When I learned that the George Eastman House was mounting an exhibition of photographs
by actress Jessica Lange, I thought “Oh, no, yet another case of a celebrity getting attention for mediocre work just to attract attention.” Think of all those actors and actresses (Katie Holmes in All My Sons, P. Diddy/Sean Combs in Raisin In the Sun) who get stage roles on Broadway simply because they’ll attract crowds. And we won’t even discuss book contracts.
But while I haven’t seen the show — 50 Photographs by Jessica Lange opens tomorrow — I’m reserving judgment, for now, on whether this is celebrity fever. There are signs that it isn’t.
Lange, it turns out, studied photography at the University of Minnesota and made documentary films before becoming an actress. She began shooting photographs in the early ’90s, when her partner Sam Shepard brought home a Leica. Her work was published last year in a book, 50 Photographs by Jessica Lange. Her photographs have also been reviewed in Aperture. “Jessica’s photographs very much reflect her personality,” the magazine said in 2007. “They are delicate but powerful…loving, warm, and extremely poetic.” And she has collected black-and-white photography for more than 20 years.
Still, it gives me pause that 50 Photographs was “originally organized” by Howard Greenberg Gallery in New York. The gallery doesn’t list Jessica Lange on its website as one of its artists, but… The Eastman House bills the show as “the first major museum exhibition” of her work.
In one way, at least, the Eastman House is capitalizing on Lange’s celebrity by awarding her the first George Eastman House Honors Award, which goes to “an artist whose life work embodies the traditions and values championed by George Eastman House International Museum of Photography & Film.” Pretty wide latitude on the choice, isn’t there? It seems odd that, of all photographers, Lange is the first recipient.
She’ll be at the Eastman House in Rochester on July 25 to accept the honors at an evening event that includes a discussion of her work and a book-signing. She’ll also be there at a 5:30 screening of Grey Gardens, her most recent acting role, in which she played Edith Bouvier Beale, Jackie Kennedy’s eccentric cousin. General admission tickets for the honors event are $20 and for the screening, $7.
Those are pretty low prices if the institution were only exploiting celebrity, and another reason for reserving judgment — I can’t figure this one out without seeing the work. But here’s a link to the exhibition information. I’d love to hear from people who’ve seen the exhibit.
P. Diddy turned out to be pretty good.
Photo Credits: Russia, Lange, 1992-2008 (top); Minnesota, Lange, 1992-2008 (bottom). Courtesy George Eastman House.