Curated by Helen Klisser During
From the Andrew and Christine Hall Collection

This exhibition will feature 45 photographs by three important historic photographers – a Swiss policeman, Arnold Odermatt; a Mexican photojournalist, Enrique Metinides; and New York’s Arthur Fellig, known as “Weegee.” All three, while on duty in their respective professions, crossed the line of simply documenting accidents and day-to-day mayhem. The content of the imagery, often tragic, transcends the rawness of the event and moves into the realm of a modernist aesthetic that is both profound and thought provoking.

“Weegee, Metinides, and Odermatt can be thought of as examples of outsider artists who, like other outsider artists, wittingly or not, presaged ideas and concepts that were developed more willfully by later practitioners working in their medium, in this instance photography. Because of the nature of their creation, one needs have no special knowledge to appreciate these works: what you see is what you see. They are eminently approachable to even the casual viewer – a refreshing counterpoint to the insider obscurity that shrouds so much contemporary art produced today.”

–Andrew Hall, 2011