2 PHOTOGRAPHERS: PAUL D'AMATO AND BROOKS KRAFT

Exhibition Dates: August 16 - October 18, 2001
Opening Reception: Thursday, August 16, 2001

Portland, Maine (July 18, 2001) - The Institute of Contemporary Art at Maine College of Art (ICA at MECA) will exhibit photography that compares and contrasts the keen perspectives of the eyes behind the camera lens in Two Photographers: Paul D'Amato and Brooks Kraft. The exhibition will run from August 16 to October 18, 2001. An opening reception will take place on Thursday, August 16, 5 -7 pm.

Two Photographers invites its audience to see the range of how life is captured and seen through the eyes of two accomplished photographers. Paul D'Amato and Brooks Kraft capture moments of peoples lives in extreme and mundane settings. Their work crosses political lines, territorial lines, and urban war zones documenting international and national stories.

Brooks Kraft's debut exhibition surveys the process of campaigning for political office in two countries: the United States and South Africa. Juxtaposing images from 1994's first Democratic election in South Africa after apartheid and the tumultuous U.S. presidential campaign of George W. Bush in 1999 and 2000, Kraft's work reveals the tensions between politicians, their constituents, opposition groups, and the media. Kraft is a contributing photographer for Time magazine. He has covered three U.S. presidential elections, and politics in Haiti, Canada and South Africa. In addition to Time magazine, his photographs have been featured on the magazine covers and photo spreads of U.S. News and World Report, Paris Match, Stern, and Economist along with hundreds of other magazines and publications worldwide.

Paul D'Amato's photographs express the simple drama and pageantry of everyday life, believing that the world is much more interesting, beautiful and surreal than any idea we could possibly have of it. Through most of the 1990's, his focus was on life in urban areas such as in the Mexican community on the South Side of Chicago. Since 1998, however, D'Amato's work has ranged from images of Men's Social Clubs in Portland and Boston to a project about the Mexican/American Border entitled Life on the Line. This exhibition will bring together work from the last three years to emphasize a way of seeing and using photography that supercedes a wide variety of subject matter. D'Amato is an Associate Professor of Photography at MECA. He received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1994 to study Chicago's South side neighborhood. D'Amato was selected for the past two juried Portland Museum of Art Biennials and exhibited in a group color photography show Local Color in 2001 at the Museum. He is represented by Yossi Milo Gallery 24th Street, New York City, NY.

The ICA at MECA, located in the Porteous Building, 522 Congress Street, Portland, Maine, is open Wednesday - Sunday, 11:00-5:00pm, Thursdays until 7:00pm, First Fridays until 8:00pm. Weekly half-hour tours of exhibitions are held on Wednesdays at 12:15pm. Admission is free. For more information call 207-879-5742.

Maine College of Art is ranked as one of the top art colleges in the nation. It is the only professionally accredited college of art and design in northern New England. Located at the center of Portland's thriving Arts District, the non-profit College enrolls more than 430 students in BFA and MFA degree programs. Students come from 33 states and 17 countries. Outreach programs serve an additional 2700 adults and children in the region, through year-round Continuing Studies classes, Saturday School for youngsters, and Early College for high school students. MECA's renovation of the landmark former Porteous, Mitchell & Braun department store in downtown Portland has received national attention as a model of urban renewal. The Institute of Contemporary Art at MECA has been hailed as one of the finest museum spaces in the Northeast for the exhibition of leading edge contemporary art.