The Cascais Cultural Centre is preparing to host an exhibition dedicated to the work of American photographer and filmmaker Ruth Orkin. The exhibition "Ruth Orkin - The Illusion of Time" opens April 28, and can be visited until July 7.
This is the first exhibition of Ruth Orkin's work in Portugal. It includes 120 photographs, films, documents and original objects (such as letters, excerpts from newspapers and magazines, a camera and pages from the artist's diary) that allow her story to be told and portray the everyday chronicles of "American life" that have always inhabited her images.
The daughter of a silent film actress and a toy manufacturer, Ruth Orkin was born in 1925. She grew up in the corridors of the former Hollywood studios. She ultimately failed to succeed as a filmmaker, which was her desire, but she became one of the most important photojournalists on the planet.
She has written for The New York Times and Life magazine, among many other publications, but has also embarked on authorial projects. The best known of these was the essay Don't Be Afraid to Travel Alone, about the experience of travelling alone as a woman in post-war Europe. This resulted in her most emblematic photograph American Girl in Italy (1951), which shows painter Jinx Allen walking down a street in Florence, oblivious to the attention of countless men. It portrays the culture of harassment but also female empowerment, in what has become one of the most striking images of the 20th century.
Throughout his career, he returned to the world of cinema, taking portraits of Alfred Hitchcock, Marlon Brando, Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, as well as personalities such as scientist Albert Einstein and conductor Leonard Bernstein.
CCC, Avenida Rei Humberto II de Itália, 16, Portugal. Tue-Sun 10.00-18.00. 5€