VIRTUAL EXHIBITION
bruce katsiff: River Town Portraits
This virtual exhibition highlights work from Bruce Katsiff’s River Town Portrait series.
© Bruce Katsiff, Bruce & Jo 2, 1972, Gelatin Silver Print, 7 x 9 inches
Bruce Katsiff is an accomplished photographer whose poignant and varied work encompasses environmental portraiture, collage, and carefully curated constructions. River Town Portraits bring to light 10 years of photographs spanning the 1970s, in which Katsiff’s friends and neighbors, and the town of Lumberville itself, are revealed. The images serve as a record and insight into a compelling time and place in our local history.
Seeing elegance beyond the surface, Katsiff’s work reveals complexity and empathy as well as a virtuosity with camera and darkroom. His Platinum Palladium and Gelatin Silver prints made with large-format view cameras are a testament to the manner in which his work combines science with the magical and personal beyond the lens.
Katsiff earned his BFA from the Rochester Institute of Technology and his MFA from Pratt Institute. His work has been exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art and is held in the collections of the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Katsiff has published two monographs on his work, including River Town Portraits, and Nature Morte, which accompanied his solo exhibition at the Delaware Art Museum.
About the Artist
Born in Philadelphia where he attended Central High School, Bruce Katsiff went on to study photography at Rochester Institute of Technology and completed graduate work at Pratt Institute, earning BFA and MFA degrees. He also attended postgraduate studies at Oxford University. His work has been exhibited in museums and galleries including the Museum of Modern Art, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art. For 25 years, he taught photography and from 1989 to 2012 served as Director/CEO of the James A. Michener Art Museum.
To learn more about Bruce Katsiff visit, https://www.brucekatsiff.com/ and follow him on Facebook/BruceKatsiffPhotographer.
Bruce Katsiff: River Town Portraits
“In the fall of 1968, my pregnant wife, Jo, and I rented a small house adjacent to the Delaware Canal and River in the Rip Van Winkle village of Lumberville, Pennsylvania. We were both big-city kids with little knowledge of life in a rural village. I had just begun my first post-college job, teaching photography and art in a local community college. In late December of that same year, our son, Timothy, was born, and the three of us began our lives as a young family now settled into our new community in the Bucks County countryside.
In the early 1970s, I began to photograph residents of Lumberville and the surrounding river towns of Point Pleasant, Center Bridge, Stockton, Lambertville, and New Hope. With the town general store and post office as the community center, it was easy to meet neighbors and gain access to their homes for portraits. Working in black and white, mainly with a 4-by-5 view camera on a tripod, I spent the next ten years documenting my friends and neighbors who lived along the river. The community was populated by a diverse group of souls ranging from old-timers who had spent many generations living in the village to city folks who had recently escaped the urban jungle to plant gardens and watch the river flow.
With a distance of more than forty years, I revisited these negatives and selected the best images to present the community in portraits. I am indebted to Jeff Marshall for his skillfully researched history of the region and to Liz Sheehan for her thoughtful essay about love, life, loss, work, and leisure. In 2007, after thirty-eight years, my wife and I moved out of the village and have recently returned to city life. We treasure our time spent living in Lumberville and hope you will find interest in exploring the portraits of these river-town folks.”
© Bruce Katsiff, Steve and Paula with friend, 1972, Gelatin Silver Print, 9 x 7 inches
© Bruce Katsiff, Karla VanDyke and Pussy, 1972, Gelatin Silver Print, 10 x 8 inches
© Bruce Katsiff, Bob and Lillian Russell, two Lithuanian souls, 1972, Gelatin Silver Print, 8 x 10 inches
© Bruce Katsiff, Val and Mai Sigstedt, 1972, Gelatin Silver Print, 8 x 10 inches
© Bruce Katsiff, Frank Feiler, the best gardener in the village, 1972, Gelatin Silver Print, 8 x 10 inches
© Bruce Katsiff, Bertha Goss 2, 1972, Gelatin Silver Print, 9 x 7 inches
© Bruce Katsiff, Kenneth Bergram, artist and his wife, 1972, Gelatin Silver Print, 7 x 9 inches
© Bruce Katsiff, Mike and Kathy, 1972, Gelatin Silver Print, 6.5 x 8 inches
© Bruce Katsiff, Ray Barger, 1971, Gelatin Silver Print, 8 x 10 inches
© Bruce Katsiff, Two Women, 1972, Gelatin Silver Print, 7 x 9 inches
© Bruce Katsiff, Bob Cobin, airline pilot and his wife in front of their House, 1972, Gelatin Silver Print, 7 x 9 inches
© Bruce Katsiff, John Point Pleasant Mechanic, 1972, Gelatin Silver Print, 7 x 9 inches
© Bruce Katsiff, Foot Bridge, 1972, Gelatin Silver Print, 9 x 7 inches
PUBLICATION
River Town Portraits
PUBLICATION
Nature Morte
Catalog
Catalog
INTERVIEWS & PRESS
© Bruce Katsiff, Lou and Jane Muzekari, 1972, Platinum Palladium Print, 9 x 7 inches
Amie Potsic interviewed Bruce Katsiff Amie Potsic about his latest body of work Nature Morte, his works in the exhibition, Through the Lens that was on view at the Michener Art Museum, and his involvement within the art community.
Of Nudes, Madman, and Nature’s Beauty
Written by Gene Thornton
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