Nancy Newhall: A Literacy of Images
September 20, 2008 – January 25, 2009

Writer, curator and photographer, Nancy Newhall, played an important role in promoting photography as a fine art.  Newhall worked closely with well-known photographers such as Ansel Adams, Paul Strand, Helen Levitt and Edward Weston using her skills as designer, editor and collaborator, helping shape the concept of the modern photographic book.  A Literacy of Images celebrates the 100th anniversary of her birth, exhibiting her photographs (many for the first time) and the work of her circle of friends.

Writing with Light
September 13, 2008 – February 1, 2009

The exhibition will illustrate the connection between photography and literacy. Using the photographic arts as inspiration, students will interpret literary works of fact and fiction.

Inspired by the exhibition, Nancy Newhall: A Literacy of Images, which will be on view concurrently, the exhibition will provide students an opportunity for expression through both a visual and narrative connection by linking the subject of photography with writing. Collected from various schools in San Diego County, a jury of museum staff and field professionals will select the final photographs to be exhibited in September 2008. The exhibition will hang alongside Nancy Newhall: A Literacy of Images and will bring together the significance of viewing photography fundamentally through the written word, while offering a new way of perceiving the medium.

Satellite exhibitions:
Downtown Branch of the San Diego Public Library
Civic Center Branch of the Chula Vista Public Library
September 5, 2008 - November 5, 2008

Lou Stoumen Award Winners
January 31, 2009- May 17, 2009

In 1991, photographer/filmmaker Lou Stoumen established an endowed gift to be given through MoPA to a photographer whose work related in spirit to his own humanistic style of photography. Launching 2009, MoPA will present three exhibitions surrounding the legacy of Lou Stoumen:

1) Lou Stoumen: The Naked Truth, a solo exhibition of photographs by the artist.

2) The Stoumen Legacy: Debbie Fleming Caffery, Kenro Izu, James Nachtwey & Gary Schneider features photographs from the four past recipients of the Stoumen Prize. The exhibition examines photographs that won them the award alongside new work created as a result of receiving it.

3) The newly named Lou Stoumen Prize Recipient will be celebrated in 2009. A solo exhibition will feature this artist, and the award given at the Opening Reception of all three exhibitions.

Rock n' Revolution
May 23- October 4, 2009

Rock 'n Revolution: Image to Message is an exhibition of approximately 75 photographs of six rock musicians — Bob Dylan, Bob Marley, Bono/U2, Bruce Springsteen, John Lennon and Joni Mitchell — whose music and image have influenced lifestyles, language, and political activism in a way few other social developments have equaled.  The exhibition features photographs of these six revolutionary musicians notable in folk, reggae, and rock, who personify an ideology of protest and change with the intention of examining how the photographs themselves convey an embodiment of not only the stars but the message inside their music.

Jo Whaley: Theater of Insects
May 16, 2009 – September 13, 2009

Working in discrete series, the subject matter of Jo Whaley’s photographs over the last twenty-five years has ranged from allegorical nudes to a revision of the "vanitas" still-life tradition to a fusion of natural history and environmental issues. The compelling issue that has driven Whaley’s work is the interface between nature and urban technological culture.  With an ironic and quirky point of view, Jo Whaley juxtaposes organic and manmade elements to reflect the issue of environmental degradation in an imaginative manner. Jo Whaley has exhibited in the United States, Europe, and Japan. Her work is held in the permanent collections of many museums, including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the George Eastman House. She is the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Award.  Her exhibit Theater of Insects opens at the National Academy of Sciences, Washington, DC, in the fall of 2008 and travels to MoPA in May 2009.