Through the Lens, now showing at the University of Miami's Lowe Art Museum, not only makes a case for the breadth and depth of the museum's holdings in photography but also offers a concise history of the camera's art. The 100-piece exhibition was culled from more than 1,000 photographic works the Lowe has collected over five decades; a recent three-year push has added examples of early photographic processes such as calotypes and salt and albumen prints.

``The collection has never been seen this extensively,'' says Denise Gerson, associate director of the museum and the exhibition's curator, ``and it's unlikely to be shown in this depth again any time soon.''

The exhibition has been installed chronologically, allowing the visitor to savor works by such masters as Walker Evans and Ansel Adams before moving on to contemporary art-world stars such as Cindy Sherman and culture-war veterans Andres Serrano and Robert Mapplethorpe. A more adventurous hopscotch tour, however, reveals several shows-within-the-show.

One of these embedded samplers highlights works by South Florida artists, many of whom depict local subjects. Betty Rosado's untitled portrait of fellow artist Gustavo Roman from her Identity series initiates a dialogue among the photographer, her subject and the camera. The dizzying viewpoint of Suicide at the Omni, a striking work of light and shadow by the late Miami Herald photographer Albert Coya, does not obscure its tragic subject. Silvia Lezama's Adventures of Philip with Fish is a surreal depiction of her 6-month-old son's interaction with his toys, while Clyde Butcher's Moonrise, like many of his large-format, black-and-white Florida prints, captures the pristine, even unexpected, serenity of an aquatic landscape.

But perhaps the most engaging thread of Through the Lens is the Lowe's focus on photography rooted in Latin America and the Caribbean. Works by early photographers such as Brazil's Marc Ferrez, who pioneered flash photography and whose panoramas of Rio de Janeiro brought him fame, confirm how early the medium took root in those countries.

Ferrez's Entre de Rio from the 1880s launches the exhibition's trajectory through Brazilian photography that culminates in Sebastiao Salgado's Cast of Thousands, which depicts 50,000 mud-soaked men digging for gold in Serra Pelada, and Vic Muniz's Big James Sweats Buckets. Muniz re-created his photographic portrait by drawing it with sugar crystals on black paper and then re-photographing it.

Among contemporary Latin American and Caribbean photographers, Tatiana Parcero, a Mexican artist now living in Argentina, and Miami's Carlos Betancourt, originally from Puerto Rico, offer contrasting examples of self-portraiture and expressions of self-identity.

In Cartografía Interior #43, Parcero layers anatomical diagrams and fragments of Aztec codices on photographs of herself, using her body as a way of conjuring her inner essence. In Yellow Blossoms in Mendieta's Ceiba Betancourt becomes a canvas, applying drawings, prose and paint as a form of graffiti derived from pre-Columbian and Afro-Caribbean cultures.

Colombian Hector Acebes and Albert Chong from Jamaica explore how the black body has been depicted in photography. Chong's Self Portrait with Eggs references the spiritual and religious practices of his West Indian and Chinese lineages; Acebes' Maasai Man, Tanzania is from a series of images of indigenous Africans. Also on display are works by Martín Chambí of Peru, Graciela Iturbide of Mexico and Luís González Palma, who was born in Guatemala and now lives in Argentina.

Obrero en huelga, asesinado (Striking Worker Assassinated) by Manuel Alvarez Bravo is a graphic documentary image of the corpse of a sugar-mill worker killed during labor violence in southeastern Mexico in 1934. In an adjacent gallery the Lowe features 30 more works in Manuel Alvarez Bravo: Soul of a Nation.

``Alvarez Bravo is . . . important aesthetically, stylistically and politically.'' Gerson says. ``He opens a window into a nation.''

ARNOLD NEWMAN

Also worth a visit is the museum's concurrent exhibition, Arnold Newman: A Photographic Legacy. Newman, who completed high school in Miami Beach and attended the University of Miami on an art scholarship, is recognized as one of the 20th century's greatest portrait photographers.

In his celebrated black-and-white portraits of artists, Newman posed his subjects in their working or living environments. Georgia O'Keeffe stands in front of an easel topped with a bleached ram's skull, the New Mexico mountains in the background. Pablo Picasso stares into Newman's camera, hand resting on his forehead.

Through the Lens and Arnold Newman run through Oct. 6. At a reception on Oct. 1, University of Miami art and art history professor J. Tomás López, whose Jerry (Diptych) is in the exhibition and who contributed an essay to the Lens catalog, will talk about the history of photography, using examples from the Lowe's collection.

Join the discussion

The Miami Herald is pleased to provide this opportunity to share information, experiences and observations about what's in the news. Some of the comments may be reprinted elsewhere in the site or in the newspaper. We encourage lively, open debate on the issues of the day, and ask that you refrain from profanity, hate speech, personal comments and remarks that are off point. In order to post comments, you must be a registered user of MiamiHerald.com. Your username will show along with the comments you post. Thank you for taking the time to offer your thoughts.

     Showing: Oldest first Newest first Most-recommended first Least-recommended first

@Nyx.AuthorDisplayName@ wrote on @Nyx.PostedAtTime@:

@Nyx.repliedToText@

@Nyx.replyAnswerText@

Reply to this Comment @Nyx.Recommender@ @Nyx.AbuseReporter@