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Bill Bamberger
Born
Bill Bamberger Jr.

c. 1956
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
Alma materUniversity of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Known fordocumentary photography, photojournalism
Notable workBoys Will Be Men
Closing
Hoops
Stories From Home
AwardsMayflower Award for Nonfiction
Websitewww.billbamberger.com

Bill Bamberger Jr. (birth c. 1956) is an American documentary photographer, photojournalist, and author who captures social and cultural issues in America and around the world.[1][2] Bamberger has been called a "master documentarian" and is know for "taking an intimate approach to his subject matter."[3][4] His work has been featured in several books and in solo exhibits at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History, the North Carolina Museum of Art, and the National Building Museum.[5] He is a lecturing fellow at the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University.[6]

Background

Bamberger is a Philadelphia native and grew up in Long Island, New York and in Yardley, Pennsylvania.[7][8][2] He was a Morehead Scholar at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, graduating in 1979 with a degree in American Studies.[9][2] His main interest in college was originally writing, but he discovered photography and took several classes.[9] Bamberger says, "I chose to be a photographer because this was, for me, the most effective way of telling stories."[2]

After college, he remained in North Carolina and worked as a photojournalist with a local newspaper.[9] Bamberger says, "In those days, I did film and printing, and I found every bit of it engaging."[9]

His photographs have been in many publications, including Apeture, Doubletake, Duke Magazine, Fortune, Harper's Magazine, The New York Times Magazine, Time, Vogue, and The Washington Post Magazine.[9][10][11] He has been interviewed on various television shows, including CBS Sunday Morning, C-SPAN2's About Books, and North Carolina People on PBS, as well as on All Things Considered on NPR.[12][8]

Bamberger taught in the Folklore Program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and is currently a lecturing fellow at the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University.[6][5]

Photographs & Exhibitions

File:'Hoops' by Bill Bamberger, National Building Museum (DC) August 2019.jpg
Hoops exhibition by Bill Bamberger at the National Building Museum

As a documentary photographer, Bamberger feels it is important to get consent from his subjects.[9] He says, "With portraits, I try to capture a central element of who we are as an individual. When I’m preparing to do a portrait, I think of the expression that defines that person. With the landscape work, I pay close attention to lighting and exposure."[9] His work has been compared to that of German photographers Bernd and Hilla Becher—a mid-twentieth-century duo who often photographed industrial relics.[13]

Bamberger's photographs have been been displayed in museums and galleries both big and small. This is intentional as he likes to open his exhibits in his subjects' hometown.[6][14] For example, his show Closings opened in an old department store where his subjects lived in Mebane, North Carolina before moving to the Smithsonian.[8] He's had solo exhibits at the National Building Museum, the Nasher Museum of Art, the National Museum of American History-Smithsonian Institution, the North Carolina Museum of Art, and Yale University Art Gallery.[9][15][10] His work is also on display in U.S. Embassies.[5]

Durham County Photographs

Bamberger's first major project documented a cross-section of people living in Durham County, North Carolina from 1979 to 1982.[10] This project received funding from the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University.[16] The result was a book and an exhibit shown at the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art, Duke University's Brown Gallery in the Bryan Center, the Reece Museum at East Tennessee State University, and the Morris Gallery of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.[16][17][18][19]

Closing: The Life and Death of an American Factory

After more than 100 years of operation, a furniture factory in Mebane, North Carolina, closed down in 1993.[20] Bamberger's photographic series documents the final days of work for the 203 men and women who crafted fine furniture at The White Furniture Co.[21][10][22] He spent five months on-site in the factory and used 350 rolls of film to capture black and white and color photographs "of everyone and everything"—spending five years total on the project which included following the workers after the factory closed.[8][20][23] One reviewer says Bamberger "offers an unusual glimpse into the lives for working-class Americans."[22] Another reviewer notes the artistic quality, saying, "The gentle natural light of the factory interior captures workers, products, and machinery in an elegiac yet unsentimental memorial. This is documentary work of a high order, a corrective to triumphalist cybercratic boosterism, and above all a reminder of the ambiguities and ironies of family values."[20]

Closing was part of an oral history and documentary photography project funded by a North Carolina Humanities Council grant and coordinated by the Southern Oral History Project and the Mebane Arts Council.[8][24] The exhibit opened at the former Jones Department Store in downtown Mebane, and was also shown at the North Carolina Museum of Art, the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History, and the Yale University Art Gallery.[8] A related book was also published.[24]

A House is a Home / Stories from Home

In 1994, the Lyndhurst Foundation in Chattanooga, Tennessee asked Bamberger to document "in human terms the impact of home ownership on the lives of families" in three neighborhoods where the Chattanooga Neighborhood Enterprise had built or renovated houses for lower-income people.[25] For the project, he lived and worked with his subjects.[26] After seeing that resulting photographs, the University of North Carolina sponsored, "This House is Home: An Initiative to Advance Affordable Home Ownership in America," involving college students and a national conference.[25] This expanded Bamberger's work into Eastern North Carolina.[2] He also spent six months in San Antonio, Texas where he lived in a Mexican-American neighborhood that included houses built by Habitat for Humanity.[2][27]

In 2002, Bamberger had the idea for "A House is a Home," a photo-gallery inside a house that could travel across the country.[28] Fabricated for $125,000 with the design help of Gregg Snyder of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, the mobile art gallery's "purpose is to foster a better understanding of the affordable home-ownership issue."[28][27] The gallery traveled from 2002-2003, going from San Antonio, Texas to Oregon to North Dakota, and ending in Chapel Hill.[28]

In 2004, a larger exhibit, Stories from Home, was displayed at the National Building Museum. Chrysanthe Broikos, curator at the museum says, "The images are very moving, especially when you see them large scale. It's like you're having a one-to-one conversation with the people. You see the expressions on their faces, the pride and peace, and you see a side of home ownership you might not think of."[2]

Boys Will Be Men

In the mid-1980s, Bamberger spent a year at Deerfield Academy, a private boarding school in Deerfield, Massachusetts, teaching and documenting students.[9][2] His goal was to document "the life and coming of age for teenagers" through both photography and interviews.[9][29] He decided to focus on teenage boys as a way to explore coming of age, male identity, and toxic masculinity.[9][2]

Through a 1999 National Endowment of the Arts' program, "Artists and Community: America Creates for the Millennium," Bamberger was able to revisit Boys Will Be Men.[5] For the second part of this project, Bamberger chose a public school, Flint Central High School in Flint, Michigan.[2][3] He spent six months interviewing and photographing students, while living a block from the school.[30][3][2] At first, the students were reluctant to participant because they were afraid of another Roger and Me, the documentary film by Michael Moore that negatively portrayed their, and his, hometown.[3] However, Bamberger was given a room at the school for the duration of his residency.[3] He furnished the room comfortably and displayed recent photographs, creating a popular hangout for the students.[3] He also kept equipment worth $20,000 in the room and rarely locked the door.[3]

The resulting audio and photography exhibit opened in January 2002 at the Flint Institute of Arts and at Albion College in 2003.[3][31] One reviewer noted, "The effect is a compelling audio-visual mosaic of disadvantaged youth at an emotional crossroads."[3] Principal of the Flint Central, Jim Beaublem, said "The positive spinoff from this exhibit is to break apart stereotypes about an inner-city school."[3] Boys Will Be Men, was one of the best attended exhibits in the history of the Flint Institute of Arts.[29]

In 2004, Bamberger described this project as ongoing in both rural and urban settings.[2] In 2019, Bamberger attempted to reconnect with the Flint students he photographed nineteen years earlier.[29]

One Rwanda: Portraits of Contemporary Life

Bamberger spend three months in Rwanda for the 20th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide.[32] As he took color photos of the daily lives of people, Bamberger wrote, "I stopped thinking about the Rwandese people primarily as Hutus or Tutsis and as perpetrators or survivors. Instead, my photographs explore how the people of Rwanda are finding their way while faced with contemporary issues like healthcare, education, and housing."[33][32] A related exhibit opened in 2014 at the John Hope Franklin Center Gallery at Duke University.[32] He also took photographs that ended up in his Hoops exhibit.[34]

Hoops

Taking 15 years to complete, the Hoops project includes more than 22,000 photographs of basketball hoops taken in 38 states in the U.S. and 9 countries around the globe.[15][35] The first photo of the series was taken in Nags Head, North Carolina.[21][7] Bamberger says, “I started to look, and everywhere I went, I would find them."[35] The resulting exhibit of 75 large-format color photographs, was displayed at the National Building Museum in 2019.[35][34] A smaller version of the exhibit was held in U.S. Embassies and the Nasher Museum of Art.[15][5] One reviewer noted, "By cutting out the players, Bamberger removes the idea of a moment frozen in time, to instead tell the broader story of place and environment, captured in vivid color."[13] Bamberger says, "Each of these courts speaks to issues like wealth disparity and the design sensibility of the community—how the community creates a court, with what materials, in what setting and what surrounds the court. It’s a project about sport, but also in a much larger sense about society: the similarities and differences between one community and another."[9] A book about this project is forthcoming.[36]

Awards

Bamberger won the Mayflower Prize in Nonfiction for his book Closing: The Life and Death of an American Factory, produced with Cathy N. Davidson.[6][8] Closing was also nominated for the Robert F. Kennedy Book Award.[8]

He was one of 56 American artists selected to participate in "Artists and Communities: America Creates for the Millennium," the National Endowment for the Arts millennium project.[5]

Publications

Boys Will Be Men: Photographs by Bill Bamberger at the Flint Institute of Arts May 17–July 21, 2002. Flint Institute of Arts (2002). ISBN 978-0939896226

Closing: The Life and Death of an American Factory (The Lyndhurst Series on the South). By Cathy N. Davidson and Bill Bamberger. W. W. Norton & Company (1998) ISBN 0393045684

Durham County Photographs. The Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art. (1982)

Hoop. Forthcoming from George F. Thompson Publishing.[36]

Stories of Home and the Mobile Gallery: Photography, Architecture, Community. By Bill Bamberger and Gary Snyder. College of Architecture, University of North Carolina at Charlotte (2003) ISBN 978-0974584003

Personal

Bamberger lives in Durham, North Carolina with his wife Alice Boyle.[5][2] His photographs are sold through Anne Taylor Fine Arts.[14]

References

  1. ^ "Hoop! Bill Bamberger Jr Visits the School – The Andrew Grene Foundation". Retrieved 2022-02-11.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Kakissis, Joanna (January 18, 2004). "Framing a Home". The News and Observer. pp. 6G. Retrieved February 11, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Provenzano, Frank (June 3, 2002). "Flint Central's Other Yearbook". Detroit Free Press. pp. F3. Retrieved February 11, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. ^ Blythe, Ann (November 11, 2022). "UNC-CH Students Will Tour State". The News and Observer. p. 17. Retrieved February 11, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g "Bill Bamberger". Art in Embassies. U.S. Department of State. Retrieved 2022-02-11.
  6. ^ a b c d "Bill Bamberger | Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University". documentarystudies.duke.edu. Retrieved 2022-02-11.
  7. ^ a b Brand, Jordan (March 7, 2020). "Bill Bamberger Discusses "Hoops" Photo Series". HYPEBEAST. Retrieved February 10, 2022.
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h "Closing: The Life and Death of an American Factory". Southern Oral History Program. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Retrieved 2022-02-11.
  9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Stricker, Ben (March 23, 2020). "'Photography is a really wonderful means of connecting with people': Q&A with photographer Bill Bamberger". The Black and White. Retrieved 2022-02-11.
  10. ^ a b c d "Closing: The Life and Death of an American Factory". Yale University Art Gallery. Retrieved February 10, 2022.
  11. ^ "Behind the Scenes on the Set of Che - Photo Essays". TIME.com. Retrieved 2022-02-11.
  12. ^ "Closing: An American Factory". C-SPAN. May 9, 1998. Retrieved 2022-02-11.
  13. ^ a b Madsen, Deane Madsen (March 13, 2019). "New Photography Exhibit at the National Building Museum Surveys Basketball Courts Around the World". Architectural Record. Retrieved 2022-02-11.
  14. ^ a b "Bill Bamberger". Ann Stewart Fine Art. February 10, 2022. Retrieved 2022-02-11.
  15. ^ a b c "Courtside: Photographs by Bill Bamberger". Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University. Retrieved 2022-02-11.
  16. ^ a b Broili, Susan (November 11, 1982). "Practices What He Teaches". The Durham Sun. pp. 2D. Retrieved February 11, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
  17. ^ "Reception Set Saturday". The Herald Sun. March 13, 1983. pp. 3D. Retrieved February 11, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
  18. ^ Nelson, Nels (November 9, 1984). "Photography by Nine Contemporary Artists are on Display at the Morris Gallery". Philadelphia Daily News. p. 68. Retrieved February 11, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
  19. ^ "Arts/Crafts". Johnson City Press. April 18, 1984. p. 9. Retrieved February 11, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
  20. ^ a b c Tenner, Edward. "Closing: The Life and Death of an American Factory Bill Bamberger Cathy N. Davidson". The Wilson Quarterly. 22 (3) – via JSTOR.
  21. ^ a b Anzilotti, Eillie (2019-01-10). "These serene photos of global basketball hoops take you on a trip around the world". Fast Company. Retrieved 2022-02-11.
  22. ^ a b Phillips-Fein, Kim (September 21, 1998). "Pink Slips in Black and White". The Nation. 267 (8): 37–40 – via EBSCO.
  23. ^ Filene, Peter (Winter 1995). "Reviews". Southern Cultures. 1 (2): 245–248 – via JSTOR.
  24. ^ a b Burritt, Chris (March 12, 1994). "The Passing of a Way of Life". The Atlanta Journal / The Atlanta Constitution. pp. A3. Retrieved February 11, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
  25. ^ a b Sies, Mary Corbin (November 2004). "Stories of Home and Affordable Housing". Home Cultures. 1 (3): 315–322 – via EBSCO.
  26. ^ Wedner, Diane (June 4, 2004). "The Very Picture of Achievement". The Los Angeles Time. pp. K13. Retrieved February 11, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
  27. ^ a b Kakissis, Joanna (January 18, 2004). "Framing a Home". The News and Observer. pp. 7G. Retrieved February 11, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
  28. ^ a b c "Home Is Where this Art Gallery Is". The Charlotte Observer. March 6, 2007. pp. B1. Retrieved February 11, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
  29. ^ a b c Stuart, Sheri L. (August 29, 2009). "Artist Bill Bamberger Hopes to Reconnect with Former Flint Central Students – The Courier News". The Flint Courier. Retrieved 2022-02-11.
  30. ^ Provenzano, Frank (June 3, 2002). "Flint Central's Other Yearbook". Detroit Free Press. pp. F1. Retrieved February 11, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
  31. ^ "'Boys Will Be Men"". Battle Creek Enquirer. August 27, 2003. p. 16. Retrieved February 11, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
  32. ^ a b c "Bamberger's Artist Tour of "One Rwanda: Portraits of Contemporary Life"". YouTube. John Hope Franklin Center at Duke University. March 18, 2016. Retrieved February 11, 2022.
  33. ^ "Rwanda". Bill Bamberger. Retrieved 2022-02-11.
  34. ^ a b Hurley, Amanda Kolson (March 27, 2019). "'Hoops' Photos Reveal the Geography of Basketball". Bloomberg. Retrieved 2022-02-11.
  35. ^ a b c Lefrak, Mikaela (March 8, 2010). "Where Can You Build A Basketball Court? Anywhere, According To This New Exhibition". WAMU 88.5. Retrieved 2022-02-11.
  36. ^ a b "HOOP: Bill Bamberger | Hurley Media LLC". Hurley Media. 2011-06-20. Retrieved 2022-02-12.

www.BillBamberger.com

Anne Stewart Fine Art

Duke Center for Documentary Studies

Art in Embassies/US Department of State

Closing: An American Factory, C-SPAN

Bamberger's Artist Tour of "One Rwanda: Portraits of Contemporary Life"

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