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Linda Connor

April 10 – May 12, 2009

Selected Works Thumbnails Back
Buddha's Footprints, India, 1979,
Muhammad Ali Mosque, Cairo, Egypt, 1989,
Votive Candles, Chartres Cathedral, France,1989,
Sand Mandalas, Mindrolling Monastery, Tibet, 1993,
Entwined Buddha, Ayutthaya, Thailand, 1988,
Western Courtyard, Ta Prohm, Angkor, Cambodia, 1999,
Benares, India, 1979, toned gelatin silver print, 12 x 10 inches
Machu Picchu, Peru, 1984, toned gelatin silver print, 12 x 10 inches
Mass, Saint George Church, Ethiopia, 2006,
Girl at Lakeshore, Ethiopia, 2006, toned gelatin silver print, 12 x 10 inches
Spirit Door, Egypt, 1989, toned gelatin silver print, 12 x 10 inches
Ceremony, Sri Lanka, 1979,
Jesus Raising the Dead, Istanbul, Turkey, 1992,
Tomb Doorway, Petra, Jordan, 1995,
From the Monastery Roof, Spite, Ladakh India, 1994,
Ceremony, Sri Lanka, 1979,

Press Release

LINDA CONNOR

April 10 – May 12, 2009 Opening reception, April 10, 5 – 8 pm

Joseph Bellows Gallery is pleased to present, an exhibition of photographs by Linda Connor. The exhibition will be on view from April 10th through May 12th, 2009. An opening reception will be held on Friday, April 10th (5-8 pm).

The exhibition will feature a selection of photographs from the artist's recently published monograph, Odyssey: The Photographs of Linda Connor (Chronicle Books, 2008), which is a comprehensive and cohesive collection representing thirty years of her photographs.

Linda Connor has lead a creative life devoted to photography. With her large format camera, she has traveled in Africa, Southeast Asia, Nepal, India, Turkey, Mexico, Tibet, the American Southwest, and Europe exploring sites that evoke mystery and spirit. She is known for her luminous and iconic photographs and fascination with culturally sacred sites and landscapes. Her artwork reveals the essence of her subjects, yielding a sense of timelessness while visually evoking the intangible. Connor embraces a wide-range of subject matter, connecting the physical and the spiritual world. Just as sacred art evokes deep meaning without always an explicit understanding, Connor hopes her photographs serve a similar metaphorical function.

She uses a distinctive technique: a large-format view camera allowing her to achieve remarkable clarity and rich detail. Her prints are created by direct contact of the 8x10-inch negative on printing-out paper, exposed and developed using sunlight. Toned and fixed with gold chloride, the prints have a warmth, luminosity, and delicacy seldom found in standard photographic printing.

Amongst her images are prints she has made from nineteenth-century astronomical glass plate negatives from the Lick Observatory archives. These images inspire contemplation of the spiritual and the scientific, culture and nature, and wonderment and knowledge.

For the past 40 years, Linda Connor's work has been exhibited throughout the United States and abroad in group shows and solo exhibitions. Connor's work is included in collections at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Center for Creative Photography at the University of Arizona, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the Canadian Center for Photography, the Getty Center in Los Angeles, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Dallas Museum of Art, and the San Francisco Museum of Art.

Her images have been published extensively in books, journals, and catalogues. She has been honored as the recipient of numerous grants and awards including two National Endowment for the Arts grants, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and a Flintridge Fellowship. Along with her photography and teaching career, Connor is the founder and president of PhotoAlliance, a nonprofit organization dedicated to encouraging and supporting contemporary photography. Since 1969, Connor has had a distinguished teaching career at the San Francisco Art Institute, teaching both undergraduate and graduate students.

For more information please contact:

Carol Lee Brosseau carollee@josephbellows.com