Melinda Blauvelt studied photography at Yale with Walker Evans, was the first woman in Yale’s MFA photography program, went on to teach at Harvard, and has her pictures in major museums throughout the United States. Inspired by Evans’ 1930s photographs of rural America, she began a unique project in 1972, which she only recently unearthed and printed.Melinda decided to spend that summer photographing the small fishing village of Brantville, New Brunswick. She lived with a fisherman and his family, ran a day camp, and made remarkable portraits of the village residents. Bill Shapiro, former editor of Life magazine, calls her Brantville images “quietly riveting, somehow managing to be big-hearted while not sentimental, clear-eyed but not cynical, highlighting our human quirks and our warmth in equal measure.” This important collection of black & white photographs depicts a time when New Brunswick, and particularly the Acadian Peninsula, was going through deep social changes. They speak to the values of community, family, and the ability of brilliant images to frame and extend our ability to truly see a place.
Curated by John Leroux and presented by the Beaverbrook Art Gallery.
