Drone Photographer Tomas van Houtryve to Give Photography Society Talk at Nelson-Atkins
Kansas City, Mo. Oct. 3, 2016– Photographer Tomas van Houtryve will speak at The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art on October 6th at 6 pm. Concerned about the loss of empathy in human activity, Van Houtryve’s work concentrates on aspects of contemporary warfare and governmental activities notable for their invisibility: drones, electronic surveillance, nuclear testing and Cold War ideology. Initially a student of philosophy, his photographs are fueled by a quote by Albert Camus: “By definition, a government has no conscience. Sometimes it has a policy, but nothing more.”
Van Houtryve first became interested in photography while studying overseas in Nepal. After moving to Latin America, he photographed the military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in 2002, followed by his return to Nepal in 2004 to photograph the Maoist rebellion. Other projects include documentation of life in countries remaining under Communist rule.
In 2013, van Houtryve began working on the series, Blue Sky Days (covered extensively by Harper’s magazine). Using a small drone, van Houtryve photographed the kinds of gatherings that have become targets (whether accidental or intentional) of foreign air strikes in the Middle East—weddings, funerals or other occasions. The title of the series comes from an event in October 2012 in which a drone strike in northeast Pakistan killed a 67-year-old woman picking okra outside her house.
At a briefing in Washington, DC, the woman’s 13-year-old grandson said, “I no longer love blue skies…. In fact, I now prefer gray skies. The drones do not fly when the skies are gray.”
Van Houtryve’s work is featured in the exhibition, Surveillance, now on view in the photography galleries at the Nelson-Atkins through January 29, 2017.
Attendance to the lecture is free, but tickets can be obtained by calling 816.751.1ART or on-line at nelson-atkins.org/.
The Photography Society was formed in November 2007 for persons interested in supporting the activities of the museum’s Photography Department. The group is dedicated to the collecting of photographs in the community and to increasing public knowledge of the art and history of the medium through high-level public programming.
The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art
The Nelson-Atkins in Kansas City is recognized nationally and internationally as one of America’s finest art museums. The Nelson-Atkins serves the community by providing access and insight into its renowned collection of nearly 40,000 art objects and is best known for its Asian art, European and American paintings, photography, modern sculpture, and new American Indian and Egyptian galleries. Housing a major art research library and the Ford Learning Center, the Museum is a key educational resource for the region. The institution-wide transformation of the Nelson-Atkins has included the 165,000-square-foot Bloch Building expansion and renovation of the original 1933 Nelson-Atkins Building.
The Nelson-Atkins is located at 45th and Oak Streets, Kansas City, MO. Hours are Wednesday, 10 a.m.–5 p.m.; Thursday/Friday, 10 a.m.–9 p.m.; Saturday, 10 a.m.–5 p.m.; Sunday, 10 a.m.–5 p.m. Admission to the museum is free to everyone. For museum information, phone 816.751.1ART (1278) or visit nelson-atkins.org/.
For media interested in receiving further information, please contact:
Kathleen Leighton, Manager, Media Relations and Video Production
The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art
816.751.1321
kleighton@nelson-atkins.org