© Arthur Griffin.  Courtesy of the Griffin Museum of Photography, Winchester, MA. Above: Ted Williams, 1939.

In 1939, Eastman Kodak had just introduced a new color film to the market. The company contacted photographer Arthur Griffin, who was working for the Boston Globe on a story about the Boston Red Sox then rookie, Ted Williams, to experiment with the new color film. After fulfilling his assignment for the paper, Griffin photographed Williams with a large format 4×5 camera as he practiced his batting stance and swing. Unseen for close to a half century, Griffin’s images represent the first color photographs ever taken of Williams, and comprise one of the largest collections of photographs of the Red Sox great early on in his storied career. Let’s Play Ball, an exhibition celebrating our national pastime and the boys of summer, will be on view at the Panopticon Gallery from July 14 – September 6, 2011. This exhibition will feature photographs by David Levinthal, Arthur Griffin, Ernest Withers and others.

-courtesy Panopticon Gallery

© Andy Warhol

Pictured here is Farrah Fawcett.  A unique Polacolor Type 108 print that is part of the current auction at Sotheby’s New York, Photographs from the Polaroid Collection. For details on the auction click here.

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© Chan Chao. Member of the KNLA, Burma, about 1990-1997. Chromogenic process. Gift of Alan Manley.

Dive into the depths of the Denver Art Museum’s photography collection in Exposure: Photos from the Vault. Featuring more than 50 photographs— including many works that are on view for the first time—the photography department’s premiere exhibition includes iconic images by Ansel Adams, Diane Arbus, Chuck Close and Garry Winogrand alongside recent acquisitions by Petah Coyne, Shirin Neshat and others. The show’s curator Eric Paddock says, “This selection from the DAM’s permanent collection includes perennial favorites as well as works no one has seen here before. Every person with a camera sees the world in a different way, and every photographer is on a path of exploration. The photographs in this exhibition are a sampling of the many ways photographers encounter the world—and show us what they discover.” Exposure: Photos from the Vault opens April 30, 2010 at the Denver Art Museum.

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