Rhythms of Creation: A Family's Impressions of Indigenous Peoples of the World. An Exhibit of Images and Ideas
Featuring the photographic works of a family of photographers. Photographs by a grandfather, mother, father and daughter: Jack Baxter, Connie Baxter Marlow, David O. Marlow and their daughter Alison Baxter Marlow are joined by Connie's husband Andrew Cameron Bailey's work.
In the exhibition tribal people from throughout the world are sensitively portrayed by Jack Baxter: India, Nepal, Northern Thailand, Morocco, Ecuador, China, New Guinea; Connie Baxter Marlow: In the US: Hopi, Wabanaki, Ute. Mexico: Tarahumara, Huichol, Lacondon Maya, Chamulan Maya. Africa: Bushmen of the Kalahari. David O. Marlow: Native American Art. Alison Baxter Marlow: The Uyghur of China, and images of Tibet; and Andrew Cameron Bailey: The Bushmen of the Kalahari, South Africa and ancient places of the Southwestern United States.
Artist Biographies:
Jack Baxter, (1921 - 2015) was a businessman, a Maine politician and a life-long photographer. His photographs are from India, Nepal, Northern Thailand, China, Ecuador and Morocco. "I hope you will feel the "beauty of the fleeting moment" in many of my photographs," declares Jack. " Also, I hope you will see in them not just pretty pictures, but feel the mystery of how these different people in their different cultures lived before and after the fleeting moment that I have captured for you."
img by: Jack Baxter
Jack's daughter, Connie, 77, trained as a landscape photographer in the 60's and 70's, has assembled a series of "Family Photos", displayed in family albums, of indigenous families with whom she spends time regularly in the US: Hopi, Wabanaki, Ute. Mexico: Tarahumara, Huichol, Lacondon Maya, Chamulan Maya. Africa: Bushmen of the Kalahari. Africa: Bushmen of the Kalahari. "My relationship with the people you will find in the lovely albums made by Mayan artisans is a familial one, states Connie. "Bonds of trust are developing that are being built over time and through shared experiences. I believe that when we come together with the indigenous peoples as equals, as family, and we each open our hearts and our minds to the other, the melding of our gifts will bring a new perspective that is invisible at this time. To me this new perspective will allow us to see the path to true unity, peace and freedom."
img by: Connie Baxter Marlow
David O. Marlow, has been a commercial photographer in Aspen, Colorado for over 40 years. He is a leading staff photographer for Architectural Digest and has an impressive client list which includes: Harper's Bazaar, Charles Jourdan, Estee Lauder, Rolex, Fiji Water and United Airlines, amongst many others. "The objects I photographed for the book "Art of Grace and Passion" were indeed impressive to see and to hold. They represent the evolving and complex cultures of the earliest Americans. The efficiency of daily life provided some tribal members the luxury of creating art, mostly through functional pieces. To me, the quality of the craftsmanship and the sophisticated designs are classic and have withstood time as some of the most impressive ever created."
img by: David o. Marlow
Connie's daughter, Alison, 43, was the first Westerner into a remote region of western China in 1998 as assistant to an explorer/photographer. Her photographs are of the indigenous Uhygur People of China, and her impressions of Tibet. "I was in awe of the way the Tibetan people had of making me feel like I was a part of them. I felt such a strong connection with them, just by sitting with them, with no exchange of words. A part of them will remain forever with me" remembers Alison of her experiences in Tibet. And as an explorer in China Alison reflects "There is a feeling that envelops someone when one first realizes one is seeing something that no Western eye has ever seen, stepping on ground where no Western foot has ever stepped before, venturing into a place that is completely unknown to the Western world. It is a feeling that I wish everybody had the opportunity to feel. If anyone were to be giving these people their first impression of the Western world I would want it to be someone like me. Someone who loves and respects them so much and holds them in such high regard."
img by: Alison Baxter Marlow
A British-born South African, photographer/filmmaker Andrew Cameron Bailey, 80, Connie's husband, had the great fortune to grow up among the remarkable and colorful cultures of southern Africa during the 1950s and 1960s. In 1969, Andrew left South Africa partly in protest at the apartheid regime then dominating the country, and sailed across the Atlantic to the New World. He continues to be deeply interested in all things indigenous, He has been photographing indigenous subjects in black and white and color since 1968. He and Connie are presently collaborating on a documentary film, In Search of the Future, about the future of humanity featuring elders of Africa, America and Mexico. "My photographs of the living descendents of the ancient San (Bushman) people of southern Africa, the world's oldest people and the First People of Africa were taken in the Kalahari Desert, where the last survivors of these endangered hunter-gatherers teeter on the brink of cultural extinction." states Bailey. "Their faces say all that needs to be said."
