Art & Science Photography in the Spotlight at the Bruce Museum

This spring the Bruce Museum focuses on photography as it presents three new exhibitions, each using photos to reflect the duality of the Bruce mission, to promote the arts and sciences.

On April 7, the Bruce Museum will open In Time We Shall Know Ourselves: Photographs by Raymond Smith, an exhibition of black-and-white photographs by New Haven artist Raymond Smith. The exhibition will be on display in the Museum’s Bantle Lecture Gallery through June 3, 2018.

Inspired by the photographs taken in the American South in the 1930s by Walker Evans, a teacher and mentor of Smith at Yale University, as well as by Robert Frank’s The Americans (1958), in the summer of 1974 Raymond Smith embarked on a photographic expedition of his own. Smith traveled with his friend Suzanne Boyd in an aging Volkswagen from New England through the South and into the Midwest, camping and photographing people and places he encountered during the three-month journey. Intending to write a Ph.D. thesis in American Studies, Smith instead channeled his intense curiosity about his country and its inhabitants into a moving suite of portraits, works that are at once down-to-earth, melancholy, and filled with surprise.

On April 14, Wild Bees: Photographs by Paula Sharp and Ross Eatman, opens in the Science Gallery at the Bruce. This exhibition features more than two dozen exquisite photographs of wild bees in their natural habitats.

The photographs are part of a three-year wild bee project undertaken in 2014 by photojournalist and writer Paula Sharp and nature photographer Ross Eatman to document wild bees inhabiting New York's Rockefeller State Park Preserve and neighboring Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture.

While many people are aware of the collapse of European honeybee populations, fewer know that native insect pollinators are declining globally due to a combination of habitat loss and fragmentation, pesticide use, pathogens, and invasive species. Native bees pollinate both wild plants and agricultural crops – many of which cannot be pollinated by honeybees. Wild bees are important pollinators of wildflowers, garden flowers and commercial crops including fruit trees, berries, melons and garden vegetables, yet their significance in sustaining healthy ecosystems is often overlooked. Wild Bees will be on view through November 11, 2018.

On June 2, the Bruce proudly presents the National Geographic Photo Ark, featuring more than 50 compelling images by National Geographic photographer and Fellow Joel Sartore. Photo Ark is an ambitious project committed to documenting every species in captivity. Sartore has worked in more than 250 zoos, aquariums and animal rescue centers in over 40 countries around the world. To date, he has taken intimate portraits of nearly 8,000 species. Once complete, the National Geographic Photo Ark will include portraits of over 12,000 species representing several animal classes, including birds, fish, mammals, reptiles, amphibians and invertebrates. Photo Ark will be on view at the Bruce through September 2, 2018.

“The stunning photographs in our upcoming Wild Bees and Photo Ark exhibitions blur the line between science and art,” says Dr. Daniel Ksepka, Curator of Science. “They document nature's diversity with incredible precision. Visitors will be surprised to witness the spectacular variety of wild bees in their own yards at large scale, and will feel the powerful emotional impact of the animal portraits in Photo Ark.”

The Bruce Museum’s own collection of photographs has grown significantly over the past 20 years. The collection features hundreds of works including fine art photographs by Cindy Sherman and Garry Winogrand, just to name a few, and images focused on the natural world by renowned photographers Margaret Bourke-White and Brett Weston. A new show of Weston’s work is scheduled for Fall 2019.

Photographers’ Talks at the Bruce

The Bruce welcomes members and visitors with an interest in the art and science of photography to attend two talks by photographers featured in this spring’s exhibitions.

On Saturday, April 14, 3:30 - 5:00 pm, hear “The Story Behind Wild Bees,” in an artists’ talk by naturalists/photographers Paula Sharp and Ross Eatman. Their three-year project documenting wild bees focuses on a dynamic ecosystem in which native pollinators travel between agricultural plants and woodland nests and flora. To date, Sharp and Eatman have photographed more than 100 species of wild bees. Their presentation is free for Bruce members and students (with valid ID); $10 for non-members (includes Museum admission). Register at brucemuseum.org by clicking on “Reservations.”

On Sunday, April 15, 3 – 5 pm, Raymond Smith will present a talk titled “I Am a Camera,” which will be followed by a Q&A and book signing. The reception is free for Museum members and students (with valid ID); non-members $15. Advance registration is required, as seating is limited. To reserve your seat, please visit brucemuseum.org and click “Reservations,” or call 203-869-0376.

Exhibitions at the Bruce Museum are generously supported by The Charles M. and Deborah G. Royce Exhibition Fund, with support from the Connecticut Office of the Arts. The Wild Bees exhibition has received additional support from Ellen and Joanne Flanagan, Green Fingers Garden Club, Greenwich Garden Club, Lisette and Robert J. Henrey, Knollwood Garden Club, Alice P. Melly, Heidi and Scott Smith, Withers Bergman and a Committee of Honor. The Photo Ark exhibition is generously supported by Guardian Life, Gabelli Funds and Judith and Stephen Wertheimer.