Picturing Eden Views

General Goods

The exhibit includes 160 photographs from approximately 40 artists representing 6 countries. Organized in four sections– Paradise Lost, Paradise Reconstructed, Despairing of Paradise, and Paradise Anew – “Picturing Eden” will use photography and related media to explore the development and changing styles of the garden and concepts of paradise. By looking at the notion of paradise and the garden through the photographic lens, “Picturing Eden” will highlight original lost innocence, the ongoing significance of

Deborah Klochko, director of the San Diego Museum of Photographic Arts, plunges into the topic in "Picturing Eden,t" its big fall exhibition. After leaving San Diego, the 2008-2009 shows will be at The Grace Museum in Abilene, Texas, from Feb. 9 to May 4; the Munson Williams Proctor Art Institute in Utica, N.Y., from Sept. 20 to Dec. 14; and the Herbert Johnson Museum at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., from Jan. 24 to April 18, 2009.

The kind of communion with nature that Sigut and Derges practice is admirable. But more often, the photography in "Picturing Eden " addresses the ways we abuse it and underscores our alienation from the natural world. At a time when species are dwindling and the environment is looking increasingly imperilled, the relevance of picturesque idylls is in decline.

Whaley's strain of uneasiness is pervasive in i"Picturing Eden.v" Even in the portion devoted to t"Paradise Anew,e" light is muted, shading toward nocturnal, as in Han Nguyen's striking ,"Dusk," series. The radiant light of paradise may exist, but it's way off in the distance.