VISUAL

Judith Joy Ross's congressional portraits at Tops Gallery pay tribute to public service

Fredric Koeppel
`Special to The Commercial Appeal
Judith Joy Ross, "Senator Strom Thurmond, Republican, South Carolina," 1987. From "Portraits of the United States Congress, 1986-87" at Tops Gallery.

Readers have one more chance to see “Portraits of the United States Congress, 1986-87,” an exhibition of 20 images by renowned photographer Judith Joy Ross. Tops Gallery will be open from noon until 6 p.m. Saturday, after which the show comes down to make room for the next exhibition. I wish that I had been able to see this marvelous group of photographs earlier, but as we all know, the world is too much with us, late and soon, getting and spending, we lay waste our powers, blah blah blah.

Ross' career has centered on portraiture, one of her major and best-known projects being a series of portraits of visitors to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington. That series preceded the project of the U.S. Congress portraits, taken during the second term of Ronald Reagan's administration. Ross employs the classic tripod-mounted 8-by-10 view camera and, in this case, developed the images  in sunlight on what's called printing-out paper, a 19th century technique. The result is photographs of remarkable clarity and depth that feature velvety grays and intense, inky blacks. The images offer such precision of detail that we see a drop of sweat on Rep. Elwood Hillis' upper lip (R.-Ind.) and the Liberty pin on Rep. George W. Crockett Jr.'s tie (D.-Mich.).

The ecumenical selection of Congress-persons includes nine Democrats, eight Republicans and three press aides and communications directors. Five of the images are of women. One is African-American. The portraits were taken in the offices of these personages, direct and head-on, and that's the way most of these politicians present themselves, serious people taking a brief break from serious business.

Rep. Morris K. Udall (D.-Ariz.) looks as open and friendly as you would imagine him to be. Rep. William Dickinson (R.-Ala.), his jacket slightly askew, seems to be saying, “I didn't have time to straighten my jacket. There's work to be done.” Six-term Sen. Claiborne Pell (D.-R.I.), creator of the Pell Grant program and instigator of the legislation that created the National Endowment for the Arts, beams out at us from his handsome patrician face. Sen. William V. Roth Jr. (R.-Del.) is a dead-ringer for Walter Matthau. Oddly, the only subject who does not gaze directly at the viewer is Rep. Pat Schroeder (D.-Colo.), who looks slightly downward, a secret smile on her lips.

Although each of these portraits offers a telling depth of psychological insight, the most striking is the one depicting Sen. Strom Thurmond (R.-S.C.), a staunch segregationist who served in the Senate from 1954 to 2003, first as a Democrat, then as a Republican. In this image, the focus on Thurmond's face is so marked that the rest of the picture is slightly blurred, including the American flag pin on his lapel. And what a face it is! Deeply lined, with hooded eyes that speak of decades of personal and political experience and knowledge, a visage as uncompromising as his outmoded opinions, his face expresses a regard for the machinery of government and democracy both sardonic and sincere.

After a brutal and bruising election cycle in America, seeing this exhibition is a salutary reminder that faith in the democratic process and its ideal is paramount to our survival as a country. Whichever side of the aisle they worked from, the politicians depicted here seem to tell us, from 30 years — and a lifetime — ago that however much the workings of democracy may be a political game of wheeling and dealing, of private brawls and bellicosity, the ultimate goal is a sense of public unity that guarantees America's forward movement and progress.

Judith Joy Ross:'Portraits of the United States Congress, 1986-87'

At Tops Gallery, open noon-6 p.m. Saturday. 400 S. Front, entrance on Huling. Call 901-340-0134, or visit topsgallery.com.