Photography Collection

The mood was festive as people crowded into Austin Peay State University's small Trahern Gallery for the opening of "Modern Light: Selections from the Jim and Nan Robertson Photography Collection," the university's most important art show to date. "We can use it as a teaching mechanism. It's not going to be stored away. This is going to be out", Ned Crouch, former director of Customs House Museum, said while gaping at the photographs.The exhibit, curated by APSU photography professor Susan Bryant, is 58 photographs from a collection of more than 300 photographic artworks donated to the university. Jim and Nan Robertson live in Dover, but while living in Arizona, they ran Fifth Avenue Gallery,. They knew some of the photographers of that era, and collected their work as well as photographs by earlier masters in the field. "Modern Light" includes photographs by Paul Strand, Bill Brandt, Ruth Bernard, Brett Weston, Cole Weston, Clarence White and Harold Edgerton. It also includes one of Bryant's favorite photographs of all time, "Chez Mondrian, Paris" by Andre Kertesz. The exhibition will be on display through Oct. 28, and the collection is a permanent part of APSU's photographic library. Susan Knowles, an independent art curator, spoke about highlights of the show and the significance of the collection. "A photographer needs to have an eye for composition and a sensitivity for emotional and intellectual resonance," Knowles said. He pointed out various photographs in the show and revealed details about them that might elude a casual viewer. She also keyed in on Bryant's favorite piece. "'Chez Mondrian,' taken in 1926, is probably one of the best-known images in photography," Knowles said. "Kertesz did not speak French. He used the camera basically as an extension of his personality."