Portraits of Raleigh 2 Opens Friday: Sneak Preview

August, 05, 2010 , by Ladye Jane

A few months ago, the Raleigh City Museum put out a call for entries to local photographers and enthusiasts to submit their favorite “portraits of Raleigh.” With photos from all over the Raleigh map, the jurors looked for images that created a story that one does not necessarily expect when thinking of iconic photos of the capital city. This is not a collection of photos of the Capitol and Fayetteville Street, but of the many unique and idiosyncratic features that make out city special.

The jury, which consisted of Jason Arthurs and Juli Leonard, selected 40 out of the 200+ entries they felt presented the most interesting photographic exploration into who and what the city is. Along with the chosen 40, a few were selected by me (*disclaimer), the curator, for viewing in a curated digital selection. The photos have been broken into two groups; Series One will be on display from August 6 - November 27, and Series Two from December 6 - March 25.

The exhibit opens this Friday night with a party from 6:00-9:00 with all sorts of goodness. There will be free drinks, food from the Big Easy, music by the Bloomsbury Boys, a photobooth, raffles, and ticket give aways to Hopscotch Music Festival.

Attendees on Friday night will also award one of the photographs with the “Sir Walter Raleigh Award”, so be sure and come out to show support for your favorite image.

Below is a preview of a few of the images from Series One:

A Single Man by Simon Griffiths
Nestled in Five Points, the Rialto was built in 1942 and it retains much of its original, vintage charm with its recessed lighting and performance stage. Griffiths took this image in early January after a morning snowstorm. According to Griffiths, “I headed out early that day to capture the fresh virgin snow before cars and warming temperatures turn everything to slush. It was still sleeting heavily as I slogged through my neighborhood of Five Points and found the light hitting the Rialto and other businesses to be surreal. I thought briefly of placing myself somehow in the photograph, but instead decided to go back to the house where a post shoot nap was beckoning.”

Lot 13 #3 by Kurt Eichenberger
The photo was taken in December of 1980 diagonally across the tracks from the present day Amtrak Station. This is the former site of an early Wyatt-Quarles Seed Company warehouse and later Baker Roofing Company. Around 1976, the buildings burned in a spectacular fire, leaving a ruin that stood for four years before being slowly demolished. A group of Raleigh artists used this site for a number of interactive art installations, which collectively became known as ‘Lot 13,’ the designation given the property on old property maps. The photo was taken with a pinhole camera ‘system’ of Eichenberger’s own design. The people in the photographs are some of the artists involved in the installations. The pinhole cameras were loaded with 4x5 Tri-X film. It takes four cameras to shoot one 360-degree panorama. Although the negatives were scanned to make these prints, the perspective of the images were not digitally processed to make the panoramas.

West Street Warehouse, Rear View, 1999 by Marshall Wyatt
Raleigh’s Depot District, southwest of Nash Square, was the city’s warehouse and railroad hub for more than a century. Today, many of the surviving structures have been adapted for new use, including this building on West Street, a private nightclub. Its rear facade, once accessible to the Norfolk & Southern freight line, is now obscured by encroaching vegetation, ever ready to reclaim the urban landscape.

Iron Head by Carson Boone
In the summer of 1976 while the State Legislature was in session, a large motorcycle rally was held in Raleigh to lobby the legislature regarding the motorcycle helmet law. Boone took this photograph at the intersection of Blount and Jones Streets just as the rally was breaking up. The then current mayor of Raleigh, Jyles J. Coggins is shown in the background. The motorcycle is a 1976 Harley Davidson AMF 1000 cc iron head.

Portraits of Raleigh photographers include: Sam Adams, Carson Boone, Erin Debnam, Kurt Eichenberger, James Gries, Simon Griffiths, Mike Hanna, Wes Hare, Christina Hutchinson, Tim Kiernan, Jake Kitchener, Helena Knox, John Morris, Abby Nardo, Brantley Richbourg, Shawn Rocco, Eric Schneider, Ben Spiker, Sterling Stevens, Stefanie Toftey, and Marshall Wyatt.