Allen Birnbach

Allen Birnbach’s career has spanned the worlds of commercial and fine art photography for over forty years. Client assignments have taken him to over twenty countries, driven by his enthusiasm for working on largescale productions and collaborating with unique individuals at every station of life...

Since the inception of photography in the first half of the nineteenth century there has been the perception that photographs are a faithful record of their subject matter. This idea seems to be even more deeply ceded when it is a place. When people are involved, there is an instinctive knowledge that they could be acting or “putting on a face” for the camera. Photographs have shaped our perception of the world. There are places we will know only through photographic representation. Places we will never see with our own eyes. We then rely on the photographer’s eye and their experience of the place they are documenting. The time of day a photographer shoots a specific place, the scene they choose to photograph whether the intent is to show an abstraction of a particular spot, these all factor into what the viewer sees as a specific place.

This show has been organized by New York Based Curator, Julie Maguire, Director of the Brett Weston Archives and will be on display until August 31, 2020.

Oklahoma City—Beginning on July 3, 2020, JRB Art at The Elms will host the show “Photography and Place:  Fragments of the World,” organized by New York Based Curator, Julie Maguire, Director of the Brett Weston Archives.  

This show will feature the work of Brett Weston, Catherine Adams, Christa Blackwood and Allen Birnbach. The exhibition will be on display at the gallery during July and August and will also be available to view online at www.jrbartgallery.com. 

While there won't be an opening on First Friday, the gallery is now open Tue-Sat from 11am-5pm and by appointment - call us at (405) 528-6336, or send us an e-mail or Facebook message.  All of our inventory can be found on our website.  We encourage you to see our wonderful July exhibitions!

The four artists included in this exhibition have all photographed places.  Some with figures, some without.  They all bring their unique perspective to their work and frame it through their eyes.  Looking at a photograph is the merging of the eyes of the viewer and the photographer as they try to cobble together fragments of the world.

Julie, I am so pleased that you agreed to curate JRB Art at The Elms' upcoming Exhibition, "Photograph and Place: Fragments of the World."

For that show you have selected the work of four different photographers: Brett Weston, Catherine Adams, Christa Blackwood and Allen Birnbach. The aesthetic of these photographers are very different and yet you have found commonalities in them, which is what a curator does. Since curating is such a specialized field, why don't you tell us a little about your career.

Allen Birnbach’s career has spanned the worlds of commercial and fine art photography for over forty years. Client assignments have taken him to over twenty countries, driven by his enthusiasm for working on large-scale productions and collaborating with unique individuals at every station of life. His personal work is fueled by a love of the human spirit and the power and majesty of this planet.