New Adams Photograph In Yeiser Art Center's 2022 'Art Through the Lens' Show

This year’s Art Through the Lens juried exhibit at the Yeiser Art Center in Paducah, KY marks the third year that a traditional, analogue-created photograph from artist CB Adams has been included. Last year, one of two accepted photographs, “Checkerboards,” was awarded an Honorable Mention.

This year, Nashville-based juror and photographer/artist Carolyn Benedict Fraser chose 52 works for the Art Through the Lens exhibit, including Adams’ “Boyball,” from 598 submissions. Art Through the Lens will be open from Sept. 24 – Nov. 12, 2022 with a closing reception on Nov. 13, 2022 from 1-3 p.m. Yeiser Art Center is located at 200 Broadway, Paducah, KY 42001. Phone: 270.442.2453

“I’m grateful to have been chosen for the third time to be included in this show. Four years ag, one of my photographs made with a toy camera was included. That time, it was gratifying that such a traditional, low-fi photograph could hold its own among the others. Both last year and now, the work has been made with large-format cameras and film, and it’s just as exciting,” Adams said.

Originating in 1975 as the Paducah Summer Festival Photo Competition, Art Through The Lens has grown from a fledgling contest into an international juried exhibition. Over the past 46 years this exhibition has become one of the Mid-South’s most prestigious annual photographic events.

Reactive Art

Two CB Adams Photographs Featured in ‘This Moment’ Exhibition at Art Saint Louis

by John Bent, Riverback Communications

Two works by St. Louis-area writer and photographer CB Adams were selected by juror Robin Hirsch-Steinhoff for inclusion Art Saint Louis’ latest exhibition, “This Moment.” Adams’ two black-and-white silver gelatin prints were taken this spring on the same day near each other along Union Avenue in St. louis. But beyond these similarities, the two images were rendered by two distinctively different cameras, according to Adams.

“Get Malcolmized” by CB Adams, a gelatin silver print available for sale through the Art Saint Louis “This Moment” onlien

“I usually explore an area with a variety of cameras because I use the unique signatures of different cameras and lenses the same way a painter chooses brushes. I was toward the end of a day of shooting near the Central West End and on my way home. I knew my classic Rolleiflex and my plastic Holga toy camera had some unshot film in them. I shot ‘Get Malcolmized’ with the Rolleiflex because I had shot the scene before with a toy camera and didn’t like how they turned out. I finished off that roll and looked for a scene that I thought was ‘Holga perfect.’ That yielded the scene in ‘Chain of Fools.’”

According to the show’s announcement, “’This Moment’ is a virtual and online juried exhibit featuring works by 42 St. Louis regional artists. This multi-media exhibit features 48 original artworks created in 2020 that reflect upon or are otherwise inspired by the impact, significance, complexity, profundity and meaning of This Moment in our lives as individuals, as a community, as a nation.”

Adams, who has a toy camera image in Art Saint Louis’ current in-galley exhibition, “Storytellers,” was drawn to the theme of “This Moment.” Reviewing the work he had been capturing during 2020, he noticed that much of the imagery was a reaction to current events and challenges.

“The car wash sign with Malcolm X has been on the side of a pawn shop for years, but in relation to recent events, its message takes on a new urgency. The sign itself hasn’t changed, but my reaction to it certainly has,” he says. “I also like the juxtaposition of the car wash words and the words of Malcolm X. That’s why I named it ‘Get Malcolmized,’ to play off the old ‘Simoniz Your Car’ car wax advertisements.”

“Chain of Fools” is a gelatin silver print made from a negative rendered by a Holga toy camera. It is for sale through the Art Saint Louis “This Moment” online and vitual exhibit.

The toy camera shot, “Chain of Fools,” offers more than one interpretation, according to Adams. “I’m reminded of something the filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky said, ‘A book read by a thousand different people is a thousand different books.’ So ‘Chain of Fools’ has an ambiguity that lends itself to multiple interpretations. For instance, I think during the pandemic, we all feel chained in place and restrained, unable to run as freely as before. On a different level, many people in our society, feel chained by their skin color, sexual orientation, economic status and other constraints,” he says.

The idea of Tarkovsky’s ‘thousand different books’ is applicable to all the art in “This Moment.” After reviewing the work of the other 41 artists, Adams found that most of them were open to interpretation.

“Some of the artwork is very pointed and on-the-nose, yet I can see how different people would react to those strong statements differently. Other work is more abstract, which by its nature allows an even broader range of interpretations. Collectively, I think this show is tremendously cohesive and relevant. And in a crazy sort of way, it’s enhanced by being available only online. I say this because perhaps more people will check it out because they don’t have to leave home to do it,” Adams says.

“This Moment” will be available online through September 15 at the Exhibbit.com platform.