Framing the Scene: Seeing the Situation by Tom Owens & Marianne Woodside
April 5-26, 2019
Framing the Scene: Seeing the Situation by Tom Owens & Marianne Woodside
Opening reception: Friday, April 5, 5:00-9:00 PM
Gallery hours: Monday-Friday, 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM. Please note, the Emporium is closed on Friday, April 19, for the holiday.
A still photograph puts a frame around a moment frozen in time. It sits still and allows and perhaps commands the viewer to look at something real. One definition of realism is a “rejection of visionary.” Yet photography done well is transcendent, “extending the limits of ordinary experience.” So, when done well a photograph can transcend reality.
Seeing is the essence of photography. Seeing the situation may be when all the visual elements coalesce to produce something that engages the viewer. Henri Cartier-Bresson, the French humanist photographer coined the term “the decisive moment.” In his book with that title he defines the Decisive Moment: If a photograph is to communicate its subject in all its intensity, the relationship of forms must be rigorously established. Photography implies the recognition of a rhythm in the world of real things. What the eye does is to find and focus on the particular subject within the mass of reality; what the camera does is simply to register upon film the decision made by the eye… Photography must seize upon this moment and hold immobile the equilibrium of it.
As the title of this exhibit suggests, “Framing the scene, Seeing the situation,” (inspired by and adapted from Eudora Welty’s text, On Writing) represents our hope to extend the images in this exhibit beyond the moment and the frame. The movements inward and outward represent aspects of the viewer experience and help make personal meaning of the images seen and experienced.
We two photographers often have different styles and approaches to our work, yet we hope the transcendence from the real to something curious, or interesting, or attractive, humorous, even sometimes disturbing engages you the viewer.
Tom Owens Biography
Born in 1948 Tom Owens spent his earliest years in Kingsport, Tennessee and then moved to Cincinnati, Ohio for three years. When he was eleven, his father died, and his family moved back to Kingsport. In 1967 he moved to Knoxville to attend the University of Tennessee. While at UT he was elected to the Student Senate and appointed to the Student Disciplinary Appeals Board. He was active in various causes including the anti-Viet Nam war movement. He remains friends with many Viet Nam veterans. In 1968, he met Don Dudenbostel, a UT Daily Beacon photographer and developed a lifelong love of photography.
After graduating from UT, he did a stint with the Tennessee Department of Corrections as a Juvenile Probation Counselor. He entered Indiana University in 1975 and earned graduate degrees in Instructional Systems Technology.
From 1976-1981 he worked for Tennessee Eastman Company, a division of Eastman Kodak, doing still photography and motion picture production for employee training, recruitment, and public relations.
He moved back to Knoxville in 1981 and worked at Davis-Newman-Payne Advertising through the 1982 World’s Fair. He directed and produced TV commercials with TV star Archie Campbell. He won an Addy Award for a commercial at D-N-P.
In 1983 he was hired by Gray Communications to sell broadcast TV production equipment.
From 1985-2018 he worked at the University of Tennessee in various positions including a stint in UT President Lamar Alexander’s office. He was Director of the UT Video & Photography Center for 18 years and a management consultant for NPR affiliate WUOT, 91.9 FM for five years. While at UT he worked with actor James Earl Jones, author Alex Hailey, Peyton Manning, Pat Summitt, Lady Vols’ Candice Parker, and the FBI profilers featured in the film Silence of the Lambs. For various UT projects, he traveled to Ireland (twice), London, Costa Rica, many major US cities and every county in Tennessee. He filmed the Lady Vols at the White House Rose Garden after they won a national championship. While at UT he won many awards including from the New York Festivals, Council for the Advancement and Support of Education, and the International Television Association.
In 1979, he met the love of his life Susan Baese. They’ve been married thirty-seven years and have a daughter, Katie.
Marianne Woodside Biography
Marianne Woodside was born in 1948. She spent her early years in Orange, Texas. At the age of 17, she moved with her family to the Kuwait City and graduated from the International School of Kuwait in 1966. She then left to attend college at the Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. Subsequently, she received a University Fellowship to study at the Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio, graduating with her Masters in Counseling and Curriculum Studies. This graduation was followed by a move to Blacksburg, Virginia where she studied Counselor Education and graduated with an Ed.D. in 1974. While in Blacksburg, Marianne worked as a school counselor and then assumed an Assistant Professor position in Teacher Education.
Marianne spent the remainder of her professional career holding professorships in Teacher Education, Human Services, and Counselor Education at Virginia Tech, the University of Wyoming, and the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. She also held various administrative positions as Coordinator of Advising and First Year Studies, Executive Assistant to the Chancellor, and Program Coordinator in Human Services and Counselor Education. During Marianne’s career as an academic, she was recognized as an outstanding teacher and researcher. Areas of expertise include human services, case management, supervision, and counselor development. She continues her writing in human services and counseling today.
It was during Marianne’s years in Wyoming that she developed an interest in photography. There, she developed a love for the wide open spaces of the plains and the rugged Rocky Mountain vistas. After her move to Knoxville, she was mystified as how to photograph the flora and fauna of East Tennessee, especially the dense wilderness of the Appalachian Mountains. Today the perplexity has turned to a deep appreciation of the East Tennessee landscape and the photographic opportunities it offers.
During the last ten years, with the encouragement from family and friends, especially photographer Tom Owens, Marianne has expanded her interest in photography and her ideas of artistic expression. Opportunities for travel to such venues as Central America, South America, the United Kingdom, Europe, and Iceland have offered time to capture exotic photographs beyond her daily experiences. And, because of her husband Phil’s willingness to make time for photography (stopping the car at a moment’s notice), Marianne is able to find intriguing subjects close to home. An interest in photographing glass has provided Marianne an additional way of expressing the relationship between man-made objects, nature, light, and color.
Marianne has been fortunate to find support from the Arts and Cultural Alliance and the Emporium Center. Photography continues to be an important part of her life. Marianne also spends time writing, playing the guitar, hiking, and traveling. She is devoted to her husband Phil, their three children, Michael, Cathy, and Donna Lee and their respective spouses and significant other and grandchildren. And then, there is, of course, their Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, Clyde, who resides with Marianne and Phil at Asbury Place in Maryville, Tennessee.