Toronto's art gallery, museum host celebrity photography exhibits Special

On Saturday the Art Gallery of Ontario and the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto team up to present two exhibitions that focus of the art of celebrity photography.

What makes a celebrity a celebrity? One could say it's the picture that lands a magazine cover, the stare that greets you in the form of a movie poster or a picture within a fashion spread. The AGO (Art Gallery of Ontario) will be opening Edward Steichen: In High Fashion, the Condé Nast Years, 1923-1937 on the same evening that the ROM (Royal Ontario Museum) opens Vanity Fair Portraits: Photographs 1913-2008. This collaboration is a first for Toronto's two museums. On Wednesday morning the media was invited to a preview of the two exhibits. Opening the event was Matthew Teitelbaum, the Art Gallery of Ontario's Michael and Sonja Koerner director, and William Thorsell, director and CEO of the ROM along with curators of the collections that will be on view. The exhibits will run from September 26 until January 3 showcasing some of the best of celebrity photography from the 20th and early 21st centuries.

KJ Mullins

Media presentation for AGO and ROM photography exhibits

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“The ROM and the AGO have been instrumental in putting Toronto on the map as an international cultural destination,” said Matthew Teitelbaum, the AGO’s Michael and Sonja Koerner director, and CEO. “By working together and pooling resources efficiently, we are able to draw more people to these absolute must-see exhibitions.” Handing the podium over to Thorsell, Teitelbaum said that while this is a first for the two museums they have worked in the past as charter members of Toronto libraries. Thorsell was pleased that the two exhibits allow visitors to travel a larger journey to explore more than just one collection. “We are very pleased to be working together with the AGO on the simultaneous launch of these two beautiful and highly anticipated exhibitions. A visit to both shows will be top of the list for Ontario residents and tourists alike this fall,” said William Thorsell, director and CEO of the ROM. In addition to the photography the ROM will also be hosting video events that complement the collection. An Evening with Meryl Streep on October 7 has already sold out. Terrence Pepper of the National Portrait Gallery of London painstakingly went through 10,000s of pictures for the 150 photographs that line the AGO's gallery. The result will give visitors a view of the birth of the modern photographer. The glitz of the early part of the century is reflected in the art. The despair of the Depression is also mirrored in photographs from that time period. The viewer is able to go and, Teitelbaum says, "celebrate the life of looking" when it comes to these photographs. Todd Brandow, the Executive Director of the Foundation for the Exhibition of Photography and Canadian born William A. Ewing, director of the Musee de l'Elysee took the time to thoroughly research the works of Edward Steichen and the collection they are curators of. Edward Steichen was more than a photographer, in fact in Europe his fame comes from his strokes of paint on a canvas. In 1923 his career in photography could have ended. He decided that he would venture to New York City to focus on photography after giving up painting. In a letter to his sister he admitted that "the outlook is not brilliant" when it came to his dream life. On the boat to America he read a Vanity Fair article about himself saying that he had quit photography for painting. On land in New York he called the magazine up and told them that the opposite was true. The conversation ended with Steichen employed as head of photography at Vanity Fair, a position he held for fifteen years. He left the job only because he had become bored by it. As one enters the AGO's gallery of Edward Steichen's work you are greeted his words: "Take good photographs and the art will take care of itself." He believed that everyone was interesting and was able to capture those moments with his celebrity subjects. Walking through the gallery pictures told the story from the subjects eyes. Charles Chaplin's wisdom, Sylvia Sidney's sadness were captured by Steichen's lens. The look of commercial photography is beauty as opposed to other venues. John Gutman's The Artist Lives Dangerously (1938) has a rawness where a Steichen photograph flows like a painting. As I wandered the gallery it came to me that the difference in fashion photography and other forms is that in fashion photography the photo sells the story while the latter tells the story.

KJ Mullins

Vanity Fair at ROM

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At the ROM, the photographs that graced the covers and pages of Vanity Fair line the walls. Each photograph shows a piece of the subject's soul. Some are haunting, a photo of a young Drew Barrymore dressed and posed as an adult, for instance. The Demi Moore cover, showing the beauty of the pregnant form is even more beautiful as a full-sized photograph. The sadness and the strength that Princess Diana lived her life with can be felt as you examine her portrait. The raw power and courage of Lance Armstrong comes at you from a nude shot on his beloved bike.

KJ Mullins

Vanity Fair at the ROM

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What I took away will not be what you take away from this beautiful collection. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. The beauty within these exhibits is well worth taking a trip to both exhibits. They each deserve equal time to absorb the stories that are told with each click of the lights, cameras and raw talent.