Thoreau Bicentennial Exhibition

November 2, 2017 - January 27, 2018

“The life of Thoreau straddles the era that witnessed the birth of our modern, market- based, urban culture. A singular figure and writer, even amongst the Transcendentalists, whose impulses he shared. He was also, to borrow his mentor Ralph Waldo Emerson’s term, a “representative man.” Though he remains the towering figure in the history of nature writing, he symbolizes the way in which nature became for a certain class and subset of Americans—hipsters, bohemians, artists—and other. A creature of New England village life, Thoreau’s life was interspersed with what even he would consider wilderness excursions. Notably, he went to Maine, and he went there to find a landscape that would take him beyond ordinary, 'civilized' experience. The landscape was raw, and it had much to teach him. 'Nature was here something savage and awful though beautiful,' he wrote.“
– Adam Tuchinsky, Dean of the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences at USM

"WE MIGHT CLIMB A TREE, AT LEAST."

Henry David THOREAU

The impetus of this exhibition is the celebration of the bicentennial of the birth of Henry David Thoreau 1817 - 1862. The Maine Museum of Photographic Arts is proud to collaborate with Adam Tuchinsky (dean) and Libby Bishoff (Director of the Center for Collaboration and Development, as well as Associate Professor of History) of the University of Southern Maine by hosting several events this year to pay tribute to Thoreau. For our part, director Denise Froehlich of MMPA commemorates the ideas and writings of this visionary leader with an exhibition and a reissue of H. D. Thoreau’s Walking, published by Tilbury House Publishers in Thomaston, Maine.

"The portfolio/exhibition celebrates artists who are inspired by Thoreau and his interest in conservation and the transcendental movement. Many photographers and works have been chosen because of a sensitivity/kinship to these ideals. This is a timely endeavor In light of our state's efforts in conservation and stewardship (of the Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument), and we couldn’t be more proud of highlighting the great and thoughtful photographic artists of Maine."
– Director Denise Froehlich