— from Diane Martindale, SJI Museum of Art —
Renowned landscape photographer Dorothy Kerper Monnelly has paired her large-format black and white images with poems to create a book, “For My Daughters.” The poetry that inspired the book was written by the photographer’s mother, Dorothy Darling Kerper between 1920 and 1945, the year she died.
“I remember, as a child, her sitting quietly and writing,” said Monnelly,“She never managed to get published. I remember she was so disappointed.” Monnelly, held onto a volume of her mother’s poetry that her father had printed privately and later found more poems stored in boxes. She carried them around for 35 years after her father’s death and has now paired some of those poems with her photography in this new book, “For My Daughters.”
“I chose my favorite poems, the ones I loved the most, and started looking for matches.” Monnelly’s corresponding images span more than seventeen years of her long career in large-format black and white photography. They carry us from the great deserts and landscapes of our National Parks to her home, the salt marsh of Ipswich, Massachusetts.
“I have always treasured my mother’s poetry. When reading it recently, she gave me the idea of combining my images with her poetry to create a conversation back and forth about the idea expressed in each poem. She felt that we would understand each other, and writes in a poem to her daughters:”
The pattern born within my mind
Is latent in their own. My wisdom
May not be profound, but they will recognize
Its likeness in their blood and bone.
Monnelly has previously published “Between Land and Sea the Great Marsh,” and has work in the National Museum of Women in the Arts. Her photographs are touring the country in the show, “Fragile Waters,” with work by Ansel Adams and Ernest H. Brook II. The exhibition is currently at the San Juan Islands Museum of Art where her book can be purchased.
Hours are Thursday to Monday: 11 a.m. to 6p.m. and Mondays from 3 to 6 p.m. are free. Reservations recommended for groups of eight or more. Please call 360-370-5050. Admission is Adults: $10, children 18 years and younger are free and members are free.
For more information call Diane Martindale at 360-370-5814 or Anne Sheridan photokunst, LLC, 360-378-1028 anne@photokunst.com.
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