Old Main Exhibit Explores ‘Time and Empathy’ in Geleve Grice’s Photography

Self Portrait, Pine Bluff ca. 1970. Geleve Grice Papers | Special Collections – University of Arkansas Libraries donated by Jim Blair.

Situated in the heart of the University of Arkansas’ Fayetteville campus, Old Main has long been home to numerous and varied departments, programs and classes throughout the university’s 150-plus year history.

And now, the next chapter of that history includes a new exhibition space spanning the halls of the building’s second floor. The space is dedicated to showcasing the artwork and talent of those who have called the U of A or the state of Arkansas home.

The first exhibit featured in this space will be Time & Empathy: Arkansas Photographer Geleve Grice, curated by Aaron R. Turner, teaching assistant professor in the School of Art and director of the school’s proposed Center for Art as a Lived Experience, which is currently being developed.

Turner, who like Grice is a photographer, uses photography as a transformative process to understand the ideas of home and resilience in two main areas of the U.S. – the Arkansas and Mississippi Deltas.

While creating this exhibit, Turner said he was struck by the moments captured in Geleve Grice’s work, which includes similar themes as Grice primarily documented Black life during the mid-twentieth century.

“Grice’s photographs weave together time, vernacular, history, love, and resilience in a way that’s authentic to Arkansas, yet they foster introspection for the viewer,” he said.

Grice (1922 – 2004), was born 15 miles from Pine Bluff in the small farming community of Tamo, Arkansas. He began seriously using the camera during his World War II service in the U.S. Navy and, in 1950, began operating a commercial photography studio in Pine Bluff.

Most prominently, Turner said Grice’s work chronicles daily life in Pine Bluff in addition to documenting historical figures such as Martin Luther King Jr., Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Harry Truman, and Joe Louis – as well as capturing significant historical events, such as Silas Hunt’s enrollment in the University of Arkansas School of Law.

“As a whole, the images begin to touch on the transformative process: changes in the understanding of self, revisions of belief systems, and lifestyle changes,” Turner said.

Turner added that much of the exhibit’s information about Grice comes from the University of Arkansas Press book, A Photographer of Note: Arkansas Artist Geleve Grice, by English professor Robert Cochran.

Cochran and Grice first met in 1998 after a friend mentioned an exhibition of Grice’s work at the Leedell Moorhead-Graham Gallery on the University of Arkansas Pine Bluff campus. This would be the first of many visits to come for the pair, in a friendship that would lead to public programming in Fayetteville, the book, and many state-wide exhibitions.

“Cochran’s research efforts not only brought wider recognition to Grice’s work but also play an important role to shape a more well-rounded narrative of the history of visual culture in Arkansas alongside other photographers such as Mike Disfarmer, Dorthea Lange, Eugene Richards, Rogerline Johnson, Ira Wilmer Counts Jr., Lisa McCord, and Ralph Waldo Armstrong III,” Turner said.

Turner, who also hosts the Photographers of Color Podcast, recently sat down with Cochran to talk about the many memories Cochran has of Grice during the making of the book, Grice’s photographs, and his legacy. Listen to the podcast to learn more.

Additionally, Turner said, Grice’s “approach to photography employs the universal principles of representational material in the form of an archive expanding 40-plus years, displays empathetic communication with others through photography, and provides the audience with the opportunity to act on new perspectives by simultaneously considering the past, present, and future.”

The Time & Empathy: Arkansas Photographer Geleve Grice exhibition was made possible through the support and help of the Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences Dean’s Office, the School of Art, University Libraries Special Collections Division, Robert Cochran, Trent Bozeman, Larissa Raimy, and Scott Frame and Art.

This story also appeared in the University of Arkansas News publication.