome Liebling, the world renowned photographer who died in July at age 87. There is a public exhibition of 27 of his photographs and a public memorial service will be held. WAMC's Pioneer Valley Bureau Chief Paul Tuthill reports.
The tribute exhibition is the first time Jerome Liebling's photographs have been on display in the campus building, named after him..the Liebling Center for Film, Photography and Video. The images were printed large, some over three feet wide. Digital technigues were employed to reveal details and definition not previously seen..
Kane Stewart, the director of the Liebling Center, and a former student of Jerome Liebling says the photographs are from the last exhibition Liebling curated of his own work.. a 2010 show called , Capturing the Human Spirit.
The exhibit spans a half century of Liebling's work beginning in his native New York City in the 1940s. Stewart says it's a representative sample of his mentor's interests.
The photographs range from a brutal blood soaked slaughter house in the mid west to a serene snow covered landscape here in Massachusetts. There is a simple close up of a cactus plant in black and white, and the exploding colors of woman wearing a flower print dress picking through a pile of peaches at a market.
There are several portraits, including a child on a Brooklyn street, a youth at a summer camp, and a migrant worker, where the subjects gaze is directed at the viewer in a confrontational appearance..
The large images created by master printer Jonathan Singer of Boston from Lieblings black and white and color film negatives reveal details previously hidden in smaller prints. The enlarged portrait of a migrant worker in Le Suer Minnesota, taken in 1953, reveals a reflection in the subject's eyes. Its Liebling with his camera.
Elaine Thomas, director of communications for Hampshire College says a memorial service will be held Sunday, at 1pm in the Robert Crown Center.
The memorial exhibit of Jerome Liebling's photography runs through November 8th.