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Mary Ruth Moore Photography Exhibit Captures Ancestral Vision

by Ellie Mann
04/10/2007



A University of Georgia Lamar Dodd School of Art professor opened her gallery of unique photographs taken with a camera built in 1900 with her gallery talk.

Mary Ruth Moore, a university professor of beginning and advanced photography courses, discussed her unique focus on a lifetime collection of old glass bottles and photographs of her ancestors in her exhibition titled "Ancestors and Foundlings."

She said that after restoring the antique studio camera, she spent two years working against the digital age of photography. Moore is unlike modern photographers who retouch prints and use editing techniques in Photoshop, a digital design software package.

At the talk, she showed photographs of the vintage camera, which she described to be cumbersome and way too big to move out of her studio.

The authenticity of the photographs produced with the primitive technique resonated with the audience gathered in the Broad Street Gallery, 257 W. Broad St., for the opening of her exhibition.

Moore shared her personality and stories of her past with nearly 100 students, colleagues, friends and family members. Her discussion of her photography brought life and context to her unique art.

"The bottles surround me, all around my front porch of my home they reflect the sunlight," Moore said about her collection.

Inspired in rural south Oconee County, Georgia's coastal islands, Tuscany, Renaissance painting and passages in the Bible, Moore discussed the influence of her heritage and ancestral history on her photographs.

Moore created a beautiful exhibition of aged richness. She combined an old technique and vintage subject matter with vibrant storytelling.

"The old photographs used in these images are of my ancestors," she said.

The audience laughed when she said, "They died before I was ever born, and that's the truth."

Moore told stories about finding the photographs of her ancestors in an old trunk buried in her family's attic and about the history of her exceptional glass bottle collection.

Although she photographed still life images, she explained how she captured the metaphysical properties of her subjects. She has a unique ability to breathe life into the static objects.

"I wanted the bottles to sparkle," Moore said as she discussed one of her photographs titled "Winter Solstice."

"In the melancholy of the longest day of the year, I used the northern light that flooded my studio to illuminate the mystic vessel."

Moore talked about several of the 13 photographs that are exhibited. Some of her other works include, "Cicada with Perfume Bottle," "Nehemiah 2:14," "Uncle Paul," "Working Class" and "Ancestors."

Moore's exhibition is open to the public until April 20 in the Broad Street Gallery.