50 Photographs
50 Photographs is a photo book by visual [art of the United States|American visual artist] Jessica Lange, published by powerHouse Books on November 18, 2008. Featuring an introduction written by the National Book Award-winner Patti Smith, the art work distributed by Random House is the official debut of Lange as a photographer.
Background
Before engulfing herself in an acting career, Lange studied art and photography at the University of Minnesota, as well made a few documentary films in Europe in the late 1960s. While at the university, she formed a relationship with photographer Francisco "Paco" Grande. The pair married in 1970 and Lange dropped out of the school in favor of travelling with Grande throughout the United States. Their relationship would eventually end in 1981, however.She returned to photography many years later, when her latter partner Sam Shepard brought home from a movie set a Leica camera. After three decades in front of the cameras, she then rehabilitated her former dream of being on the other side of the lens, initially photographing her children.
Development
Approximately five years before her first set saw its eventual release, Lange showed some of her work to French film photographer Brigitte Lacombe that began her campaign in 1975, as well to Wim Wenders' wife Donata who also became involved in visual arts herself. Encouraged with both fellow artists to "think bigger", she thus started printing at a professional lab and decided to release a book of her own pictures.When I first showed them to Brigitte Lacombe, she said to me, 'Oh, Jessie. Why are you still so lonely?' And realized that I'm attracted to people in solitary situations that are evocative of lonesomeness.
Her collection of fifty black-and-white studies of unknown people and far-away places was published under title 50 Photographs through powerHouse Books on November 18, 2008, and along with a special contribution written by Patti Smith.
Titled and signed by the actress au verso in pencil, all the pictures were shot mostly during Lange's considerable travels in such places as Ethiopia, Mexico, Romania and Russia. Some of them though, were also taken in the northern part of her native Minnesota and in New York, respectively.
Art exhibitions
2008–2009: United States
Butler Institute of American Art
Lange was the guest of honor for the 50th anniversary of the Butler Institute of American Art in Youngstown, Ohio, where her 50 Photographs exhibition was on display from May 12 to July 5, 2009. In the U.S. [House of Representatives], Congressman Tim Ryan noted that "The collection of her photographs shown here at the Butler capture a range of diverse subject matter from her years of travel. Due to her artistic vision, we are able to be a part of a fifteen year trek from Romania to Ethiopia and back to her home state of Minnesota."Rosegallery
Shortly after the release of her latest TV film, Grey Gardens, Lange's images received their exposure on July 14 through ROSEGALLERY at Bergamot Station, placed in a Santa Monica's art complex on Michigan Avenue. Founded in 1991, the gallery carries a lineup of diverse modern and contemporary artists.A thirty-one photograph show simply named Jessica Lange, was co-produced by Howard Greenberg Gallery and Motion Picture & Television Fund in common. Lange attended a reception which followed four days later.
George Eastman House
In an attempt to showcase more visual liberties, George Eastman House - [International Museum of Photography & Film] in Rochester, NY enhanced her photographic work with the retrospective series of her five feature films Jessica Lange Thursdays, screening her performances delivered for The Postman Always Rings Twice, Tootsie, Music Box, Blue Sky and Titus. Besides, a tribute evening was held at Dryden Theater on July 25, preceded with a Lange's personal presentation of her then current movie release, Grey Gardens. As a result, she was given the first George Eastman House Honors Award ever that night.Lange's second museum venue named after her book occurred on July 18, demonstrating thirty-three photos taken from the publication. The show was opened to public by September 20, 2009.