Connecticut College Students Bring Fresh Perspective to Historic Photography in Lyman Allyn Show

NEW LONDON, CT – Photography and the Painted Image, an exhibition curated as part of a Connecticut College course last fall, will be on view at Lyman Allyn Art Museum from Jan. 17 through April 12. 

An opening reception will be held Friday, Jan. 30, from 5 to 7 p.m. 

The exhibition features three galleries that explore how the two mediums have overlapped and complemented each other since the 1800s, according to a news release from the museum. 

Connecticut College Professor Christopher B. Steiner and students from his Perspectives on Photography course looked at alternative approaches to the history of photography to frame this exhibit. They went beyond established favorites to consider overlooked practitioners and everyday photographic traditions. By emphasizing amateur and commercial forms of image-making, they examined the wide range of technologies, processes, and social contexts that have shaped photography’s role in daily life. 

The first gallery introduces the painted backdrop, a hallmark of nineteenth- and early twentieth-century portrait studios. These elaborate hand-painted scenes framed sitters within idealized interiors or imaginary landscapes. 

The second gallery turns to the painted photograph itself — images enhanced, tinted or radically transformed through the application of pigment. Ranging from subtle hand-coloring to bold overpainting, these works blur the line between photography and painting. 

The third gallery focuses on the painted foreground, featuring carnival and arcade photographs in which participants posed behind humorous or fantastical cutouts, playfully transforming their identities. 

Together, the works in this exhibition show how painting shaped not only the settings of photography, but also expanded the capacity for imagination, spectacle and self-representation in photographic images to offer new ways of seeing and being seen. 

To register for the Jan. 30 opening reception, call 860.443.2545 ext. 2129 or email info@lymanallyn.org. Museum members and Connecticut College students are free; non-members are $10. 

There will be a Gallery Talk with Christopher Steiner on Thursday, Feb. 19 at 5:30 p.m. Members are $10, and non-members are $15.