Deidre’s Invitation

For almost 59 years, May 30^th has been one of the most important days of my year. It was on that day in 1956 at eight in the morning that my son Charles Morgan Howell, IV arrived. It’s hard to believe how long ago that was and even harder to realize that I’ve only actually been with Charlie on a fraction of his birthdays. This year will be no exception. It’s just the way it is when you live miles and states apart.

Nevertheless, I’ll be celebrating on his day by doing something he would also enjoy were he here. Nyel and I will attend the Artist’s Reception for Deidre Purcell at her “Oysterville, Series 1” exhibition at Camerawork Gallery in Portland. And, truthfully, I would be going to it even if the subject matter were completely different. Her photographs, which I’ve seen only on her website, speak to me with whispered memories that are intertwined with my life of long ago.

Invitation Details

Deidre’s website is filled with sensuous images, mostly in black and white, that stir up thoughts of Ansel Adams and Minor White, Dorothea Lange and Imogene Cunningham, all of whom I remember though Charlie probably doesn’t – except for Imogene who served us a most memorable (in a horrible way) dinner of liver balls in aspic some fifty years ago. They and a few others were often referred to as “The California School” of photographers and, under Minor’s leadership, were the first to present photography as a fine arts form in the halls of academia.

I knew them as friends and as sometime-darkroom-companions of my then husband Bill LaRue (who is still photographing, exhibiting and teaching in California.) But it was Minor we knew best and for some years in the early sixties Bill travelled with him as his Teaching Assistant. Imagine my surprise at seeing a photograph of Minor and Bill with a group of Portland workshop students on the Camerawork Gallery website!

Sydney by Deirdre Purcell (not part of “Oysterville Series 1”)

As it happens, Deidre is a part of the Interim photography group that Minor helped begin in Portland all those years ago and the Camerawork Gallery is an outgrowth of that. It was B.D. – Before Deidre – of course, but Minor’s spirit shines through. It’s not that Deidre’s photographs are exactly ‘in the manner of…’ and yet there is that elusive something about them that remind me of Edward Weston (who I never met) and of the plummy days when we looked and looked and looked.

I can’t wait to see her “Oysterville, Series l show!” Another small world situation. Who knew?