Grabbing moments: 'Ways of Seeing' showcases a gamut of photography styles through four collections

Mar. 3—From the color blasts of a mid-century road trip to a serene portrait by the legendary Alfred Stieglitz, the New Mexico Museum of Art is showcasing a collage of photography.

"Ways of Seeing: Four Photography Collections" runs through June 16. The exhibition ranges from a 1903 photogravure by Gertrude Käsebier to a 2013 pigment print by local photographer Anthony O'Brien. The exhibit also reveals the taste and preferences of its collectors.

Jeff Brouws' "Mobil/Trailer, Inyokern, Calif.," a 1991 chromogenic print, blares its reference to mid-century American travel with its black sky and the intensity of the gas station signs.

It's "the travel and the vintage quality," said curator Kate Ware. "It encapsulates the Western road trip beautifully."

Santa Fe artist Jamie Brunson donated the piece after the death of her first husband, the art historian Mark Levy.

Santa Fe resident Caroline Burnett and her late husband William offered multiple promised gifts.

Stieglitz created many portraits of the young voice student Marie Rapp, who also served as his gallery secretary. Burnett detected "a little sassiness" in the woman who navigated the affairs of the famous 291 Gallery and its temperamental owner, Ware said.

Stieglitz shot portraits of his own art circle, including his soon-to-be wife Georgia O'Keeffe.

Käsebier was known as one of the first female photographers, Ware said. The exhibit features her mother and child portrait, "Blessed Art Thou Among Women."

"She was part of the Stieglitz circle," Ware said. The impresario published and exhibited the images several times, including in the 1903 inaugural issue of his journal Camera Work, which was devoted entirely to her photographs. The image draws on biblical references and the aesthetic of the Arts and Crafts movement to express a Victorian view of womanhood.

Burnett also collected Santa Fe photographer Anthony O'Brien's 2013 pigment print "Untitled (Portrait of a young girl)."

"She said, 'When I saw this image, I cried,' " Ware said. O'Brien found the girl in a Syrian refugee camp. She faces him openly with her loss of childhood innocence.

David Michael Kennedy's palladium print "Rain, Luna County, New Mexico," is a gift from photo dealer Don Moritz. An El Rito resident, Kennedy left his New York career shooting rock stars like Bruce Springsteen and Bob Dylan for the quiet of New Mexico in 1986. He began documenting the Western landscape and Native American culture.

"He's primarily known for his platinum and palladium prints," Ware said. "They're these incredibly beautiful pictures of the New Mexico landscape. He established an iconic view of New Mexico. You're on this two-lane highway and there's this phenomenal drama happening."

Kennedy created the image from his pickup truck window, she added. He spotted the massive cloud and pulled over quickly. He got out with his tripod, but by then the cloud had disappeared.

"I have learned that the universe gives us gifts," Kennedy wrote, "but they are fleeting and you have to grab them quickly or they are lost forever."