{{Short description|American writer and curator (born 1977)}} '''Russell Lord''' (born 1977) is an American writer and curator working in the field of photography and the history of art. He is currently the Chief of Curatorial Affairs at the Norman Rockwell Museum.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Bliss |first=Monica |date=2024-10-14 |title=BUSINESS BRIEFS: Hot Plate Brewing Co. adds coffee; Berkshire Lightscapes lights up; Norman Rockwell Museum updates; Pittsfield Cooperative Bank hires; Springfield Museums appoints Vice President; CRM Home Watch earns accreditation; Eric Carle Museum receives grant; Montessori School expands program; 1Berkshire parade announcements |url=https://theberkshireedge.com/business-briefs-hot-plate-brewing-co-adds-coffee-berkshire-lightscapes-lights-up-norman-rockwell-museum-updates-pittsfield-cooperative-bank-hires-springfield-museums-appoints-vice-president-crm/ |access-date=2024-10-24 |website=The Berkshire Edge |language=en-US}}</ref> He previously served as the Director of Exhibitions and Curatorial Initiatives at the American Federation of Arts (2023-2024) and the Freeman Family Curator of Photographs, Prints, and Drawings at the New Orleans Museum of Art, a position he held from October 2011 to April 2023.<ref name="Intro">{{cite web |title=NOMA Names Russell Lord New Curator Of Photographs |url=https://noma.org/noma-names-russell-lord-new-curator-of-photographs/ |website=New Orleans Museum of Art |date=17 October 2011 |accessdate=22 April 2020}}</ref>
==Life and work== Lord was born and raised in Massachusetts and Virginia. He received a B.A. in art history and French from James Madison University in 2000, and an M.Phil. in art history from The Graduate Center of the City University of New York in 2009. His graduate work focused on 19th-century French and British photography and its relationship to printmaking.<ref name="Blaustein 1">{{cite web |last1=Blaustein |first1=Jonathan |title=Russell Lord NOMA Curator of Photographs Interview – Part 1 |url=https://aphotoeditor.com/2015/04/16/russell-lord-noma-curator-of-photographs-interview-part-1/ |website=A Photo Editor |date=16 April 2015 |accessdate=23 April 2020}}</ref>
Prior to his graduate work, Lord worked at the Yale University Art Gallery in the Department of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs from 2000 to 2003.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Russeth |first1=Andrew |title=Met Photo Fellow Russell Lord Heads to New Orleans Museum of Art |url=https://observer.com/2011/09/met-photo-fellow-russell-lord-heads-to-new-orleans-museum-of-art/ |website=Observer |date=14 September 2011 |accessdate=22 April 2020}}</ref> During that time he coordinated the production of a major monograph on photographer Emmet Gowin’s aerial work, [https://www.amazon.com/Emmet-Gowin-Changing-Jock-Reynolds/dp/0300093616 Changing the Earth].<ref name="Blaustein 1" />
While enrolled as a graduate student, Lord was awarded a Jane and Morgan Whitney Fellowship to continue research on his doctoral dissertation and participate in the activities of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Department of Photographs.<ref name="Fellowship">{{cite book |title=The Metropolitan Museum of Art Former Fellows: 2009-2014 |publisher=The Metropolitan Museum of Art |pages=29, 37 |url=https://www.metmuseum.org/about-the-met/fellowships/~/media/Files/Research/FormerFellows2.pdf |accessdate=22 April 2020}}</ref> During the course of the two-year fellowship, he researched the Met's collection of early photography, and presented excerpts from two chapters of his dissertation.<ref name="Fellowship" /> Lord organized an exhibition for the Johnson Galleries at the Met and assisted Malcolm Daniel on the exhibition ''Stieglitz, Steichen, Strand''.<ref>{{cite web |title=Three Masters of 20th-Century Photography Featured in Stieglitz, Steichen, Strand at Metropolitan Museum |url=https://www.metmuseum.org/press/exhibitions/2010/three-masters-of-20thcentury-photography-featured-in-stieglitz-steichen-strand-at-metropolitan-museum |website=Metropolitan Museum of Art |date=26 October 2010 |accessdate=22 April 2020}}</ref>
In 2011, Lord accepted the position of "Freeman Family Curator of Photographs, Prints, and Drawings" at the New Orleans Museum of Art.<ref name="Intro" /> Since arriving at the museum, Lord has organized dozens of exhibitions on historic and contemporary photographs, prints, and drawings, working with artists such as Willie Birch, Edward Burtynsky,<ref name="Burtynsky" /> Lee Friedlander,<ref name="Friedlander" /> Dawn DeDeaux, Vera Lutter,<ref name="Lutter" /> and more. In conjunction with these exhibitions, Lord organized and participated in a variety of programs, including interviewing Pulitzer Prize winning writer Tony Kushner about his work on the Steven Spielberg film ''Lincoln''.<ref>{{cite web |title=Tony Kushner In Conversation With Russell Lord |url=https://noma.org/tony-kushner-in-conversation-with-russell-lord/ |website=New Orleans Museum of Art |date=31 March 2014 |accessdate=22 April 2020}}</ref>
In 2013, Lord organized ''Gordon Parks: The Making of an Argument'', an exhibition about the process behind Gordon Parks’ first photographic essay for LIFE magazine.<ref name="New Yorker">{{cite web |last1=Fussell |first1=Genevieve |title=Gordon Parks: The Making of an Argument |url=https://www.newyorker.com/culture/photo-booth/gordon-parks-the-making-of-an-argument |website=New Yorker |date=28 October 2013 |accessdate=22 April 2020}}</ref> The exhibition originated at NOMA then traveled to five other venues: The Faulconer Gallery at Grinnell College,<ref>{{cite news |title=Gordon Parks' Photos and German Expressionist Prints to Open at Faulconer Gallery Jan. 23 |url=http://ourgrinnell.com/gordon-parks-photos-and-german-expressionist-prints-to-open-at-faulconer-gallery-jan-23/ |accessdate=22 April 2020 |publisher=Our Grinnell |date=January 8, 2015}}</ref> The Fralin Museum of Art at the University of Virginia,<ref>{{cite web |title=Gordon Parks - The Making of an Argument |url=https://uvafralinartmuseum.virginia.edu/exhibitions/gordon-parks-making-argument |website=UVA Fralin Art Museum |accessdate=22 April 2020}}</ref> The Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center at Vassar College,<ref>{{cite web |title=Gordon Parks: The Making of an Argument |url=https://fllac.vassar.edu/exhibitions/2015/gordon-parks.html |website=Vassar College |accessdate=22 April 2020}}</ref> and the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive at the University of California, Berkeley.<ref name="Lens">{{cite web |last1=Berger |first1=Maurice |title=Gordon Parks's Harlem Argument |url=https://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/11/11/gordon-parkss-harlem-argument/ |website=The New York Times Lens Blog |date=11 November 2015 |accessdate=22 April 2020}}</ref>
During his time at NOMA, Lord has increased the museum's photography collection by over 30%, bringing the collection's total to around 12,000 works.<ref name="Looking Again">{{cite book |last1=Lord |first1=Russell |title=Looking Again: Photography at the New Orleans Museum of Art |date=2018 |publisher=Aperture, New Orleans Museum of Art |location=New York |isbn=978-1-59711-442-4 |page=7|url=https://noma.org/shop/looking-photography-new-orleans-museum-art/}}</ref> Along with museum Director Susan M. Taylor, Lord helped organize the creation and endowment in 2013 of the A. Charlotte Mann and Joshua Pailet Gallery, a gallery dedicated to photographic works on paper.<ref>{{cite web |title=New Orleans Museum Of Art Names Gallery In Honor Of Joshua Mann Pailet And His Mother, Charlotte, Establishing An Endowment For Photography Initiatives |url=https://noma.org/new-orleans-museum-of-art-names-gallery-in-honor-of-joshua-mann-pailet-and-his-mother-charlotte-establishing-an-endowment-for-photography-initiatives/ |website=New Orleans Museum of Art |date=5 November 2013 |accessdate=23 April 2020}}</ref> In 2018, the photography department was promised a donation of 1,300 photographs from the collection of Tina Freeman by artists such as Dorothea Lange, Sally Mann, Irving Penn, and Alfred Stieglitz.<ref>{{cite news |title=New Orleans Museum of Art Gifted More than 1,300 Works from Tina Freeman Collection|url=https://www.artforum.com/news/new-orleans-museum-art-gifted-more-1300-works-tina-freeman-collection-76594 |accessdate=23 April 2020 |publisher=ArtForum |date=September 11, 2018}}</ref> This donation was hailed as the “largest and most significant single gift of photographs in the institution’s history.”<ref>{{cite news |last1=Massa |first1=Dominic |title=New Orleans Museum of Art announces largest photography gift in its history |url=https://www.wwltv.com/article/news/local/new-orleans-museum-of-art-announces-largest-photography-gift-in-its-history/289-593000804 |accessdate=23 April 2020 |agency=WWL New Orleans |date=September 11, 2018}}</ref>
In 2018, Lord published ''Looking Again: Photography at the New Orleans Museum of Art'' in conjunction with Aperture and the New Orleans Museum of Art.<ref name="Looking Again" /> The book, a survey of the museum's photography collection, examines 131 photographic objects, many of which "actively embraced [photography's] curious connection to death and its unique capacity to simultaneously record reality and warp it."<ref name="NY Times">{{cite news |last1=Teicher |first1=Jordan G. |title=The Strange, the Surreal and the Downright Scary |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/10/lens/new-orleans-museum-of-art-looking-again.html |accessdate=23 April 2020 |work=The New York Times |date=January 10, 2019}}</ref>
In 2019, Lord secured another major gift for the photography department, when Del and Ginger Hall established a fund to support the department's activities.<ref name="Hall" /> As Ginger Hall explained, “[Lord] nurtured a relationship that’s helped us grow and consider ways we might inspire others.”<ref name="Hall">{{cite web |title=Del and Ginger Hall establish a fund to support NOMA's photography department |url=https://noma.org/del-and-ginger-hall-establish-a-fund-to-support-nomas-photography-collection/ |website=New Orleans Museum of Art |date=9 January 2020 |accessdate=4 May 2020}}</ref> Also that year, In 2019, Lord was a visiting instructor at the University of New Orleans, teaching a class on the history of photography and curatorial practice.
It was announced in February, 2021, that NOMA was bequeathed Dr. H. Russell Albright's photography collection of over 350 works. Primarily masterworks by contemporary photographers such as Thomas Ruff, Cindy Sherman, Lorna Simpson, and Hiroshi Sugimoto, the collection also includes some examples of earlier twentieth-century photography by such artists as Brassaï, Bill Brandt, Man Ray, and many others. “Russell Albright’s eye was incredibly discerning, a trait that is visible across his collection, be it in his selection of a rich modernist print from the 1930s or a powerful contemporary photograph” said Lord. “Albright never shied away from adventurous or even controversial images, amassing a collection that is as critical as it is beautiful.” <ref name="Albright">{{cite web |title=New Orleans Museum of Art Acquires Transformative Gift of Photography from Dr. Russell Albright |url=https://www.artfixdaily.com/news_feed/2021/02/04/8667-new-orleans-museum-of-art-acquires-transformative-gift-of-photogr/ |website=Art Fix Daily |accessdate=8 February 2021}}</ref>
Lord serves on the advisory board of [http://www.gordonparksfoundation.org/ The Gordon Parks Foundation], and is an at-large board member of the [https://neworleansphotoalliance.org/ New Orleans Photo Alliance]. He lives in the Berkshires with his wife and two children.
In April 2023, Lord was appointed Director of Exhibitions and Curatorial Initiatives at the American Federation of Arts. https://www.amfedarts.org/afa-staff/
In October 2024, Lord was appointed Chief of Curatorial Affairs at the Norman Rockwell Museum.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Admin |first=N. R. M. |title=About The Museum |url=https://www.nrm.org/about/the-museum/#staff |access-date=2024-10-24 |website=Norman Rockwell Museum |language=en-US}}</ref>
==Selected exhibitions curated by Lord== *2011: ''Making a Mark: The Dorothy and Herbert Vogel Collection,'' New Orleans Museum of Art<ref>{{cite web |title=Making a Mark: The Dorothy and Herbert Vogel Collection |url=https://noma.org/exhibitions/making-a-mark-the-dorothy-and-herbert-vogel-collection/ |website=New Orleans Museum of Art |accessdate=22 April 2020}}</ref> *2012: ''What is a Photograph? New Orleans Museum of Art;<ref>{{cite web |title=What is a Photograph? |url=https://noma.org/exhibitions/what-is-a-photograph/ |website=New Orleans Museum of Art |accessdate=22 April 2020}}</ref> Photography, Sequence, and Time'', New Orleans Museum of Art *2013: ''Shadow and Light'', New Orleans Museum of Art;<ref>{{cite web |title=Shadow and Light |url=https://noma.org/exhibitions/shadow-and-light/ |website=New Orleans Museum of Art |accessdate=22 April 2020}}</ref> ''The Story in Pictures: Social Documents from the Permanent Collection'', New Orleans Museum of Art;<ref>{{cite web |title=The Story in Pictures: Social Documents from the Permanent Collection |url=https://noma.org/exhibitions/the-story-in-pictures-social-documents-from-the-permanent-collection/# |website=New Orleans Museum of Art |accessdate=22 April 2020}}</ref> ''Gordon Parks: The Making of an Argument'', New Orleans Museum of Art;<ref name="New Yorker" />''Edward Burtynsky: Water'', Contemporary Arts Center, New Orleans;<ref name="Burtynsky">{{cite news |last1=Bookhardt |first1=D. Eric |title=Review: Edward Burtynsky's Water |url=https://www.nola.com/gambit/events/art_previews_reviews/article_2fc1ad04-9045-5cd1-9df6-e5e9b75828ea.html |accessdate=22 April 2020 |publisher=Gambit Weekly}}</ref> ''Photography at NOMA'', New Orleans Museum of Art<ref>{{cite web |title=Photography at NOMA |url=https://noma.org/exhibitions/photography-at-noma/ |website=New Orleans Museum of Art |accessdate=22 April 2020}}</ref> *2014: ''Photo-Unrealism'', New Orleans Museum of Art;<ref>{{cite web |title=Photo-Unrealism |url=https://noma.org/exhibitions/photo-unrealism/ |website=New Orleans Museum of Art |accessdate=23 April 2020}}</ref> ''Emmet Gowin: Concerning America and Alfred Stieglitz, and Myself'', New Orleans Museum of Art; ''Josephine Sacabo: Salutations'', New Orleans Museum of Art<ref>{{cite web |last1=Hasselle |first1=Della |title=NOMA premiers new work by artist Josephine Sacabo |url=https://midcitymessenger.com/2015/01/22/noma-presents-new-work-by-artist-josephine-sacabo/ |website=Mid City Messenger |date=22 January 2015 |accessdate=23 April 2020}}</ref> *2015: ''Ten Years Gone'', New Orleans Museum of Art;<ref>{{cite web |last1=Esker |first1=Fritz |title=NOMA's 'Ten Years Gone' reflects on Katrina's 10th Anniv. |url=http://www.louisianaweekly.com/nomas-ten-years-gone-reflects-on-katrinas-10th-anniv/ |website=Louisiana Weekly |accessdate=23 April 2020}}</ref> ''Vera Lutter: Inverted Worlds'' (organized in association with the Houston Museum of Fine Arts), New Orleans Museum of Art;<ref name="Lutter">{{cite web |title=Vera Lutter: Inverted Worlds |url=https://www.artsy.net/show/new-orleans-museum-of-art-vera-lutter-inverted-worlds |website=Artsy |accessdate=23 April 2020}}</ref> ''Paper Negatives | Negative Image'', New Orleans Museum of Art<ref>{{cite web |title=Paper Negatives |url=https://noma.org/exhibitions/paper-negatives-negative-image/ |website=New Orleans Museum of Art |accessdate=23 April 2020}}</ref> *2016: ''Kenneth Josephson: Photography Is'', New Orleans Museum of Art;<ref>{{cite web |title=Kenneth Josephson: Photography Is |url=https://noma.org/exhibitions/kenneth-josephson-photography/ |website=New Orleans Museum of Art |accessdate=23 April 2020}}</ref> ''Something in the Way: A Brief History of Photography and Obstruction'', New Orleans Museum of Art<ref>{{cite web |title=Something in the Way: A Brief History of Photography and Obstruction |url=https://noma.org/exhibitions/something-way-brief-history-photography-obstruction/ |website=New Orleans Museum of Art |accessdate=23 April 2020}}</ref> * 2017: ''Jim Steg: New Work'', New Orleans Museum of Art<ref>{{cite web |last1=Lord |first1=Russell |title=Restlessly Inventive |url=https://64parishes.org/restlessly-inventive |website=64 Parishes |date=June 2017 |accessdate=23 April 2020}}</ref> *2018: ''Lee Friedlander in Louisiana'', New Orleans Museum of Art<ref name="Friedlander">{{cite web |last1=Harrison |first1=Alexa Renee |title=Lee Friedlander in Louisiana |url=https://www.myneworleans.com/lee-friedlander-in-louisiana/ |website=My New Orleans |date=June 2018 |accessdate=23 April 2020}}</ref> *2019: ''Past Present Future: Building Photography at NOMA'', New Orleans Museum of Art;<ref>{{cite web |title=Past, Present & Future: Photography at NOMA |url=http://www.insidenola.org/2018/09/past-present-future-photography-at-noma.html |website=Inside NOLA |accessdate=23 April 2020}}</ref> ''You Are Here: A Brief History of Photography and Place'', New Orleans Museum of Art<ref>{{cite news |title=You Are Here: A Brief History of Photography and Place |url=https://countryroadsmagazine.com/events/you-are-here-photography-exhibit-noma/ |accessdate=22 April 2020 |publisher=Country Roads Magazine}}</ref>
==Books and essays== *“Process and Progress: George Seeley and the Pictorial Recipe," ''Yale University Art Gallery Bulletin'', 2003 *“The Ghosting of Photography” ''Visual Resources'', June, 2010 *“Faithful Delineations: Rev. George Wilson Bridges and his Photographs of Palestine” in ''Breaking New Ground: New Perspectives on Caribbean History'', Culture, Literature, and Education, Kingston: Ian Randle, 2011 *''Gordon Parks: The Making of an Argument'', Göttingen, Germany: Steidl, the New Orleans Museum of Art, and The Gordon Parks Foundation, 2013<ref>{{cite book |last1=Lord |first1=Russell |title=Gordon Parks: The Making of an Argument |year=2013 |publisher=Steidl |isbn=978-3869307213 }}</ref> *''Edward Burtynsky: Water'', Göttingen: The New Orleans Museum of Art and Steidl, 2013<ref>{{cite book |last1=Lord |first1=Russell |title=Edward Burtynsky: Water |year=2013 |publisher=Steidl |isbn=978-3869306797}}</ref> *“The Treachery of Images: Photo-Unrealism” in ''Photorealism: Beginnings to Today'', New York: Scala Arts and Heritage Publishers, 2014 *“Obscure Histories: The Salted Paper Print in the United States” in ''Natural Magic: The Salt Print in North America'', Seattle: University of Washington Press and the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, 2015 *“The Interested Landscape” in ''East of the Mississippi: Nineteenth-Century American Landscape Photography'', New Haven: Yale University Press in association with the National Gallery of Art and the New Orleans Museum of Art, 2017<ref>{{cite book |last1=Lord |first1=Russell |last2=Waggoner |first2=Diane |last3=Rabb |first3=Jennifer |title=East of the Mississippi: Nineteenth Century American Landscape Photography |year=2017 |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=978-0300224016}}</ref> *''Looking Again: Photography at the New Orleans Museum of Art'', New York: Aperture and the New Orleans Museum of Art, 2018<ref name="Looking Again" />
==References== {{Reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lord, Russell}} Category:1977 births Category:Living people Category:American art curators Category:Photography curators Category:James Madison University alumni Category:CUNY Graduate Center alumni