Works by Legendary Photographer A. Aubrey Bodine in Student Center Gallery Beginning Sept. 4
July 18, 2007
Contact: University Relations
Phone: 410.837.5739
Baltimore's own A. Aubrey Bodine, legendary photographer for The (Baltimore) Sun and regarded as one of the founders of modern photojournalism and a leader in the 20th century Pictorialist movement, will be the subject of a retrospective exhibition in the University of Baltimore Student Center Gallery on Tuesday, Sept. 4. The gallery is located on the fifth floor of the Student Center, 21 W. Mt. Royal Ave. The exhibit, from Bodine's 50-year career as a newspaper feature photographer and artist, will continue through Feb. 22, 2008.
Born in Baltimore in 1906, Bodine began his career as a messenger at the Sunday Sun at age 14. He submitted artful photographs to his editor and became a feature photographer at 21, a position he held for the next 43 years. In 1928, "Thomas Viaduct at Relay" ran with a credit line for Bodine.
"That probably was the first, or one of the first, credit lines he ever received," wrote Harold A. Williams, author of Bodine: A Legend in His Time. "… From then on his byline appeared regularly and became one of the best known staff names in Sunpaper history."
In 1946 the Sun’s Sunday Magazine, widely known as "the Brown Section" so named for its sepia print, debuted. Bodine and the Brown Section were inextricably linked. He traveled throughout Maryland documenting people at work and play: farming, oystering, hunting, fishing, blacksmithing, clock making, baking; nurses, the Amish, watermen, ships, airplanes, woodsheds, cathedrals, wagons, animals, trains, homes, bridges—in short, almost everything of interest in the 20th century. These pictures were of the highest quality, artistic in design and lighting effects far beyond the usual standard of newspaper work.
Bodine built his reputation among the serious photographers of his day. He entered and won numerous competitions worldwide, receiving numerous awards and honors for his remarkable images. From first to last, Bodine considered himself a newspaperman, an attitude evident in all of his work. He did not "take" pictures, he "made" pictures.
Bodine died in 1970, after 50 years with The Sun. His photos are seen in several collections, notably Bodine's Chesapeake Bay Country, My Maryland, Chesapeake Bay and Tidewater, Face of Maryland, Face of Virginia, Baltimore Pictorialist, and now, at http://www.aaubreybodine.com.
The Student Center Gallery is open to the public Mondays through Fridays from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m., and Saturdays from 9 a.m. until 2 p.m. Prints from the Bodine collection will be available for sale throughout the exhibition. Official Bodine prints and notecards are also available in the Student Center bookstore, located on the first floor of the building.
The Student Center Gallery marks the next phase of UB's transformation into a metropolitan institution noted for its varied and vital cultural offerings as well as its academic leadership and many career opportunities. The space, which is located between the Performing Arts Theater and a major multipurpose room, offers a large, specially designed exhibition wall. The gallery is complemented by a number of works of art throughout the building, giving much of the facility the feel of an exhibition hall.
The University of Baltimore is a member of the University System of Maryland and comprises the School of Law, the Yale Gordon College of Liberal Arts and the Merrick School of Business.