When Boulder photographer William Corey died of cancer in the spring, he left behind a beautiful legacy few can claim: hundreds of detailed images of gardens in Japan and other places in the world, many of them taken with an early-twentieth-century, wide-angle banquet camera of the kind once used to photograph large, formal groups. I had the luck to interview Corey ten years ago for these pages, and it’s one of those stories I’ve never forgotten: that of a man who worked slow in a medium usually associated with an instant outcome, willing to lug seventy pounds of old-fashioned equipment through paradise in order to achieve the perfect shot. “I wanted to photograph what valuable contributions mankind has made to the world. Gardens seemed like a good place to begin,” is how he explained it to me then.
Camera Obscura Gallery will pay tribute to Corey’s artistry with the William Corey (1949-2008) Memorial Exhibition, which opens today with a reception from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. The show continues through November 9; go to www.cameraobscuragallery.com or call 303-623-4059. And for my 1998 profile of the artist, go to www.westword.com/1998-06-04/calendar/still-waters-run-deep.
Sept. 26-Nov. 9, 2008
