PURE PHOTOGRAPHY

From the Robert E. Jackson Collection

January 7 to February 19, 2012

Coinciding with our newest publication, Pure Photography features a selection of found photographs curated by Robert E. Jackson from his extensive collection of vintage snapshots. Having been actively collecting for well over a decade, Jackson is a superb example of one who collects not merely to accumulate, but to seek out, arrange & ultimately form the images he finds into groupings that make statements about photography & culture at large. With Pure Photography, Jackson provides visual evidence of the uncanny manner in which snapshot photography isolates aspects of the world in a way the human eye alone cannot. Some alchemy of chance," Jackson writes, "a misreading of surface detail, a mechanical error within the camera, or emulsion issues have caused these photographs to exist outside the standard notion of what a snapshot is meant to be. Being pure in the sense that they are visually unencumbered by a photographic intent which can be easily understood, one must approach the photos from a personal point of view. As aesthetic objects which cannot be read in the traditional sense, they steadfastly recoil from interpretation & exist simply to be experienced."

Robert E. Jackson has collected snapshots since 1997. In the fall of 2007, his collection was the subject of an exhibition at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. & a catalogue entitled The Art of the American Snapshot:1888-1978. In early 2008, the exhibition traveled to the Amon Carter Museum in Fort Worth, Texas. Jackson actively collects all types of found photography, including cabinet cards, tintypes, photomatic portraits, arcade photographs & photo-collages from the 1870s through the early decades of the 20th century.  Jackson has a MA degree in art history from Chapel Hill, North Carolina and a MBA from the University of Texas, Austin. He has lived in Seattle since 1991. 

© 2012

Robert E. Jackson

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View the book here.