Cannery Row Exhibits
September 2001 -- January 2002
Cannery Row Exhibits
September 2001 -- January 2002
The Robert Lewis Exhibit of Cannery Row Photography 1957-1958
"SITES AND CITIZENS"
at the Maritime Museum of Monterey, #5 Custom House Plaza (Monterey Convention Center), Monterey.This historic exhibition presented Cannery Row in the depths of its disastrous fall from its claim as "Sardine Capital of the World" a decade earlier during World War II. The exhibit is titled "SITES AND CITIZENS" and presents old Ocean View Avenue's people and places at the time the street was renamed for John Steinbeck's book: Cannery Row.
109 dramatic 11" x 14" and 16" x 20" black and white photographs bring the real Cannery Row into stark and magnificent focus. The photographer, Robert Lewis, now resides in Annapolis, Maryland. He not only took the photos while attempting to become a commercical photo journalist, but kept them with him for over forty years before being "discovered" through a friend, Jesse Corsaut--sculptor of the Edward F. Ricketts Memorial statue on Cannery Row.
Robert Lewis not only photographed nearly six hundred images, of which 109 were juried for this premier exhibit, but he also developed them over two years in his basement dark room (dubbed his "Puntent Dungeon") in Annapolis. Robert amd his wife, Eila, were present at the Exhibit's Opening on December 15th.
This project has been made possible by the gracious cooperation and generosity of Ilford Photo imaging products. The History Company and Robert Lewis wish to offer special thanks to Ms. Wendy Friant, Ilford's Monterey representative--without whose support this exhibit would not have been possible.
The Exhibit is sponsored by the renowned Sardine Factory Restuarant and the Cannery Row Company, in coopertation with the Maritime Museum of Monterey, The Cannery Row Foundation, and The History Company.
Visit the Exhibit Album.
Selections from the collection and exhibit are now located in the Canery Row Foundation Gallery, upstairs at 711 Cannery Row, the Monterey Canning Company warehouse (Cannery Row at Prescott Avenue).