Works by noted local photographers Donna Fitzgerald and Mark McCarty are on view at the Crowell and West Galleries in the Feigenbaum Center for Visual Arts through March 12.
Fitzgerald’s works are a selection from her extensive travel and living in Italy and Vietnam. McCarty’s photos are from his black-and-white portrait series called “Skin.”
An artist talk will be held Thursday, Jan. 24, at 3:30 p.m. in Visual Arts Room 204, with a reception 4:30-6:30 p.m. in the two galleries. The events are free and open to the public.
Both Fitzgerald and McCarty have been photographing for more than 30 years.
Fitzgerald has long been interested in recording people involved in their daily interactions.
Motivated by a natural curiosity and the challenge of “composing a moment filled with light, beauty and sense of place,” she is drawn to capturing situations that often go unnoticed.
“Focusing on daily activities in community locations can help me explore different cultures and see past the obvious. I can connect with strangers and experience the richness of life that is important no matter where you travel,” she says.
Fitzgerald’s work has been exhibited regionally and in such national shows as Maine Photographic Workshops’ Summer Show, Between Twelve and Twenty, and Never-Fail Imagery.
Her works are in numerous private collections and in galleries in Italy and Cuba, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and the Center for Photography at Woodstock in New Paltz, N.Y. A high school educator, she is married to Martin Benjamin, the William D. Williams Professor of Visual Arts.
McCarty’s “Skin” photos portray the lives of individuals of all ages, including members of his family, through the various lines, scars and imperfections of their faces, hands and other unclothed flesh.
“They’re about my exploration of that thin, vulnerable and mortal skin between all of us and the world,” he says.
McCarty has won awards from the Nikon International Photo Contest, the International Photography Awards and Photo District News. His works are included in the permanent collections of the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, the International Center for Photography in New York City, the Albany Institute of History and Art, and Houston’s Museum of Fine Arts.
While his commercial work has taken him from local research labs to the mountains of Turkey, his personal work “lets me look more closely at the things I love, lets me continue to hold those things, and keeps me from forgetting.”
Funding for the exhibition was provided by the Tina and Richard Carolan Foundation and the Department of Visual Arts.