Over the last 10 years, American photographer Kelli Connell immersed herself in the archives of the Center for Creative Photography at the University of Arizona, researching the lives and relationship of writer Charis Wilson and legendary photographer Edward Weston.
That research led Connell and her previous partner Betsy Odom to retrace Wilson and Weston’s journeys through California and the American Southwest, where Wilson and Weston lived, made work and spent time together 80 years ago.
Their journey resulted in revelatory photographs and a narrative that weaves together Connell’s experience and her new understanding of Wilson and Weston.
Now on View
Now on view at CCP through Dec. 6, “Kelli Connell: Pictures for Charis” brings 45 of Connell’s recent portrait and landscape photographs, including many large-scale works, into conversation with 48 classic figure studies and landscapes by Weston made from 1934–45. The exhibition acknowledges Wilson’s voice and agency, pairing her own words with Connell’s new texts and Weston’s photographs.
The exhibition, co-organized with the High Museum of Art in Atlanta and the Cleveland Museum of Art, takes on special dimensions in Tucson. CCP’s presentation features a full-scale recreation of Connell’s studio from her MacDowell residency. There visitors will see a 35-minute video that documents her travels and creative process.
“Kelli Connell’s ‘Pictures for Charis’ is the epitome of what CCP stands for: a contemporary artist exploring the archives, using that knowledge to create new work, and producing an exhibition that shares the results,” said CCP Chief Curator Rebecca Senf. “By using historical materials to create new understandings about Edward Weston and Charis Wilson, Connell illustrates the value and necessity of archives of primary source materials.”
Labor of Love
Connell began her research in the Wilson and Weston in the CCP archives with only a broad goal in mind: to better understand Wilson and her role in relation to Weston.
“This project has been a labor of love for me – for my deep interest in learning more about Charis, for Betsy, for thinking about how we will or will not be remembered in time,” said Connell.
“Few artists get the chance to imagine an exhibition and then see it supported so fully by an institution. CCP made it possible for me to place my photographs in conversation with original Edward Weston prints, and I’m deeply grateful for that opportunity. Seeing the work on view at CCP has been very rewarding.”
Women’s Voices into Dialogue
Wilson wrote extensively about her travels and about her, and Weston’s, photographic concerns. While investigating Wilson’s life, Connell tells her own story, one that finds a kinship with Wilson and, to her surprise, Weston, too. Throughout the galleries, visitors encounter labels with text written by both Connell and Wilson, bringing the women’s voices into dialogue with the original prints, acknowledging how stories can be distilled, generalized, or misremembered.
CCP has also co-published a companion volume with Aperture, which provides Connell’s fresh perspectives on portraiture examining gender, sexuality and history through a queer and feminist lens.
“Charis was independent, free-spirited, and sharp—someone I’d want to hang out with,” Connell said. “It’s nuts that I spent 10 years of my life trying to get close to someone who’s a ghost in a way, but I just got obsessed with her.”
This exhibition was curated by CCP Chief Curator Rebecca Senf in collaboration with Gregory Harris from the High Museum of Art in Atlanta and Barbara Tannenbaum from the Cleveland Museum of Art.
About Kelli Connell
Kelli Connell (born in Oklahoma City, 1974) is an artist whose work investigates sexuality, gender, identity, and photographer/sitter relationships. Connell’s work is in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, J. Paul Getty Museum, Philadelphia Museum of Art; and many others. Publications of her work include “Kelli Connell: Pictures for Charis” (Aperture and CCP), “Photo Art: The New World of Photography (Aperture) and the monograph “Kelli Connell: Double Life” (DECODE BOOKS). Connell is a Guggenheim Fellow, like Edward Weston, and is based in Chicago. Artist Website
About Betsy Odom
American artist, curator and educator Betsy Odom (born 1980) has modeled for Kelli Connell and is both the inspiration for and subject of the works in “Pictures for Charis.” As Connell’s former partner, Odom helped Connell revisit and explore the relationship between Charis Wilson and Edward Weston while also interrogating and complicating traditional gender norms. Connell and Odom’s extensive travels are described in the companion book for this exhibition, which includes an afterword by Odom. Odom teaches at Loyola University Chicago, and her artistic practice plays with stereotypical associations around gender and sexuality. Artist Website
About Charis Wilson
Californian writer, photographer, and model Charis (CARE-iss) Wilson (1914-2009) was the daughter of novelist Harry Leon Wilson. She met Edward Weston in Carmel, California, in 1934, and soon after, they began a romatic relationship and working partnership. While Wilson gained recognition as the subject of Weston’s photographs, she also played the role of author, writing articles, grant applications, and the text to accompany Weston’s books. Wilson’s writing recasts their partnership beyond their age difference and tropes of photographer and model. She published her memoir, “Through Another Lens: My Years with Edward Weston” in 1998.
About Edward Weston
Among the 20th century’s most influential photographers, Edward Weston (1886–1958) pioneered a modernist style of sharply focused, richly detailed black-and-white photography. A founding member of Group f/64 alongside Ansel Adams and Imogen Cunningham, Weston became the first photographer awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1937, spurring his travels with Charis Wilson across the American West. The Edward Weston Archive at CCP contains more than 2,000 exhibition prints, over 10,000 negatives, his original Daybooks, and an extensive collection of correspondence and ephemera. Artist Website
Support
This exhibition is co-organized by the Center for Creative Photography, University of Arizona; the High Museum of Art, Atlanta; and the Cleveland Museum of Art.
At CCP, major support for this exhibition and its companion publication is provided by Max McCauslin and John Smith, and the Peter Salomon Endowment for the Support of Women Artists. A generous Foundation for Advancement in Conservation (FAIC)/Tru Vue® Conservation and Exhibition Grant and in-kind support of Optium Museum Acrylic® for preservation of this work was provided by Tru Vue, Inc. and Larson-Juhl.