The Fralin is pleased to introduce Focus On, a new series of small exhibitions exploring intimate themes through close looking and reflection on four to six artworks from the museum’s permanent collection. 

The inaugural Focus On exhibition highlights landscape photography by contemporary artists Sally Mann and Pamela Pecchio. Pecchio’s photographs from her series On Longing, Distance, and Heavy Metal, were made during her weekly commute between Virginia and North Carolina at a time in her life when her personal and professional lives existed in two different places. Mann’s artworks come from her 1996 series Mother Land and her 2001 series Battlefields. Both series explore how white supremacy simultaneously obscures and emphasizes the violent history of the land currently known as the United States, specifically the American South. Pecchio’s closely cropped views of brush and other plant life, and Mann’s collodion wet-plate process create almost abstracted landscapes that highlight the tensions between our diverse relationships with place. Created using large format cameras, these works are densely layered, emotionally charged, and ask us to examine our reactions and connections to the landscapes depicted.