Photographer Rob Kurtz began his love affair with documentary photography in the mid 1980’s. Through photography he preserves a visual record of both historic and commonplace landscapes and architecture, aspiring to convey an understanding of a moment in history to future generations. Kurtz graduated in 1952 from nearby Mercersburg Academy, where he later served on the Board of Regents. He went on to study at the University of Redlands and Penn State University. After serving in the U.S. Army, he spent his professional career in Clearfield, PA managing the printing and school supply firm started by his grandfather in 1895. Kurtz describes his photo-historic approach as seeking “to explore and highlight icons of a diminishing past that have made America and its people the nation we are today.” His search to document the character of the nation has led Kurtz and his wife Marilyn to travel to many remote areas of the United States, always with camera in hand.

Kurtz has long been impressed by the work done in the 1930’s by photographers Walker Evans (a Mercersburg Academy student in 1920), Dorothea Lange, and Wright Morris, who served as inspirations to his own work. While these artists’ best known photographs often depict the lives of their fellow man, Kurtz strives to record the vanishing landmarks of our time. Human figures seldom appear in Kutz’s photographs; instead, he concentrates on the straightforward beauty of the uninhabited building, the expansive prairie, or the open road.

Kurtz’s photographs have been widely exhibited and have won many Best of Show and First Place awards in regional competitions and nature photography exhibitions. He has received acclaim for his two photographic books, American Roads: Wondering the Roads and Heritage of America and Future Passage:Historic Regional Photographs of Central Pennsylvania. Many of his photographs that appear in this exhibition are reproduced in American Roads, along with text Kurtz has written to compliment them.

This Exhibition will run until Alumni Weekend, October 17-19.