"When it opened in 1975, the gallery broke from so-called art photography's very still, large-format, solemn pictures. Suburban snapshots held equal footing with Ansel Adams landscapes. As casual, documentary-style images gained respect across the country (most famously at the Museum of Modern Art, in New York), Blue Sky became a regional, progressive hub. But in reality, its goals were hardly so organized."
"In October, The First Ten Years captured some of the early days' upstart, experimental spirit, putting Walker Evans photos next to recontextualized images from the American Museum of Natural History Archives (including one of a giant millipede). It was packed with hundreds of images by dozens of photographers, including Rauschenberg and his cofounders, Robert Di Franco, Craig Hickman, Ann Hughes, and Terry Toedtemeier."
Blue Sky Gallery opened in Portland in 1975 and rejected the era's solemn large-format approach by elevating suburban snapshots and casual documentary images alongside canonical landscapes. The gallery became a regional hub as documentary-style photography gained national respect, attracting diverse photographers and experimental work. Cofounder Christopher Rauschenberg described the space as a social nexus for visiting photographers. A fiftieth-anniversary yearlong series of five shows traces the gallery's exhibitions across decades, including The First Ten Years, which juxtaposed Walker Evans prints with recontextualized archival images and hundreds of works by founding members and numerous other photographers. Gallery presentation reframes everyday imagery to alter impressions and perspectives.
Read at Portland Monthly
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