VISUAL ARTS + MUSEUMS

The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston presents an Artist’s Talk: Photographer Gay Block on “About Love” Thursday, December 8, at 6:30pm, in the Caroline Wiess Law Building. This event is open to the public. Admission is free. Join artist Gay Block for an intimate discussion of her new book About Love, a survey of her most intimate and moving portraits. A book signing follows.

Block began her career as a portrait photographer in 1973 with portraits of her own Houston Jewish community. Projects in other Jewish communities followed, including, in 1981, portraits from the Houston JCC swimming pool as well as the beginning of the series Camp Girls, which she added to 25 years later by re-photographing the girls and making a film.

From 1982 to 1985, Block made portraits of The Jews of the South Beach in Miami. Intrigued by the stories that her subjects shared with her, Block was moved to document their lives beyond photography. She made extensive audio and film recordings of conversations, resulting in award-winning films, five of which are on DVDs that accompany her new book, About Love. Her landmark work, Rescuers: Portraits of Moral Courage in the Holocaust—a book (with writer Malka Drucker), film, and traveling exhibition—has been seen in more than 50 venues in the United States and abroad, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the MFAH.

About Love (hardcover) is available now at The MFAH Shop in the Beck Building as well as online. Copies of the book will also be on sale at the event. Call 713.639.7360 for more information.

This lecture is cosponsored by Photo Forum, the MFAH patron group for individuals interested in photography as a fine art.

Pictured: Gay Block, South Miami Beach, 1984 (printed 1994), chromogenic print, courtesy of the artist. (detail above, full image below).