Photo historian curates Aspen’s ‘heady’ history

It’s 1951. Aspen just hosted the first FIS Alpine World Ski Championships, a room at the Hotel Jerome costs $4 a night, and the ski industry is still in its infancy. 

According to the curator of “Outside Influence: Photography in Colorado 1945-95” Rupert Jenkins, the town is still “ramshackle,” but that doesn’t stop artists like Ansel Adams, Minor White, and Dorothea Lange from attending a conference at the Hotel Jerome.

Jenkins’ show in Anderson Ranch’s Patton-Mallet Gallery brings together photos from a time period that marked the transition into fine art photography, and Aspen was an influential starting point. The city was home to the Center of the Eye (COE), a renowned and revolutionary artist residency program that ran out of the Hotel Jerome for several years.

The Hotel Jerome also hosted a 1951 conference for major photographers, which, according to Jenkins, led to the creation of Aperture Magazine; COE had a “profound impact” on education and the way photography is taught.

“If you think about Hunter S. Thompson and the run for sheriff, and that sort of contentious atmosphere, it was a great spot for the Center of the Eye to bring people into this heady atmosphere of what was going on in town, and say, ‘Express yourself through your art,'” Aspen Historical Society curator Lisa Hancock said in a talk at Anderson Ranch on Tuesday.

Jenkins’ show in Snowmass is one of several he has curated, all of which are a part of a soon-to-be-released book, “Outside Influence.” Of the 37 artists featured in the show, three were able to attend, including David Hiser, the Aspen journalist who took the iconic “Hunter S. Thompson Campaign for Sheriff” photograph. That kind of documentary photography was also influential toward Aspen’s development.

“It is informational photography, documentary, journalistic photography,” Hancock said. “I love that because when I look at those pictures, I see parts of Aspen and Aspen’s history.”

Also in attendance were artists Roddy MacInnes, a professor of art and photography at the University of Denver who had two photographs on display, and Paul Schroeder, whose piece “B-52 over Yemen” was featured in the show. The show also featured pieces from Cherie Hiser, who started COE.

“(Cherie Hiser) may be the most important woman in photography post-war that there’s been in Colorado,” Jenkins said on Tuesday.

Photography potentially impacted Aspen’s development as a destination for scenic photographers. According to Jenkins, however, Aspen’s impact on photography was more significant.

“It was very exciting to see people coming together and to really understand the breadth of photography that happened here, and that photographers who were working in the ’70s and ’80s are still working here today,” he said.

According to Hancock, the mix of different kinds of photography that was occurring in Aspen was influential in moving it into the fine art world, and artists like Herbert Bayer, an influential figure in growing the Bauhaus movement in the U.S., helped to create a strong arts culture in Aspen.

“(There were) lots of scenics, and there was a lot of fine art photography going on here,” Hancock said. “There was a lot of commercial photography going on here, promotional photography, and a lot of that work almost steps into fine art … it’s worth looking at.”

One of the reasons why Jenkins wanted to present this project is because he was worried about the art being lost to time. According to him, photography’s role in Colorado’s history and formation has been underappreciated.

“Photography was always like the bastard child. It was relegated to a very low part of art history in Colorado, and I felt like it needed to be elevated and put on the record,” he said during the talk on Tuesday.

According to Hancock, a lot of Aspen’s history in photography has already been lost over time. Even with Jenkins’ project and the extensive collection that the Aspen Historical Society keeps, there was a lot that wasn’t captured in time to record and present it.

“I think the important thing is putting it on the record and making sure people don’t disappear into nothing because they really do, very quickly disappear,” Jenkins said.

He and Hancock both wanted to highlight the rich history of alternative photography in Aspen and Colorado, as opposed to the status-quo landscape photography that Aspen is most famous for.

“(I wanted to) change the canon and look at what there was aside from traditional landscape photography,” Jenkins said during Tuesday’s talk. “Colorado photography, traditionally, has been seen as landscape photography. And I wanted to see what else was there … I really came away with a big appreciation for just the breadth and depth of work that has been done here.”

The show will be on display in the Patton-Mallot Gallery from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., Monday through Friday until June 17.