Art Preview: Flattering Close-Ups

The Silver Eye Center for Photography’s Pittsburgh NOW show isn’t the first attempt to capture on film a moment in the city’s history. But while the exhibit’s documentation of cultural and everyday minutiae frequently hits home, it’s also marked by missed opportunities.

Silver Eye approached nine local photojournalists and “documentary-style photographers” to record Pittsburgh’s multidimensional identity through its people, places and events. The project echoes Lewis Hine’s “The Pittsburgh Survey,” in 1907, and the way that mid-century international photography “eyecons” including Margaret Bourke-White and W. Eugene Smith, along with local legend Charles “Teenie” Harris, recorded a city in transition. Co-curator Linda Benedict-Jones describes Pittsburgh NOW as “a rich and searching tapestry of images, encompassing the descriptive breadth of legendary photographers of the past as well as the fervent hopes we collectively share for Pittsburgh’s future.” read on...
[Pittsburgh City Paper]

The Lowdown:
Pittsburgh NOW continues through Aug. 20. Silver Eye Center for Photography, 1015 East Carson St., South Side. 412-431-1810.