In an exhibit showcasing the past and future of the regional photographic arts community, the Boston University Photographic Resource Center is celebrating its 30th anniversary with PRC/POV: Photography Now and The Next 30 Years.
PRC curator Leslie Brown said the exhibit, which will run in the PRC Gallery at 832 Commonwealth Ave. until Jan. 28, presents not only a retrospective of the gallery’s past works, but incorporates a variety of old and new media to represent what the PRC calls “Ones to Watch.”
“A photo is so much more than a piece of paper,” she said.
In preparing for the exhibit, Brown called for nominations of people, places, things and specific works that PRC members felt represented contemporary photography and future trends.
“We really wanted to be able to connect with people from our past while looking to our future,” she said. “This exhibit is not only devoted to this community, but [allows visitors] to be able to discover someone new.”
The anniversary exhibit contains conceptual, performance, journalistic and art photography, as well as video installations, Brown said. Several of the 30 “Ones to Watch” are not really art at all, she said, but rather concepts or products that have “had a tremendous influence” on photography, including the Adobe Photoshop software on display.
The PRC was founded in 1976 as a newsletter publication, Brown said. Chris Enos, a newcomer to the city at that time and whom Brown called a “strong, creative personality,” began the enterprise in her apartment with collaborators Jeff Weiss and A. D. Coleman, neither of whom lived in Boston.
“It may have been advantageous that we weren’t from Boston,” Coleman said. “The Boston scene was very factionalized at the time. We had no allegiance. We were just these weirdos doing things.”
Coleman said as the PRC’s influence grew in the community, it began to publish a critical journal called VIEWS and, with the help of BU, eventually took up its first residence at 25 Buick St.
“The fact that it has survived for 30 years is astonishing,” he said. “You had these three oddballs, two of whom weren’t even based in Boston and one of whom was a newcomer to the scene, creating a phenomenon in the community.”
The PRC provides an array of services to the Boston arts community, including exhibits of contemporary artists’ work, workshops for members and photography programs for children, Brown said.
Operating as an independent non-profit organization, the PRC has created a close relationship with the university, Brown said. BU has donated the PRC’s current gallery space to the organization.
Despite its financial ties to BU and its on-campus location, the PRC actively works with more than 15 other area colleges.
“We try to program and talk with the other galleries on campus and run complementary exhibitions,” Brown said.
“A lot of schools are coming into their own,” she continued. “We’re hitting a Renaissance in terms of people pursuing photography. A lot of these exciting, young people are staying in Boston and teaching, developing an energetic community here.”
Coleman said the PRC has always served as a cohesive organization and ardent promoter of the growing Boston photography scene.
“There was a demand — a need — for this that people did feel,” he said.
The PRC is “largely supported by the community” — not just by BU but also by local corporations like Polaroid, Coleman said.
Margot Kelley, a past exhibitor and current PRC member, said the Center provides a much-needed regional focus. Kelley, who teaches photography at the Art Institute of Boston, said she appreciates the PRC’s “ramped-up” education program and contemplated bringing one of her classes to see the exhibit.
“This kind of exhibit is great for me, but also for my students,” she said. “It’s a really good cross-section of what’s happening right now [in photography].”
Although Coleman no longer works directly with the PRC, he said he is confident the Center will continue to “evolve” and play an active role in the New England arts community.
“We never had a vision of the PRC as a static organization,” he said. “We wanted to create something that other people would use and make their own.”
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