More than 70 works by the late photographer Robert C. May and more than 20 images from May's personal photograph collection will be shown through July 16 in the UK Art Museum.
May, a former instructor of photography at UK and a longtime IBM employee, was best known for his technological knowledge in printing.
After his death, May was featured in the Time-Life Photo Series in 1976. During his career, he worked with such artists as Ansel Adams.
May's black-and-white photography is heralded as pristine examples of printing and reproduction skills.
Much of May's work centers on parts of an image, rather than a full image. An untitled photo of a crosswalk focuses on the feet of the people crossing the street, rather than full figures.
Many of the works feature landscapes. In those featuring human subjects, heads are turned and there hints, rather than blatant use, of images.
Several photos are in diamond shapes. May created these double exposure images by tipping the camera 45 degrees before shooting, then changed the focus then expose the unadvanced film for a short time. This technique, called "shift focus," produces a ghostly blur.
One photo using shift focus, "Along Higbee Mill Road, Fayette County 1974," shows a field and part of telephone pole with grass surrounding the pole blurring into a twisted, psychedelic image that creates the illusion of a downward spiral to the telephone pole.
Van Deren Coke, former teacher and friend of May, watched May's talent evolve, but takes no credit.
"I showed him how to use some of tools for photography that helped in the range of black-and-white, but that was about it," Coke said.
Coke believes May worked exclusively in black-and-white because of habit and the esthetic quality it holds.
"He was brought up on black-and-white. And most of color is fugitive; colors advance and recede," Coke said. "Colors come out and some recede. But with black-and-white there is no conflict; it is more abstract because we don't see in black-and-white so it is one step removed from the gritty reality.
"May was very expressive, brooding and poetic. His is rare photography."
Several photos are a combination of of contrasting images into jigsaw puzzle pieces, often in a confusing mixture, one combining the images of dairy cows, the American flag and a woman's legs.
Another technique of May's was to use older photos, placing them on a stand and photographing them, producing a final product that resembles the twisted appearance of photos melting in a fire.
Close friend and fellow photographer Ralph Eugene Meatyard and Meatyard's children provided May with inspiration.
May's photos of linear nature changed with the incorporation of figures, a departure from the use of landscape that gave his photos a more humanistic quality.
"The use of the children as subjects introduced figure elements and gave the photos a psychological hook," Coke said.
Despite May's strict standards of printing and processing, he was a slave to exact rules with no artistic merit.
"He was a master technician," Coke said. "He made it work artistically. He was not bound by a formula."
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