The Southwest School of Art & Craft presents the FOTOSEPTIEMBRE USA exhibit The Universe Next Door, a survey of images from throughout the lengthy career of Abelardo Morell, one of the country’s most prolific and fascinating photographic provocateurs, devoted to exploring how people see the world around them.

Abelardo Morell’s preoccupation with reality and illusion has taken him from creating camera-obscura images in various places around the world, to his more recent work as the Alturas Foundation Artist-in-Residence, focusing on re-framed interpretations of South Texas landscapes. This FOTOSEPTIEMBRE USA exhibit was produced by Southwest School of Art & Craft Exhibitions Director, Kathy Armstrong, in collaboration with, and funded by, Alturas Foundation.

In conjunction with the exhibition, which is on display in the Russell Hill Rogers Galleries in the Navarro Campus, producer and director Allie Humenuk is presenting her documentary on Morell’s life and work, Shadow of the House (2007), which will be screened on four occasions during the length of the exhibition.

Morell (b. 1948) and his family fled their homeland of Cuba in 1962, moving to New York City. Today, he’s well known in the photographic community, having been awarded the Cintas Foundation fellowship in 1992 and the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship in 1993, and the Rappaport Foundation Prize in 2006.  Morell earned a BFA from Bowdoin College in 1977, and an MFA from Yale University School of Art in 1981. He’s currently a Professor of Photography at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design in Boston, and represented by Bonni Benrubi Gallery, New York.

Throughout his career, Morell has used photographs to transform how we see everyday objects, sometimes by casting them into magical, surprising perspectives that call into question our understanding of size and distance.  So it’s not surprising that Morell published an edition of Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland filled with photographs that showed household objects, books, or maps but through a wondrous lens.

Perhaps his best know and most ambitious series are his camera-obscura images (long exposure photographs in which the outside world is projected upside down along the walls of the room), which were the subjects of a worldwide traveling exhibition in 2002, Abelardo Morell and the Camera Eye, and have been widely reproduced in books and shown at numerous exhibitions.

His current work, shot in the Texas wilderness during 2008-2009, also challenges the viewer’s perception of reality and how people see it.

Also showing at the Southwest School of Art & Craft as part of FOTOSEPTIEMBRE USA is The Sacred And Profane Human Condition, a series of images by Wisconsin photographer Kim Borst, curated by Southwest School of Art & Craft Photography Department Chair, Victor Pagona, which is on display in the San Antonio Express-News Photography Gallery, in the Navarro Campus.

Abelardo Morell, featured artist, The Universe Next Door exhibit, Southwest School of Art & Craft.

Paula Owen, President, Southwest School of Art & Craft.

Kathy Armstrong, Exhibitions Director, Southwest School of Art & Craft.

Abelardo Morell, in effigy, at FOTOSEPTIEMBRE USA.

Exhibition title board.

Entrance to the Abelardo Morell exhibit in the Russell Hill Rogers Galleries.

Partial view of The Universe Next Door exhibit by Abelardo Morell.

Partial view of The Universe Next Door exhibit by Abelardo Morell.

Partial view of The Universe Next Door exhibit by Abelardo Morell.

Partial view of The Universe Next Door exhibit by Abelardo Morell.

Partial view of The Universe Next Door exhibit by Abelardo Morell.

Partial view of The Universe Next Door exhibit by Abelardo Morell.

Partial view of The Universe Next Door exhibit by Abelardo Morell.

Partial view of The Universe Next Door exhibit by Abelardo Morell.

Partial view of The Universe Next Door exhibit by Abelardo Morell.

Partial view of The Universe Next Door exhibit by Abelardo Morell.

Partial view of The Universe Next Door exhibit by Abelardo Morell.

Detail from The Universe Next Door exhibit by Abelardo Morell.

Image from The Universe Next Door exhibit by Abelardo Morell.

Image from The Universe Next Door exhibit by Abelardo Morell.

Images from The Universe Next Door exhibit by Abelardo Morell.

Image from The Universe Next Door exhibit by Abelardo Morell.

Kim Borst, The Sacred And Profane Human Condition, San Antonio Express-News Photo Gallery.

Victor Pagona, Chair, Photography Department, Southwest School of Art & Craft.

Partial view of The Sacred And Profane Human Condition exhibit by Kim Borst.

Partial view of The Sacred And Profane Human Condition exhibit by Kim Borst.

Image from The Sacred And Profane Human Condition exhibit by Kim Borst.

Image from The Sacred And Profane Human Condition exhibit by Kim Borst.

Image from The Sacred And Profane Human Condition exhibit by Kim Borst.

Early in the opening reception for the FOTOSEPTIEMBRE USA exhibits at the Southwest School of Art & Craft.

Opening reception for the FOTOSEPTIEMBRE USA, Abelardo Morell and Kim Borst exhibits at the Southwest School of Art & Craft.

Opening reception for the FOTOSEPTIEMBRE USA, Abelardo Morell and Kim Borst exhibits at the Southwest School of Art & Craft.

Opening reception for the FOTOSEPTIEMBRE USA, Abelardo Morell and Kim Borst exhibits at the Southwest School of Art & Craft.

Opening reception for the FOTOSEPTIEMBRE USA, Abelardo Morell and Kim Borst exhibits at the Southwest School of Art & Craft.

Opening reception for the FOTOSEPTIEMBRE USA, Abelardo Morell and Kim Borst exhibits at the Southwest School of Art & Craft.

Nancy Fullerton and Marilyn Lanfear, pre-elevator incident.

Gene Elder and Ed Conroy.

Richard Arredondo and David Rubin.

Liz Rendon, Jeffrey Dyer and Ann Kinser.

Carra Garza and Polly Harrison.

The Universe Next Door FOTOSEPTIEMBRE USA exhibit by Abelardo Morell in the Russel Hill Rogers Galleries of the Southwest School of Art & Craft.

Southwest School of Art & Craft, Navarro Campus entrance.

A few weeks later at the October 8 screening of Shadow Of The House: Abelardo Morell, by Producer/Director Allie Humenuk.

Screening of Shadow Of The House: Abelardo Morell.

Screening of Shadow Of The House: Abelardo Morell.

Allie Humenuk and Abelardo Morell discussing the documentary with the audience at the Southwest School of Art & Craft.

Screening audience at the Southwest School of Art & Craft.

Allie Humenuk and Abelardo Morell interacting with the audience at the Southwest School of Art & Craft.

Allie Humenuk, Producer/Director, Shadow Of The House: Abelardo Morell.

Reception for Abelardo Morell and Allie Humenuk at the Southwest School of Art & Craft.

Abelardo Morell signing books for fan and photo-enthusiast Jerry Kruse.

With Abelardo Morell and Allie Humenuk are alumni and Graduate Photography Class students from Lubbock’s Texas Tech University. Graduate Class Instructor Robin Dru is in the white dotted dress. Photographer and FOTOSEPTIEMBRE USA 2009 exhibitor Brianna Burnett (a Texas Tech alumna) is in the red sneakers. The Texas Tech group came to SA specifically for the screening of  Shadow Of The House: Abelardo Morell.

With Abelardo and Allie in this photo are students from UTSA’s Beginning Photography Class for Non Majors. The group’s presence at the screening was coordinated by Sarah Sudhoff (gray dress at left), Chair of the Metals Department of the Southwest School of Art & Craft.

Gerry Leader and Lucy Aptekar travelled from Boston to be with their friend Abelardo Morell for the screening of Shadow Of The House: Abelardo Morell.

Ann Kinser, Paula Owen and Kathy Armstrong, ready to call it a night.