PORT TOWNSEND — “I love photography,” said Christopher Rauschenberg, “because it takes me places I haven’t been … and when I look at other people’s photography, I’m looking at the world through other people’s eyes.”
Rauschenberg, curator of the “Wet: Reflections on Water” photo exhibition at Northwind Art’s Jeanette Best Gallery, will give a free public talk this Saturday.
His 5 p.m. discussion will take place at the Best Gallery at 701 Water St. in downtown Port Townsend, so he’ll be surrounded by the show.
An artist whose works are displayed in museums and galleries around the globe, Rauschenberg was the juror chosen last winter to select the 40 photographs in the “Wet” exhibition.
“I’ll talk about how things look together, and what some of the issues are that the show raises,” he said, “and I’ll talk about photography, how it describes the world, and how it’s integrated into everyday life now.”
Photos have a key role to play, added Rauschenberg, who is also a cofounder of Blue Sky, the Oregon Center for the Photographic Arts in Portland, Ore.
In these times, we need to find ways to recognize each other’s shared humanity, and “I feel like photography is one of the ways to do that,” Rauschenberg said.
The “Wet” show “is a nice mixture of people who would describe themselves as photographers, and others who might not,” he said. The doorway into this art form, he added, has become an open archway.
Rauschenberg, the son of famed artists Robert Rauschenberg and Susan Weil, notes that photography — and art, for that matter — is far less rigid now than it once was when it comes to mediums and boundaries.
Structures have been loosened, and “my father was one of the main looseners,” he mused.
“Wet: Reflections on Water” explores the beauty and power of water, from roaring waves to unexpected colors on pavement. There are images of the Pacific Ocean, of Lake Crescent, of a calving glacier and of a bright-green anemone. Documentary, abstract, color and black-and-white images share the gallery space.
The exhibition, Rauschenberg said, brings together a mix “of beautiful and thought-provoking pictures on the most important subject on Earth.”
“Wet” will stay on display through April 30 at the Jeanette Best Gallery, which is open from noon to 5 p.m. Thursdays through Mondays. Voting for the People’s Choice Award, a $100 prize, will go on throughout the show.
For more information about Northwind Art’s gallery shows and classes at the Northwind Art School at Fort Worden State Park, see https://northwindart.org.
