Yachting
scenes a central interest of gifted photographer’s work
The
exhibition will show the enormous breadth of Fortier’s work.
It will highlight the images of an important New Bedford photographer
that are essential pieces of American industrial, maritime, and
marine history as well as works of art. A Storied Lens will display
about 75 of the most outstanding images from the Fortier Collection,
focusing on his black-and-white work during the years 1946-1974.
A lecture series and several education activities will complement
the exhibition.
Norman
Fortier became an avid amateur marine photographer as a young
man. As it was decades before formal photography study programs,
Fortier was self-taught. He served as a U.S. Navy photographer
during World War II. Returning to the New Bedford region after
the war, he set up his own commercial photo studio. He was very
much a generalist, doing advertising work, portraiture, and aerial
assignments. The images Fortier produced for such clients as the
Hathaway Manufacturing Company, Revere Copper and Brass, and Wamsutta
Mills testify to both his brilliance as a technician and his uncanny
sense of composition.
The
exhibition, on view through Spring 2006, is presented in honor
of Eliot S. Knowles, president of Merchants National Bank, 1967-1975,
and president of the Old Dartmouth Historical Society-New Bedford
Whaling Museum, 1973-1977. A Storied Lens is sponsored in part
by the Kenneth T. and Mildred S. Gammons Foundation and Bank of
America.
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