The Bruce Museum presents its newest exhibition, “Focus on Color: The Photography of Jeannette Klute,” from Saturday, June 20, through Sunday, September 27. The exhibition features a series of 24 color photographs by Klute, a pioneering figure in the development of color photography.
Ranging from landscapes to intimate “woodland portraits” of orchids, ferns and trees, Klute’s photographs of New England are vibrant compositions produced through the labor-intensive dye transfer process. The exhibition is drawn from Bruce Museum’s permanent collection, which includes a vivid array of more than 50 Klute prints, each revealing the photographer’s mastery at capturing nature through the camera lens.
Born in 1918 and trained at the Rochester Institute of Technology through the Works Progress Administration during the Depression, Klute worked extensively on perfecting the dye transfer process, a laborious photographic technique that allowed for rich colors in exceptionally permanent prints.
Klute tested and refined this process at the Eastman Kodak Company in Rochester, N.Y., beginning her career as photographic illustrator to physicist Ralph M. Evans and ascending to research photographer in charge of the Visual Research Studio of the Color Control Division.
Klute’s photography merged environmental consciousness with cutting-edge technology. Using only natural light and leaving a minimal impact on the environment, she spent many years investigating color and demonstrating the capabilities of dye transfer by photographing nature.
Her work resulted in some of the finest examples of color printing and all of its capabilities. Renowned photographers Edward Steichen, Ansel Adams, Margaret Bourke-White, Eliot Elisofon and Fritz Gruber all came to study these new developments and see her latest work.
In her photography, Klute used soft focus to blend natural surroundings into sophisticated backgrounds for her chosen subjects, a radical departure from the contemporary trend in nature photography, which presented all elements in crystal clear focus.
The Bruce Museum is at 1 Museum Drive. For information, www.brucemuseum.org or 203-869-0376.
