MacArthur Winner: Uta Barth

Yes, photographers sometimes hit the big time.  Uta Barth, a professor emeritus at U.C. Riverside, just became one of the 2012 recipients of a MacArthur Grant - for $500,000.  Popularly called "genius" grants, the award has no strings attached and allow the recipients to do whatever they please - hopefully furthering their artistic or scholarly endeavors.  Now, I only mention this because I've never heard of Uta before today. But in checking out her work, I'm very excited!  Her focus is on seeing the differences in how our eyes see versus what the camera sees and "how the incidental and atmospheric can become subject matter in and of themselves." Definitely not cookie-cutter or traditional photographs, her work definitely explores light and shapes and the qualities that emanate from the very instrument used to record images - the camera.  A cross-section of her work can be found at: http://www.tanyabonakdargallery.com/artist.php?art_name=Uta%20Barth.