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'What the Eye Doesn't See' Photography Exhibit by Tarver to Open Oct. 13 in List Gallery

For Immediate Release: September 25, 2006
Contact: Marsha Mullan
(610) 328-8535

http://www.swarthmore.edu/news/


'What the Eye Doesn't See' Photography Exhibit by Tarver to Open Oct. 13 in List Gallery


An exhibit by Philadelphia photographer Ron Tarver, "What the Eye Doesn't See: Images in Silver and Ink," will be featured at Swarthmore College in the List Gallery, Lang Performing Arts Center (LPAC), from Friday, Oct. 13, through Monday, Nov. 12. Tarver, the 2006 Donald Jay Gordon Artist, will also present a slide lecture on Thursday, Oct. 26, at 4:30 p.m. in the LPAC Cinema. A gallery reception will follow the talk. The exhibit, talk, and reception are all free and open to the public. List Gallery hours are Tuesdays through Sundays, noon-5 p.m.

Born and raised in Fort Gibson, Oklahoma, Ron Tarver moved to the Philadelphia area in 1983. He is widely admired for his varied series of photographs including "Havana," "Homesteads," "Trees," and "Our Town." His List Gallery exhibition will feature highlights of previous series alongside examples of his most recent digitally scanned and altered works investigating the evocative potential of minutia such as shells, and plant forms. No matter the subject or creative process, Tarver's dark-edged, gestural, and often poignant photographs are as much about what remains concealed as what technology reveals.

A staff photographer at the Philadelphia Inquirer since 1983, Tarver easily exchanges his documentary lens for evolving viewpoints and techniques that allow him to explore the poetry of place, the elusiveness of identity, and the ineffability of nature. "What the Eye Doesn't See" highlights Tarvers' painterly touch and his ability to revel in the limits of perception.

Tarver has also won recognition for his many long-term projects documenting African American experiences. A 1993 Pennsylvania Council on the Arts grant allowed him to explore the lives of modern-day African American cowboys, and his images from the recently published book, We Were There: Voices of African American Veterans, from World War II to the War in Iraq, were exhibited at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia May-August 2004.

Tarver's photographs have been exhibited nationally and internationally and are in many distinguished collections including the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the National Museum of American Art in Washington, D.C., and the State Museum in Harrisburg. He has earned numerous awards, grants, and fellowships, including a 2001 Pew Fellowship in the Arts, the 2001 Margaret Danby Visual Arts Award from the Black Liberated Arts Center, Oklahoma City, and grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, National Geographic Magazine, and the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. His work is represented by the Sande Webster Gallery, Philadelphia.

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