More than those thousand words

By Victoria Gail-White
Advertiser Art Critic

Photographs from the private collection of Cherye R. and James F. Pierce are making a public debut in the Henry R. Luce Gallery. They are gorgeous, gut-wrenching and insightful reflections of who we are, how we live and what we interpret as beautiful, by some of the most renowned photographers of the past century.

The first process, the daguerreotype, was made public in 1839, and combined optical and chemical practices. Photography is a medium that continues to evolve. Some of these changes are palpable, from the soft-focus photogravure "Flatiron Building, 1903" by Alfred Stieglitz (the patron saint of straight photography) to the sharp, richly black-toned and sculptural platinum emulsion on linen canvas "Lucy Ferry, 1986" by Robert Mapplethorpe.

The Pierces, long-term residents of Hawai'i, began collecting photographs in 1977 and have amassed a collection of over 500 works, many by American photographers. What began as a leap of faith became a passion (James Pierce doesn't like to call it "addiction"). The journey of learning about and collecting photographs has been an exciting one for this couple. Although they are attracted to different types of photographs, they have developed an "aligned eye" for what they want to collect.

"I look for something that speaks to me," says Cherye Pierce. "I like certain artists and beautiful things — staircases, animals and nudes."

"I look at the paper," says James Pierce, "and I tend to pick things that have more of an emotional impact."

The installation is exquisite in its simplicity. Almost all of the photographs are black and white and framed in black wood. The exhibit is designed around eight thematic groups: the Iconic Image, the Natural Environment, the Urban Environment, the Human Condition, Nudes, Animals, Still Lifes and the Modernist Impulse.

The printing processes represented are photogravure, gelatin silver, platinum and platinum emulsion on linen canvas, gum bichromate, fresson, Ektacolor, tricolor carbon, palladium and cibachrome.

Each section has at least one picture that is worth more than a thousand words.

The photograph that started it all for the Pierces — "Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico, 1941/1978" by Ansel Adams — is as strikingly eerie as his "Aspens, Northern New Mexico, 1958/1978." In the latter, the long, narrow tree trunks appear to be illuminated from the inside.

Imogen Cunningham's classic "Magnolia Blossom, 1925" is still luscious after all these years.

Two heartbreaking photographs by Edward Serotta — "University Library, Sarajevo, August 1988" and "University Library, Sarajevo, November 1993" — are examples of the honest power punch a straight photo can deliver.

"Shell Shocked Man, Hue, Vietnam, 1968/1997" by Don McCullin and "Pregnant Woman Injecting Heroin, 1971" by Larry Clark, convey an emotional intensity that makes them difficult to look at.

Fortunately, some comic relief is at hand in "Man Eaten Alive by Chest of Drawers Whilst Searching for a Missing Sock, 1996/2001"

by Dominic Rouse, as well as two very peculiar photographs — "Snowy the Mouse Man, Cambridge, c. 1960" by Don McCullin and "Angel of the Carrots, 1987," by Joel Peter Witkin.

One of the few color photographs in the exhibit, "La Femme du MusŽe Grevin, 1988," by Dolores Marat, is large and impressionistic. Viewed at a distance, it can easily be mistaken for a painting.

The smallest photograph (2/ inches by 21/16 inches) is the most overwhelmingly poignant: "World Trade Center through Branches, 1998" by James Pitts.

The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art is showing a retrospective of work by Diane Arbus. The Honolulu exhibit includes an idiosyncratic print from one of her last jobs before she committed suicide, "A Woman with Her Baby Monkey, New Jersey, 1971."

The fact that a photograph is a picture of someone or something that existed is astounding. We are given a glimpse of our world, beautiful and bizarre, tender and terrible. The breadth and range of this collection are remarkable.

Other photographers such as Paul Strand, Walker Evans, Yousuf Karsh, Edward Steichen, Brassai (Gyula Halasz), Henri Cartier-Bresson, Jack Spencer, Andre Kertersz, Valerie Shaff and our own Franco Salmoiraghi, to name a few, further illuminate this celebration of light with the tales their pictures tell.

The show contains a transcendent landscape by Brett Weston, "Canal, Holland, 1973." Weston, the son of celebrated American photographer Edward Weston, also has a solo exhibit of his photographs of Hawai'i in the Holt Gallery at the Academy of Arts through Jan. 4.

"It is a dynamic art," says James Pierce.

"There are a lot of emerging and truly wonderful photographers. I like the fact that photography tends to be interactive and in touch with life, with people and their environment. It is not such a solitary art form."

Thinking of photograph collections?

In the lecture he gave at the Doris Duke Theater earlier this month, James Pierce shared collecting and preservation tips.

One tip: Research the photographers you like on the Internet, in books and in galleries. This is educational and will give you a good idea of what is available and what the market prices are. The older galleries in New York, San Francisco and New Orleans have good inventories, and gallery owners are good teachers.

Another tip: Have your photographs archivally mounted and use only wood frames. It is costly to correct problems that can arise from improper framing. The Pierces store their collection in a temperature-controlled room and rotate displaying them every six months.

The hardcover book that accompanies the exhibit, "In Celebration of Light," is available in the gift shop.

Susan Ehrens, an art historian and curator specializing in the history of photography, will present a free slide lecture, "From Imogen Cunningham to Diane Arbus: What a Woman Can Do With a Camera," at 2 p.m. on Jan. 11.

Hawai'i entries join photo show

Three Hawai'i-based photographers — Gaye Chan, Ann Landgraf and Ed Greevy — have been selected to have their work displayed at the International Center of Photography's "Only Skin Deep: Changing Visions of the American Self" exhibit in New York.

To learn more about the center and the exhibit, visit the Web site at www.icp .org.