Richard McCabe, curator of photography at Ogden Museum of Southern Art in New Orleans, loves color and its power to evoke emotion in images.
”I love red,” he said, characterizing it as hot and sensual. “But it changes everyday. I love green. I also love blue.”
What McCabe doesn’t like is the way some photographers manipulate color in their images, using tools in editing programs like Photoshop to pump it up. To him, the result can be color that looks manipulated and “really corny.”
McCabe, who has curated over 30 exhibitions including the highly acclaimed “New Southern Photography” show in 2018, will curate “Color,” an exhibition opening Sept. 5 at the SE Center for Photography in Greenville, South Carolina.
He knows some photographers may think a show with color as its theme means focusing only on saturation. Instead, he’s looking for a traditional interpretation of color and how a photographer seamlessly integrates it into a photo without sacrificing other design elements.
“I’m looking for how color enhances the image, how color is integral to the mood, how color accentuates what the photographer is trying to tell,” McCabe said. “And how it draws attention to and accentuates the subject matter.”
For this show, the subject matter is wide open. He said the images could focus on daily life with family around a house or colorful things or places. He also considers lighting to be a key element and envisions images captured during what photographers refer to as the magic hours of sunrise and sunset.
“If the lighting isn’t right, you can’t make a good picture out of the Taj Mahal, but a crumpled-up Coke can can be great if the lighting is,” he said.
Regarding submissions, McCabe recalls his early days when he entered photography competitions. He said he used to do the wrong thing and send five different kinds of images with no emphasis on continuity or story.
“I’m looking for a body of work,” he said. I’m trying to find a narrative running through the images. I’m looking for consistency.”
McCabe said he prefers curating an exhibition rather than jurying it, which he likened to picking the greatest hits. Instead, curating puts the emphasis on the cohesiveness of all the images within a show.
Michael Pannier, the SE Center’s Director, asked McCabe if he would curate a show at his Greenville gallery, but left if up to him to select the theme. McCabe chose color in part because he had been thinking about the 40th anniversary of a 1976 exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City.
The solo exhibition featured the color imagery of William Eggleston, a Memphis-born photographer whose work focused on everyday items, such as tricycles. Eggleston had adapted an expensive dye transfer process that intensified saturation to make his prints. In one of his most famous photos, “The Red Ceiling,” he observed: “When you look at the dye it is like red blood that’s wet on the wall ... “
At the time, art critics regarded color, which had been used primarily in advertising and associated with family album snapshots, as “tacky and amateurish,” McCabe said.
Florida Treasures & More ©Richard McCabe
So combining those two things in a photograph — the use of a so-called tacky color treatment with mundane subject matter — at a museum known for setting art standards made the exhibition the most hated of the year, McCabe said. But 1976 also turned into a watershed year for color photography and Eggleston’s work played a leading role in legitimizing it as an art form.
He did have a partner in crime: William Christenberry, a fellow Southern photographer who introduced Eggleston to color processes. McCabe said the “two Williams” invalidated the dogma of photo snobs everywhere who dictated that only black and white photography was art. “The rest is history,” he added. “Today, color photography is king of the photo-art world.”
Color captured McCabe’s imagination early on. Using a Polaroid SX-70 camera, he would go out of his way to find color. He also worked in photo labs, processing C-prints (chromogenic prints) from negatives or slides using chemical color layers on paper.
Today, using his experienced eye, he usually can tell if a black-and-white print is made from a digital file using inks on a printer or from film in a darkroom using chemicals. In that process, a suspension of silver salts and gelatin coat a surface such as paper or glass, producing a broad tonal range and lushness.
“I’m kind of a photo nerd,” he said, adding “nothing is as beautiful as a gelatin silver print.”
Born in England, McCabe grew up in the American South, got his first camera at age 10, fell under the spell of photography through family albums and received a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) degree in studio art from Florida State University in 1998. He pursued graduate studies in New York City, taught photography at universities, worked in galleries and has exhibited his photography in numerous galleries and museums throughout the United States. He became Odgen Museum’s curator of photography in 2010.
Recent exhibitions include Land Star, a four-year photographic exploration of the back roads of the South to capture the vanishing vernacular signage and architecture of the region. McCabe made 40 images of what he views as a Southern gothic tale of loss, isolation and desolation.
He describes his current project as a personal diary of images of where he grew up, dealing with memory and metaphor. And guess what?
“It’s in black and white,” he said. “I’m excited about moving on.”
And moving on also may include transitioning from film to digital cameras. McCabe still shoots his personal work on Tri-X film using a medium-format Hasselblad and a Rolleiflex. He uses a digital camera at work to photograph art work and installations, but has not found the right one for his own projects.
And he predicts returning to student status if he does get a digital camera, adding: “I’d have to take a class.”
To see McCabe’s work and read his bio, please visit his website at: https://www.richardmccabephotoart.com/
Be sure to visit the SE Center’s Calls for Entry page for current opportunities
Lead Photo: Jesus ©Richard McCabe
