Large-format photographer gets below the surface in new KC group show

LAWRENCE — Elise Kirk learned a lot from her time as a documentary producer for clients like National Geographic. But now, the University of Kansas associate professor of photography finds herself drawn to an expanded documentary style of working.

Three of Kirk’s photos resulting from that kind of deep dive into a specific place are featured in a group photography show, "Strange and Familiar Places,” that runs now through July 20 at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. The museum acquired the three photos in the show, plus one more, for its permanent collection.

“It's a group of photographers exploring the notion of place from some sort of insider perspective, whether that's having grown up there or having spent a lot of time there,” Kirk said. “In my case, I'm exploring the Midwest from the perspective of having grown up here, having left for close to 20 years and then returned.”

As can be seen at her website, Kirk likes to work in series, and the shots in the Nelson show come from a series she calls “Mid—” referring both to the Midwest and the idea of liminality.

“The work ‘Mid—' is all about a kind of personal tension between restlessness and rootedness, wanting to grow roots or be free,” Kirk said. “I gravitate towards making photographs that express that kind of internal tension.”

She cites a shot of a mobile home camped on the bank of the Missouri River.

“I like the idea that the van is this thing that gives you freedom to travel and move,” Kirk said. “But they've also set up decorative holiday string lights. They have bicycles out. So they are still building home; they're building place. But they also are kind of riding this line.”

The “Mid—" photos were made with a large-format film camera (the negative is 4 by 5 inches) that Kirk lugged through small-town streets, backyards and into people’s homes. The camera’s tripod, bellows and hood — not to mention the $5 cost of each negative — meant no spur-of-the-moment, anonymous shots.

“My early documentary influence was Frederick Wiseman, who gets labeled as this direct-cinema filmmaker, always trying to make himself as invisible as possible,” Kirk said. “And so, to my old-school, filmmaking brain, that's what documentary means — an act of pure observation and little interjection outside of authorial choices made in framing and editing. And I think, through my photographic practice, I'm acknowledging my own presence and subjectivity more.”

Doing so, Kirk said, “opened up a lot of possibility for me, in terms of working with other people. ... It really forces you to slow down and engage with the subject matter and your relationship to it.”