Catalina Museum For Art & History Presents TIME CHANGES ALL ODDS: CATALINA & PHOTOGRAPHY

Catalina Museum for Art & History will present the exhibition Time Changes All Odds: Photography & Catalina, on view beginning October 7, 2023. This insightful exhibition delves into the profound impact of photography capturing the essence and evolution of Catalina Island since its introduction in the 1800s.

As legend has it, William Wrigley Jr. bought the island in 1919 sight unseen upon being charmed by a set of Catalina picture postcards. The photos didn't lie. Upon arriving on the island for the first time, his response was a resounding, “Why, it's wonderful.”

"The photographs in the museum's collection show the profound influence photography has wielded over Catalina's essence and evolution since its earliest days,” said Sarah Bay Gachot, Guest Curator of Time Changes All Odds. “From the awe-inspiring natural beauty to the intricate threads of daily life, this showcase encapsulates the island's story in photos, frozen in time yet pulsating with life."

On June 25, 1954, the Catalina Island Museum premiered its first art exhibition at the original Catalina Casino location featuring photographs by four local photographers, Larry Creed, Paul Gilbert, Fred Hochberg and Gene Smith. Over its 70 years of existence, the renamed Catalina Museum for Art & History has collected thousands of printed photographs. Organized in sections that address themes in photography like communications over vast distances, the frame, iconic imagery, freezing time, proof and making memories, Time Changes All Odds samples this now-robust collection to explore how photography has contributed to the identity of the island since the medium's introduction in the 1800s. There are 60 images of the island's natural beauty, snapshots of recreational and leisure activities, documents of architecture, historical record keeping, the nitty gritty of infrastructure and moments from the daily lives of the island's inhabitants. From a contemporary standpoint, one can see how much has changed and how much has also stayed the same.

The museum is open Tuesday through Sunday and closed on Mondays. For more information about the Catalina Museum for Art & History, visit CatalinaMuseum.org.

Sarah Bay Gachot is an independent curator, writer, and cultural producer. Her curatorial projects include the exhibition Lift Your Head: Bruce Davidson,  and the Evolution of Seeing for the California Museum of Photography and Robert Cumming: The Secret Life of Objects, which traveled to the CMP from the Eastman Museum in Rochester, New York. Bay Gachot also published the monograph Robert Cumming: The Difficulties of Nonsense (Aperture, 2016) and her writing has appeared in Artforum, Aperture magazine, Hyperallergic, the photo-eye Blog, and The PhotoBook Review, among other publications and artist's books and catalogs. In 2018, she helped found the Acid-Free Los Angeles Art Book Market & Bazaar, for which she now coordinates talks and panels.

The Catalina Museum for Art & History offers the best in art and history exhibitions, music and dance performances, lectures by guest speakers from all over the world, and the finest in silent, documentary and international film. The museum is located in the heart of Avalon at 217 Metropole Avenue. 

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