Tarble Arts Center exhibits 'Forced Photography' by Brian Poulter

Tuesday, 26 August 2008 19:39

CHARLESTON, IL - Brian Poulter has titled his exhibition that just opened at EIU’s Tarble Arts Center “Forced Photography.”  The one hundred thirty-five photographs are on view through September 28th in the Tarble’s eGallery on the campus of Eastern Illinois University. Why “Forced Photography?”  Says Poulter, “In October and November of 2007 I challenged myself to shoot only with a point-and-shoot camera, the kind your grandma might buy at Wal-Mart.

I planned to publish the photographs daily on my website, one a day, for a month.”  The photographs that resulted make up one suite of images on exhibit at the Tarble. Admission is free.

“In the spring of 2008 I got it in my head, I don't know how, that I wanted to see the Mississippi River -- the entire river,” said Poulter. So in July writer Jim Standerfer and Poulter drove the entire length of the river on motorcycles.

Rule number one, said Poulter: “We would not set foot on the interstate, and we would travel only back roads.”  Rule number two:  “I would shoot only with my point-and-shoot camera. One hundred-forty-four  photographs were they result. Along with Jim's daily blog, our work was published in the pages and online at the Decatur Herald & Review,” says Poulter.  These photographs make up the second suite on exhibit at the Tarble.  In addition to the framed prints, each five by seven inches, a selection of the images are being projected at a size of about eight by ten feet.

Says Poulter, “For me, photography is not about cameras, camera equipment or photo software. Photography is about noticing things, capturing what you see and how you see, and sharing that.”  “The photographers I admire, Andre Kertesz, Aaron Siskind, Cartier Bresson, and Gary Winogrand, used simple cameras with short lenses. They did not use three cameras and a bag full of lens as many photographers, including myself, do today.  The talent lay in their vision, not their equipment.”

A professor of Journalism at Eastern Illinois University in Charleston, Illinois, Poulter has taught at Eastern since 1992.  His primary duties include teaching new media, photojournalism and advising dennews.com and pounceonline.com.

Poulter holds an MFA from the University of Wisconsin and a BA in Mass Communication with an emphasis in photojournalism from Winona State University.  As a free-lance photographer his work has been carried by the Associated Press, and published in The New York Times, Fortune, New York News Day, and other publications.

The Tarble Arts Center is located on 9^th Street at Cleveland Avenue on the EIU campus in Charleston.  Open hours are 10am-5pm Tues.-Fri., 10am-4pm Sat., 1-4pm Sun.; closed Mondays and holidays.  This exhibition is part of the 2008-2009 Illinois Currents series that explores the works of contemporary Illinois artists, and is funded in part by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency.

The Tarble Arts Center, a division of the EIU College of Arts & Humanities, is funded in part by Tarble Arts Center membership contributions and by the Tarble Arts Center Fund/EIU Foundation.  For information: 217-581-ARTS (-2787), This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , or www.eiu.edu/~tarble.