Spring 2009 Exhibition

The Davison Art Center celebrated internationally renowed photographer Judith Joy Ross with this retrospective exhibition. For three decades, Ross has used an 8x10-inch view camera to create compelling portraits that convey vulnerability, innocence, and intimations of an uncertain future.

Judith Joy Ross, Untitled, from Eurana Park, Weatherly, Pennsylvania, 1982, gold-toned gelatin silver print. © Copyright Judith Joy Ross. Courtesy Pace/MacGill Gallery, New York.

For her series Eurana Park, Ross created portraits that capture summer freedom and simplicity, as seen above in the untitled image of three girls eagerly eating Pac-Man popsicles.

In 1990, during preparations for the Gulf War, Ross photographed local National Guard reservists. A combination of determination, shock, and contemplation can be seen on faces such as that of P.F.C. Maria I. Leon, U.S. Army Reserve, On Red Alert, Gulf War, 1990.

Judith Joy Ross, P.F.C. Maria I. Leon, U.S. Army Reserve, On Red Alert, Gulf War, 1990, gold-toned gelatin silver print. © Copyright Judith Joy Ross. Courtesy Pace/MacGill Gallery, New York.

With Portraits of the Hazleton Public Schools, 1992-1994, Ross returned to the schools of her childhood, finding the same aging buildings, filled with young, uncertain faces, such as that of the student depicted in Jackie Cieniawa, A.D. Thomas Elementary School, Hazleton, Pennsylvania, 1993.

Judith Joy Ross, Jackie Cieniawa, A. D. Thomas Elementary School, Hazleton, Pennsylvania, 1993, gold-toned gelatin silver print. © Copyright Judith Joy Ross. Courtesy Pace/MacGill Gallery, New York.

Seeking to answer the question "How do you deal with suffering," Ross went to the newly dedicated Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. There she photographed the complex emotional responses of the visitors as they contemplated the black granite walls with the names of the service people fallen and missing in the war.

Judith Joy Ross, Untitled, from Portraits at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Washington, D.C., 1984, gold-toned gelatin silver print. © Copyright Judith Joy Ross. Courtesy Pace/MacGill Gallery, New York.

Whether photographing children or visitors at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, members of Congress or protestors against the Iraq War, Ross reveals our common humanity, our common strengths and frailnesses. Judith Joy Ross: Photographs presented more than 50 images from three decades of unerring clarity of vision.

Judith Joy Ross (American, born 1946), Betty Compton, Protesting the U.S. War in Iraq, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, 2006, gelatin silver print. © Copyright Judith Joy Ross. Courtesy Pace/MacGill Gallery, New York.