As the Museum of Contemporary Photography celebrates its 50th anniversary, its annual Darkroom benefit auction continues to sustain the museum’s exhibitions, education and community.
MoCP Executive Director Natasha Egan said the benefit auction helps the museum connect artists and students.
“We are here, both to celebrate and also this is our most important fundraiser of the year,” Egan said. “Everything we do from mounting exhibitions, to building the collection, to teaching students and producing public programs, is sustained by the people in this room.”
Last year, the auction raised approximately $325,000. This year, the museum set a goal of $500,000.
“Our goal is half a million, but even if we get close to that, we’re happy,” said Karen Irvine, chief curator and deputy director at the museum. “Every dollar counts, and we’re ambitious.”
This year’s event also introduced new features, including an online-exclusive auction and a punch board installation that allowed guests to make additional donations in exchange for small prizes.
The punch board featured the museum’s first acquired photograph of a person being punched in the nose, taken by Larry Williams.
Orianna D’Landazuri, a junior art history and creative writing double major and the Henry Nias Business in Arts Fellow at the MoCP, managed the punch board station during the event.
“I think it’s really great when students come and treat it as a networking event,” she said. “There’s so many wonderful artists, curators and professionals here as well.”
Zayden German, co-president of Columbia’s photo club and a student worker at the MoCP, helped organize, set up and work the event. He said that the event takes about six months to plan and almost a week to set up.
This year’s preparations were even more intensive as the MoCP celebrates 50 years of operation.
“This is our biggest event of the year by far,” said German, a senior photography major. “We get to showcase 50 years of work. We have thousands of pieces in our collection and we get to select a small handful that really emphasize the importance of that.”
He said that, as an aspiring photographer himself, it was also a great opportunity to be surrounded by so many accomplished artists.
“Everyone here obviously has a care for the arts and has a mutual respect for the arts, so I’ve been able to talk to a lot of cool people,” German said.
Attendee Kathy Harrison, who collects art, said she enjoyed seeing people take the time to appreciate the art that was on display.
“They’re not just hanging around and drinking, they’re really looking at things,” she said.
Harrison explained that events like this give artists from different communities a place to meet one another and encourage them to keep pursuing art even when it’s not easy.
“It’s important for all the arts,” Harrison said. “We’ve lost funding — I won’t go into that part, but it’s hard to be an artist.”
The MoCP has held an annual benefit for over two decades. The event was officially named Darkroom in 2014.
Since 2011, the MoCP has given the Silver Camera Award to one artist annually at Darkroom to honor an individual’s contributions to the field of photography.
This year, the award was presented to world-renowned photographer Joel Sternfeld in recognition of his influence on contemporary documentary photography.
Sternfeld has been involved with the MoCP since the 1990s, when the Museum acquired his most iconic photograph, “McLean, Virginia, December 1978.”
In an interview with the Chronicle, Sternfeld said that he feels “lucky” to have a successful career, because his work is often created with himself in mind rather than his audience.
“If you’re doing it for the audience, you’re not doing it from true motivation,” he said. “I had an idea and I worked hard to execute it, but I’m just fortunate that my work struck a chord with people.”
Sternfeld explained that he’s taught the art of photography to many over the years, but that he encourages people to look inwards before trying to meet external expectations.
“I want them to find ways to express life because I want them to see the beauty of their lives,” he said.
Sternfeld’s works have been part of multiple exhibitions in the MoCP, including the 50th anniversary exhibit and MoCP at Fifty: Collecting Through the Decades.
Charles Traub, who founded what would become the MoCP while leading Columbia’s photography department in the 1970s, said the museum was created at a time when photography struggled for recognition in the art world.
“Photography was in the basement of most places,” Traub said. “Photography came up out of the basement because of places like this.”
He said photographers themselves were instrumental in elevating the medium.
“The reason photography has become so important in the world of art is because photographers championed it,” Traub said.
Work by Kenn Cook Jr., a photographer from the West Side of Chicago, was recently acquired by the MoCP. Cook said that the process was incredibly smooth. His photograph titled “From The Westside, With Love” was being auctioned off at the event.
“It means a lot to me because of my practice being so Chicago-based, it allows me to be able to put people from our community into a permanent collection,” Cook said. “So it’s such a big deal.”
Cook emphasized the importance of all communities having access to art, which the MoCP provides in its open exhibition space at 600 S. Michigan Ave.
“This museum is so legendary and it means so much to so many people that we need to fund it to keep it going and keep it around because it’s a staple for Chicago photography,” he said.
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