UCO photography professor curates exhibit for Oklahoma City Museum of Art

Visitors to the Oklahoma City Museum of Art (OKCMOA) can get a glimpse of photography before the digital age in an exhibit of a mock darkroom curated by University of Central Oklahoma assistant professor of photography Mark Zimmerman. 

The mock darkroom is a part of the OKCMOA’s photography exhibits featuring the work of Ansel Adams and Brett Weston that runs through June 1.

“Mark Zimmerman was a huge help to the museum in our curating of the Brett Weston and Ansel Adams exhibits,” said Amanda Harmer, OKCMOA community outreach coordinator.

“He was able to provide us with items that artists like Ansel Adams and Brett Weston would have been using at the time they were working.”

“Ansel Adams: An American Perspective” features nearly 60 photographs from Adams’ body of work ranging from 1920-1965, including his iconic photographs from Yosemite National Park. “Brett Weston: Land, Sea, and Sky” includes examples of Weston’s work from 1940 to 1985, predominantly mud, rock and ice abstractions, as well as his travels to Baja California, Alaska, Hawaii and Japan.

The items showcased in the exhibit come from both Zimmerman’s private collection and from the university. 

“We still teach a darkroom photography class at UCO,” Zimmerman said. “This was a great opportunity to share this part of photography’s history.” 

Harmer noted that Zimmerman’s contributions, which include cameras, light meters, developing stations and enlargers, help museum guests understand the considerable work it took to produce a photograph in the early to mid-20th century.

“Our goal was to show visitors the process of developing film, producing a print, and to allow people to step into a darkroom. Mark made that happen, and it’s hard to express our gratitude,” Harmer added.

Zimmerman has worked in editorial and commercial photography for more than 20 years. He was chief photographer for The Edmond Sun for four years and has worked as a freelance photojournalist for The Associated Press, Tulsa World, Los Angeles Times, USA Today and Getty Images, and in 2012 was named a DaVinci Institute Fellow.

For more information about visiting the exhibit, visit www.okcmoa.com. For more information about Central’s Department of Mass Communication, visitwww.uco.edu/la/masscomm.

The Gayly – May 12, 2014 @ 7:30pm