O'Sullivan's photos from the King survey are now on display at the Art Institute of Chicago. These are all albumen prints approx 8x10 in size. While I have been looking forward to this show I'm really conflicted about the manner in which this prints are displayed. Almost one half of the show is so dark it's difficult to even read the captions. The other half has the lighting distributed so that one image receives full direct light from the overhead fixture, but the one immediately adjacent receives no light at all. The net result is that although these are vintage prints I couldn't gain any insight from them because they were too difficult to see. There was no explanation for the lighting. If they are so concerned with the potential damage to the prints then they should just mount copies as displaying the originals in this manner serves no real purpose, except to enable the AIC to advertise the show and reel in customers at $18 a shot.
My advice is to purchase the catalog which has a lot of additional material, is very well printed, and you can actually see the images (and the imperfections of the originals) much better. If you happen to be at the AIC you can certainly spend a few minutes at the show, but I can't recommend a special trip.
Sorry for the rant, but this was really disappointing to me.
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