Lora Webb Nichols: Photographs Made, Photographs Collected

An exhibition of historic significance, Lora Webb Nichols: Photographs Made, Photographs Collected is a curated selection of images chronicling frontier life in south-central Wyoming in the early 20th century.

Who was Laura Webb Nichols? Lora Webb Nichols (1883-1962) created and collected approximately 24,000 negatives over the course of her lifetime in the mining town of Encampment, Wyoming. Nichols received her first camera in 1899 at the age of 16, coinciding with the rise of the region’s copper mining boom.

Why is this exhibition important? Given the period of time the collection spans, the isolation of the Encampment community, and Nichols’ gender, this collection of images is unparalleled in its historical significance and visual storytelling.

What did Lora Webb Nichols photograph? Nichols photographed her family, self-portraits, and landscape images of the cultivation of the region surrounding the town of Encampment. She made images in Encampment over several decades, resulting in an intimacy and candor in the photographs that is unexpected and captivating. Additionally, Nichols created formal portraits of the workers and travelers passing through the region, including portraits of young men who arrived in the area to complete public works projects with the Civilian Conservation Corp in the 1930s.

Details:

Exhibition Title: Lora Webb Nichols: Photographs Made, Photographs Collected

Exhibition Dates: September 30 – November 19, 2022

Location: Colorado Photographic Arts Center, 1070 Bannock St, Denver

Exhibition URL: https://cpacphoto.org/lora-webb-nichols/

Opening Reception: Fri., Oct. 7 (6 – 9 pm)

Panel Discussion with Nicole Jean Hill, Co-Curator of the Lora Webb Nichols Collections and Nicole Sanchez, Photo Archivist/Digital Reproductions Mgr. at Univ. of Colorado Boulder: Sat., Oct. 8 (2 pm)

Location of all events: CPAC, 1070 Bannock St., Denver 80204 | ALL EVENTS FREE

About Nicole Jean Hill

With an anthropological approach to image making, Nicole Jean Hill is an artist using photography and video to explore familiar spaces and activities within the American cultural and natural landscape. She was born and raised in Toledo, Ohio and received a BFA in photography from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design and an MFA in Studio Art from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her photographs have been exhibited throughout the U.S., Europe, Canada and Australia, including Gallery 44 in Toronto, the Australia Centre for Photography in Sydney, and the Blue Sky Gallery in Portland, Oregon. Her work has been featured in the Magenta Foundation publication Flash Forward: Emerging Photography from the U.S., U.K., and Canada, the Humble Art Foundation’s The Collector’s Guide to Emerging Photography, and National Public Radio. Hill has been an artist-in-residence at several arts organizations and universities including the Center for Land Use Interpretation in Wendover, Utah, the Ucross Foundation in Wyoming, and the Newspace Center for Photography in Portland, Oregon. She currently resides in Humboldt County, California and is a Professor of Art at California Polytechnic University – Humboldt.

Hill is also the co-curator of the Lora Webb Nichols collections, housed at the American Heritage Center in Laramie, Wyoming. Lora Webb Nichols (1883-1962) created and collected approximately 24,000 negatives over the course of her lifetime in the mining town of Encampment, Wyoming. The images chronicle the domestic, social, and economic aspects of the sparsely populated frontier of south-central Wyoming throughout the early 20th century. Nicole Jean Hill has been working on preserving this archive in collaboration with Nancy Anderson since 2013, including digitizing the photographs, organizing the corresponding text, recovering the photographer’s diaries and letters, and collaborating with the Grand Encampment Museum and the American Heritage Center to secure a permanent home for the negatives.

About the Colorado Photographic Arts Center (cpacphoto.org)

Founded in 1963, CPAC is the only nonprofit organization in Denver dedicated exclusively to the art of photography. Each year, CPAC presents up to 10 photography exhibitions, offers 50+ classes and workshops, and hosts dozens of events to raise awareness of excellent photography and the artists who create it. CPAC also hosts the biennial Month of Photography Denver Festival (denvermop.org), a citywide celebration of photographic art with more than 100 exhibitions and events. CPAC’s gallery at 1070 Bannock Street is free to the public and conveniently located in Denver’s Golden Triangle Creative District near museums, shops and restaurants. Gallery hours: Tues. - Fri. 11-5; Sat. noon-4. Learn more at www.cpacphoto.org. FB: Colorado Photographic Arts Center; IG: @cpacphoto; TW: @cpacphoto

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