Thursday, July 24, 2014

Ever a New Season: Works by 19th-Century Photographer George Barnard
Onondaga Historical Association

Onondaga Historical Association
321 Montgomery St., Syracuse

During the nation's 150th anniversary observance of the Civil War, a Barnard exhibition makes sense. OHA owns a rare complete first edition of Barnard's Photographic Views of Sherman's Campaign (1866), widely recognized as one of two foundational publications of 19th-century American photography. Barnard also lived in Oswego and Syracuse before the war and retired to Marcellus for his last decade. A technical innovator, commercial pioneer, and important taste-maker in one of our most pivotal periods, Barnard was also firmly rooted in the traditions and iconography of 19th-century American landscape painting, which equated national identity with the land and infused much of his work. "Ever a New Season" reintroduces an exciting early figure to a region already attuned to and highly literate in contemporary photography.