Candid camera

Collector Jude Peterson takes a shot

by Leon Nigrosh

THE JUDE PETERSON PHOTOGRAPHY COLLECTION At the Fitchburg Art Museum, 185 Elm Street, Fitchburg, through March 29.

The walls of the two main galleries at the Fitchburg Art Museum are literally filled to overflowing with photographic images created by 33 notable photographers. More than 100 black-and-white prints, along with a handful of color Cibachromes, cover nearly 140 years of picture-taking from Carleton E. Watkins's 1861 journalistic glass-plate image of Yosemite to the recent Chris Enos extreme close-up Polacolor, Bird of Paradise, in all its riotous abstract color.

Many of the photographers included in this exhibition have long-established and far-reaching careers with well-known singular works included in museums and photography books. Mention the name Edward Weston, and his sexy/sensual vegetable pictures like Cabbage Leaf immediately come to mind. But how often have we had the chance to see a group of works by Weston's son, Brett? Thanks to collector Jude Peterson, we can marvel at the beguiling images produced by both father and son along with several portfolios by other well-respected photographers, many from Massachusetts.

Peterson grew up with art all around him. His parents were generous benefactors of the Minneapolis Institute of the Arts and helped establish a photography acquisition fund there in the early 1970s. When Peterson began to study photography in high school, his parents gave him Axe in Plowfield, Elk River, Colorado, a photograph by Minor White which is included in this exhibit. At age 19, Peterson bought his first photo, Pine Forest Detail, also on display, from his teacher at the Maine Photographic Workshop, John Sexton. From then on, Peterson was hooked.

Drawn from Peterson's vast collection, the photos are being shown together publicly for the first time. Until now, only Peterson and a few friends could view them, one at a time, in his small, cluttered, Northampton apartment. Realizing the depth and breadth of his collection, Peterson made arrangements for these works to be on a long-term loan at FAM so that others could have the opportunity to enjoy his finds as well. For example, it is rare that anyone can get to see Paul Caponigro's complete Portfolio III: Stonehenge all along one wall. By catching the light and shadows in his own special way, Caponigro brings the old stones to life with all their majesty and mystery.

It is Peterson's occupation as a stonemason, as well as his experience as a landscape photographer, that drew him to Caponigro's work. This same combination of influences also attracted Peterson to Aaron Siskind's abstract-expressionist views of natural arrangements of stone in his 1954 Martha's Vineyard series. Here the rocks lose almost all their individual identity, instead becoming patches of black and gray pitted against the stark white background, much like the work of Siskind's painter friend Franz Kline.

Bradford Washburn took to the air to find fascinating patterns and arrangements in the glaciers and tundras of Alaska. His Glacier in Winter is a veritable washboard pattern of deep shade and burning white. A bird's-eye view of the Pokositna River, Winter reduces the vastness of untamed natural forces to a single black line which meanders through a stark white carpet of crystal snow.

Unlike these other photographers who hunt for the perfect setting, Carl Chiarenza works his abstract magic in the studio. Instead of forcing natural elements to become players in his black-and-white spatial arrangements, he first rips, tears, folds, bends, cuts, and places bits of fabric, paper, and metal in a particular assemblage. He then experiments with the play of light across these collections until he finds the combination he needs to create the intriguing compositions represented here in more than a dozen large format prints.

Other artists, like Joseph D. Jachna, insinuate themselves directly into their landscape photography. By making his own hand and a mirror serve as the central image, he injects an element of fantasy into his imaginative impression of Door County, Wisconsin.

As fascinating as each photograph is in this display, whether it is a portrait of an Indian chief taken a hundred years ago, a close-up of cracked paint, or a blanket of yellow leaves floating on a silvery waterway, we have the opportunity to admire and study not only the abilities of the photographers but to gain an understanding of the passion and sensibilities of the collector of these images, Jude Peterson himself.

The Fitchburg Art Museum is open Tuesday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Sunday from 1 to 4 p.m. Call (978) 345-4207.