ARTS
REVEL IN THE DETAILS
For much of his career, photographer Carl Chiarenza made collages from ripped paper and other bits of detritus and photographed them, resulting in quietly powerful abstract images such as the 1990 gelatin silver print, "Untitled 280," seen here. PHOTO COURTESY OF THE GEORGE EASTMAN MUSEUM
LANDSCAPES OF THE MIND Reflecting on nearly seven decades of work, Carl Chiarenza hasn’t stopped evolving BY REBECCA RAFFERTY
@RSRAFFERTY
BECCA@ROCHESTER-CITYNEWS.COM 30 CITY JUNE 2021
A
lot has changed for photographer Carl Chiarenza since the 1950s, when as a teenager he was a valet parker at a new museum then called the George Eastman House. In those days, he spent time photographing places in and around Rochester, honing his talent and sharpening his eye for things that most people miss. All these years later, his life’s work in pictures is on display at the same institution where he once parked cars. The retrospective exhibition, “Carl Chiarenza: Journey into the Unknown” (on view through June 20), explores almost 70 years of his work as an art photographer, professor, art critic, and award-winning biographer.
“I’m content with what I have,” Chiarenza says. “I’ve certainly had a very good life and no regrets. I have a wonderful family, wonderful friends. And I’ve done everything I can do. I certainly don’t need to do more for anybody else, just do it for me now.” Chiarenza was born in Rochester in 1935 to Italian immigrant parents and grew up on Central Avenue. He studied with photography greats Minor White and Ralph Hattersley at Rochester Institute of Technology, got his doctorate at Harvard, and was an active photographer in Boston for almost 30 years. He was a professor at Boston University until 1986, when he returned to his hometown to teach at the University of Rochester. He
