Sam Noble Museum Hosts Exhibit Featuring Work Of Longtime Norman Resident

The work of photographer Corson Hirschfeld will be on display at the Sam Noble Museum in Norman starting January 6. The exhibit will be his best-known work called, "Places of Power: Painted Photographs of Sacred Landscapes."

He came to Norman in 2006 to be with his wife, Tassie Hirschfeld, who is a professor at OU. Corson Hirschfeld was a herpetologist studying reptiles and amphibians. He was also a studio photographer in Cincinnati.

Hirschfeld died in April.

According to a press release from the museum, Hirschfeld's "Places of Power" work will "feature breathtaking, hand-painted photographs of ancient, sacred spaces including cultural and archaeological sites, cultural landscapes and petroglyphs from over 20 different countries."

"Sacred places are a link between individuals and the cosmos; the supernatural. It’s a place where they can come together, whether it’s a shrine in Hawaii or a medieval cathedral,” Hirschfeld once said. “I want to achieve the sense of how a site has looked through the centuries; these sites can impress and move us as much as they impressed and moved their creators. They tap the subconscious and inspire responses of reverence and wonder that transcend cultures and time."

"Many of the images feature locations that remain sacred for Native people and the memory of these places is inscribed on the landscapes,” said Marc Levine, associate curator of archaeology at the Sam Noble Museum. “On many levels, these are truly spectacular places, and many of these are within a day’s drive from us in Oklahoma."

Several of the sites are in the four-corners region of the Southwest. To celebrate the opening and enrich the exhibit, Kelley Hays-Gilpin, professor and the Edward Bridge Danson Chair of Anthropology at Northern Arizona University, will present an online lecture on sacred places in the Southwest, including rock art. The Sam Noble Museum will co-host this presentation with the Oklahoma Public Archaeology Network at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 21. The event will be free, but advance registration is required. More information on how to register will be available online at samnoblemuseum.ou.edu.

"Places of Power: Painted Photographs of Sacred Landscapes by Corson Hirschfeld" will be on display at the Sam Noble Museum through March 28.