The Purdue University North Central Odyssey Arts and Cultural Events Series is presenting the exhibit, "P.E.S.O. - Pictures Every So Often" from Aug. 17 through Dec. 29 by photographer John Horwitz. It may be viewed in the first floor, north study area of the PNC Technology Building. It is free and open to the public. Building hours are Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Saturday, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Horwitz, an Elkhart resident, explained the inspiration for the photographs that comprise this show, "A fellow artist admired several pieces of mine but made a vexing comment 'You hold no discernible genre or style but I can always tell what pieces are yours.' We discussed if it would be possible to do a show composed solely of 'snapshots' that were as perfect as any photography contrived or executed with artistic intent in a studio.
The work would be spontaneous and done without electronic wizardry or darkroom manipulation. What made this interesting was that he could not do the same that he had asked of me. As a painter he had to select each nuance of color then place every brush stroke to form a work of technical and esthetic purity without being able to 'edit' the final piece."
"In 1977 I read '...photography, for me is a supreme moment captured with a single shot.' - Henri Cartier-Bresson. It was not surprising that the same question had been asked of him in an interview that originally appeared in 'Camera' magazine. His work has been called 'The Decisive Moment' perfect snapshots of everyday life capturing what he termed both intuitive and poetic."
Horwitz said that he used manual settings on an inexpensive camera, "fitting a silent frame around the essence of illusion, an elusive moment lost in time but for the sound of a shutter. Through the camera I can examine the relationship of people or objects that surround them but it is the camera that will fix those relevancies in time."
His work has been shown at the Art Institute of Chicago; the Guggenheim Museum; the Smithsonian Institute; Oxford University; the Washington Street Gallery, Ann Arbor, Mich.; WNIT - TV South Bend; WTTW - TV Chicago; South Bend Regional Museum of Art; Lubeznik Center for the Arts, Michigan City; Gallerie del Corazon, Benton Harbor, Mich.; Midwest Museum of American Art, Elkhart; Carnegie Center for the Arts, Three Rivers, Mich.; Southwestern Michigan College, Dowagiac, Mich.; Northern Indiana Center for History, South Bend; Chicago Board of Education and the Fort Wayne Museum of Art.
Some pieces will be available for purchase.
To obtain further information about this exhibit or the Odyssey Arts and Cultural Events Series, contact Judy Jacobi, PNC assistant vice chancellor of Marketing and Community Relations, at 462-4197 ext. 5593. Persons with disabilities requiring accommodations should contact Jacobi.