Walter Chappell, El Rito, New Mexico (with Linda Piedra)
Photograph
Walter Chappell, El Rito, New Mexico (with Linda Piedra)
1999
Gelatin silver print
Image: 11 11/16 × 19 1/2 in. (29.7 × 49.5 cm)
Overall: 19 7/8 × 24 in. (50.5 × 61 cm)
Purchase with funds from Janet and Thomas A. Fink, 2005
2005.0364.0001
Inscriptions recto, mat (pencil) : [signature]
verso (pencil): Photography by Stu Levy / 2740 SW Fairview Blvd. / Portland OR 97205 / 503-222-2553
verso (pencil) [title] / Print #2 / Edition of 25 and 5 artists's proofs / [signature]
verso (pencil): Photography by Stu Levy / 2740 SW Fairview Blvd. / Portland OR 97205 / 503-222-2553
verso (pencil) [title] / Print #2 / Edition of 25 and 5 artists's proofs / [signature]
Text(In a letter to curator Alison Nordström from the photographer, Mr Levy stated, "I've also enclosed some written material about each [image], which I've been feeling more and more is an integrated part of the image and should be presented with the image when shown."):
I met Walter Chappell when Cherie Hiser asked me to assist him at a Nude Photography workshop in the Columbia Gorge. I had admired his work for years and the two of us started an instant friendship. I learned that he had been a curator at the Eastman House in Rochester in the 1950's, introduced Minor White to the philosopher Gurdjieff, and founded the Association of Heliographers, dedicated to abstract photography in the early 1960's along with several others including Paul Caponigro, Marie Cosindas, Carl Chiarenza and William Clift. He lived in El Rito New Mexico where he photographed, played music, gardened and generally enjoyed life with his friend Linda Piedra. He was to receive the Governor of New Mexico's Art Award the day after this photograph was made, but suffered a small stroke while packing for the trip. A few months later, he developed pneumonia and was found to have lung cancer. He died within a year of the photograph being made.
I met Walter Chappell when Cherie Hiser asked me to assist him at a Nude Photography workshop in the Columbia Gorge. I had admired his work for years and the two of us started an instant friendship. I learned that he had been a curator at the Eastman House in Rochester in the 1950's, introduced Minor White to the philosopher Gurdjieff, and founded the Association of Heliographers, dedicated to abstract photography in the early 1960's along with several others including Paul Caponigro, Marie Cosindas, Carl Chiarenza and William Clift. He lived in El Rito New Mexico where he photographed, played music, gardened and generally enjoyed life with his friend Linda Piedra. He was to receive the Governor of New Mexico's Art Award the day after this photograph was made, but suffered a small stroke while packing for the trip. A few months later, he developed pneumonia and was found to have lung cancer. He died within a year of the photograph being made.
