Civil War exhibition at George Eastman House

The online edition of The Wall Street Journal featured the Civil War exhibition at the George Eastman House, giving high praise for Light Work artist William Earle Williams: “Only William Earle Williams hits the right notes. His precise black-and-white photographs depict landscapes where black soldiers fought. Weeds have grown over these ditches and bulwarks where no plaque or monument was ever erected. But 150 years later the war is still visible in the scarred earth.” We love Willie’s work. We exhibited the images in a solo exhibition Unsung Heroes: African American Soldiers in the Civil War that started in Light Work’s Main Gallery in 2007 and went to multiple other venues from there. The exhibition was accompanied by a catalogue, Contact Sheet 140.

William Earle Williams
Earthworks, Fort Pillow, Tennessee, 1999

The exhibition at the George Eastman House, titled Still Here: Contemporary Artists and the Civil War, will be on view through June 12, 2011. In addition to Willie Williams, the exhibition includes Light Work artist Oscar Palacio, who spent his residency refining some of the photographs now on view in Rochester. His image of a canon barrel (Untitled, from the series History Re-visited) makes quite an impression when visitors first enter the exhibition.