Learning to See Around Siouxland, Joslyn Museum, Omaha, NE

Visiting students view a painting at the Joslyn Museum as a museum employee talks about the art work and the artist during a tour in Omaha, NE Wednesday, March 6, 2019. (photo by Jerry L Mennenga©)

I have made a few visits to the Joslyn Museum in Omaha, NE in the last couple of years. I enjoy its art collection and the general ambience of its facility. As a photographer I am always trying to see in a “new or different” way. Not always successfully, but I guess that is how one grows. The museum has host tour guides to take groups through and explain about the art work there, the artists and help put into perspective what a visitor sees and how it all fits together.

It’s wonderful to learn more about periods of art and the influences various artists had in either helping them produce the vision they acquired in making their art or in getting to somewhere in mind and place where they produced these works that now grace the walls of the Joslyn Museum and other museums throughout the world. But I like to challenge myself and see if in looking at works of art will help me expand my vision and embrace a different way of photographing subjects and places that I might not have thought of before. As always, what is produced and accepted is in the mind of the beholder. Some things work, some things don’t, but not trying is never an option.

Jerry Mennenga

Sioux City, Iowa

Looking at a work of art juxtaposed with another display at the Joslyn Museum in Omaha, NE Wednesday, March 6, 2019. (photo by Jerry L Mennenga©)

 

Looking at a work of art juxtaposed with another display at the Joslyn Museum in Omaha, NE Wednesday, March 6, 2019. (photo by Jerry L Mennenga©)

 

Enjoying and Preserving Memories in Siouxland, Joslyn Museum, Omaha, NE

A couple of photographers capture their visit by photographing an indoor fountain at the Joslyn Museum in Omaha, NE Wednesday, March 6, 2019. (photo by Jerry L Mennenga©)

When we all visit places one time, or many, most people these days as before, take a photograph to help remember that trip and today more than ever, share with their friends. And what I find so fascinating is how we all have a different way of seeing such places and remembering them. Each an artist in their own right. Creating an image of what was encountered.

A visitor to the Joslyn Museum records a favorite piece of art while visiting in Omaha, NE Wednesday, March 6, 2019. (photo by Jerry L Mennenga©)

For myself I find it to incorporate all of what is seen within the camera’s frame and try to make it all work together using light and shadow and angles and lines and juxtaposing the various elements.

As well as just documenting what is going on.

A Joslyn Museum curator gives a guided tour to visitors so they may more appreciate the works of art seen in museum in Omaha, NE Wednesday, March 6, 2019. (photo by Jerry L Mennenga©)

 

A Joslyn Muaeum employee has her photograph taken next to a painting in the museum in Omaha, NE Wednesday, March 6, 2019. (photo by Jerry L Mennenga©)

We all take away those memories we enjoy and cherish and hopefully will relive by looking at the images we have taken and shared and maybe revisiting the place again. I find traveling to a place more than once becomes the challenge to come away with a different set of images which is possible depending on the time of year and time of day one visits a place. Indoors, things tend to stay the same, but that just proves more of a challenge to become more creative, see familiar objects in a different way and grow as a visual person.

Jerry Mennenga

Sioux City, Iowa

Visitors document their visit to the Joslyn Museum in Omaha, NE Wednesday, March 6, 2019. (photo by Jerry L Mennenga©)

 

Architectual aspects of the Joslyn Museum lend to various types of framing opportunities while visiting in Omaha, NE Wednesday, March 6, 2019. (photo by Jerry L Mennenga©)