The Photograph/200 Years Later

It's been a year of anniversaries with America 250 and Salem 400+. Let's add the Bicentenary of Photography to that list!

The Winfisky Gallery recognizes this anniversary with the exhibition: 

The Photograph/200 Years Later
David Oxton: Trackside: Backyard Series
October 13 – November 6 
        including photographs from the Art + Design photo faculty
       Richard Lewis, Kim Mimnaugh, Jessica Martineau, Robert Thurlow

Additional exhibition events 

Wednesday, October 21
Artist Talk – 12:30 pm
Reception – 1:30 – 3 pm

The oldest surviving permanent photograph made with a camera is View from the Window at Le Gras, captured around 1826–1827 by French inventor Nicéphore Niépce. Two hundred years later billions of images are made around the world every day. Photography is part of our daily life. 

This exhibit features the work of David Oxton's Trackside Project. Photographs from the art + design photo faculty Richard Lewis, Kim Mimnaugh, Jessica Martineau, and Robert Thurlow will also be included. 

DAVID OXTON ARTIST STATEMENT  

"The backyard scenes in my Trackside project feature individuals and families who have chosen to live in homes situated near train tracks. Large, insistent commuter trains roll past their backyards every day and night. 

Viewing backyard scenes through train windows when I commuted intrigued me. I decided to visit and photograph people whose properties ran next to the rail lines. My photos depict scenes viewed from the other side of the train windows, from the backyards that trains pass by on their daily routes. 

Generous homeowners allowed me to photograph them in their backyards as trains passed by. I often used lights to illuminate trains as they went by. I designed these photos to include some of the characteristics of photos taken by O. Winston Link back in the 1950’s when he affectionately photographed steam-powered trains moving through small towns in Virginia and West Virginia."

ABOUT DAVID OXTON

David Oxton creates photographs that find candid moments in settings enhanced with controlled lighting. Mildly obsessed with composition and lighting, David chooses to photograph in locations that allow for a mixture of spontaneity and calculation.
Images from his Trackside project have been exhibited at the Griffin Museum of Photography, Lesley University, Arts League of Lowell, and published in Shots Magazine and Cape Ann Magazine.
David is the son of a Pulitzer Prize-winning news photographer and the father of a fine art photographer. David lives in Beverly, Massachusetts and taught photography at an independent high school for over 30 years.

Image: Daivd Oxton/”Steve James and Eddie – Manchester-by-the-Sea” (2020)