PULLMAN, Wash. The Museum of Art at Washington State University will display, “Faculty Focus: Fran Ho,” Aug. 18 Sept. 24. There will be a walk-through of the exhibit with the artist on Monday, Aug. 28 at noon, followed by a public reception later the same day at 7 p.m. Open to the public at no charge, gallery hours are Monday Saturday 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., open until 7 p.m. on Thursday and closed on Sunday.
Fran Ho is an award-winning photographer who was a faculty member of the WSU Fine Arts Department for 37 years until his retirement in 2004. Born in Honolulu, Hawaii, Ho received his Bachelor in Fine Arts at Yale University in 1961, before earning his Masters of Fine Arts from Rochester Institute of Technology.
The display will feature black and white photo works created between 1961 and the present. Included in the exhibit are pieces from the “Hose Valley Series,” “Dualities Series,” “China Series: Huang Zhou,” “Palouse Empire Fair,” “Pullman Lentil Festival,” “Mom and Pop Stores (Hawaii),” “On the Beach (Waikiki)” and the “Football Series.”
Ho said his fascination with photography began while working on industrial design projects for a major corporation near Boston. “I worked with a photographer who let me observe what he was shooting and the darkroom techniques he used to create the ‘magic’. He did all of the work in black and white. I think it was then that I was drawn to photography and my interest in the ‘magic’ became somewhat of an obsession.”
When asked what drew him to black and white photography in particular, he initially explained it was the idea the images would not fade over time as color photographs often do. “Later, I reasoned that when I look at a black and white print, I actually see it in terms of color in my mind’s eye and when I look at color prints, they fall short of looking at the real thing.”
Shortly before his retirement in 2004, Ho began working on a series of photographs of mom and pop grocery stores in Hawaii. “I was raised in one of the stores that I documented. The stores represented a way of neighborhood life that is quickly fading with the influx of the shopping mall and super market. In this document, I want to show a glimpse of a way of life that was. This project is ongoing. I didn’t plan it this way, but I seem to have come full-circle from the mom and pop store that I was raised in.”
Funding for museum exhibitions and programs for the fiscal year is provided by the Friends of the Museum of Art, Samuel and Patricia Smith and the Washington State Arts Commission, National Endowment for the Arts. Visit the WSU Museum of Art Web site at: www.wsu.edu/artmuse.
Fran Ho, Rites Series: Palouse Empire Fair, Colfax, Wash., 1999
