'Kelli Connell: Pictures for Charis' Opens at CCP

Thursday
To: Campus Community
From: Center for Creative Photography
Subject: 'Kelli Connell: Pictures for Charis' Opens at CCP
Date: Aug 28, 2025

Over the last 10 years, American photographer Kelli Connell immersed herself in the archives of the Center for Creative Photography at the University of Arizona, researching the lives and relationship of writer Charis Wilson and legendary photographer Edward Weston. 

That research led Connell and her previous partner Betsy Odom to retrace Wilson and Weston's journeys through California and the American Southwest, where Wilson and Weston lived, made work and spent time together 80 years ago. 

Now on view at CCP through Dec. 6, "Kelli Connell: Pictures for Charis" brings 45 of Connell's recent portrait and landscape photographs into conversation with 48 classic figure studies and landscapes by Weston made from 1934-45. The exhibition acknowledges Wilson's voice and agency, pairing her own words with Connell's new texts and Weston's photographs.

The exhibition, co-organized with the High Museum of Art in Atlanta and the Cleveland Museum of Art, takes on special dimensions in Tucson. CCP's presentation features a full-scale recreation of Connell's studio from her MacDowell residency. There visitors will see a 35-minute video that documents her travels and creative process. 

"Kelli Connell's 'Pictures for Charis' is the epitome of what CCP stands for: a contemporary artist exploring the archives, using that knowledge to create new work, and producing an exhibition that shares the results," said CCP Chief Curator Rebecca Senf. "By using historical materials to create new understandings about Edward Weston and Charis Wilson, Connell illustrates the value and necessity of archives of primary source materials."

"This project has been a labor of love for me – for my deep interest in learning more about Charis, for Betsy, for thinking about how we will or will not be remembered in time," said Connell. 

"Few artists get the chance to imagine an exhibition and then see it supported so fully by an institution," said Connell. "CCP made it possible for me to place my photographs in conversation with original Edward Weston prints, and I'm deeply grateful for that opportunity."

CCP Galleries are open on Wed./Sat., 10a-4:30p, Admission is free. 
Check ccp.arizona.edu to learn how to access the center's research services.

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