City Of ​Portsmouth Accepts Hyatt Photo For City Hall

PORTSMOUTH, NH — Portsmouth-based and internationally-renowned photographer Carl Austin Hyatt has donated a large format black-and-white photograph from his “Portsmouth Salt Piles Series” to the City for public display.

The Portsmouth City Council accepted the photograph, “S-1” in a ceremony with the artist and the Public Art Review Committee (PARC) on March 3, as part of their regular city council meeting.

Hyatt produces classic-format, black-and-white photographs, some of which are included in the permanent collections of the Museum of Fine Art in Boston and the Smithsonian. PARC recommended that Hyatt’s donation be accepted and placed on public display, and the City Council voted to approve the donation on Feb. 3.

The photograph is printed in archival ink pigment on watercolor paper and includes an innovative view of Portsmouth’s salt piles, a ship unloading salt, and the Sarah Mildred Long Bridge. It will be on display prominently in City Hall.

In his essay about “S-1” for A History of Portsmouth NH in 101 Objects, Hyatt wrote, “Over the last 30 years, the pattern of my life and work has become timed to the seasonal arrival of salt boats and the ritual of their unloading. The rhythm of the working yard, the comings and goings of boats and trucks, the slow pivoting of cranes, the graceful ease of falling salt, became a kind of dockside choreography that transformed my experience of our city’s landscape and persona. Strange how something I had so easily dismissed, became a source of inspiration I would never have looked for.”

PARC was formed in 2023 to champion high-quality public art for the city of Portsmouth and advise on public art-related topics.

For more information, visit: https://portsnh.co/PARC.

Submitted by the city of Portsmouth.