IVC exhibit profiles Slabbers
IMPERIAL – A joint photo exhibit opening today at Imperial Valley College’s Juanita Salazar Lowe Art Gallery will feature the work of documentarian and photographer Bob Zahn.
Zahn’s exhibit, titled “Slab City: Land of the Truly Free,” is the result of years of interaction with residents of the Slabs, who aptly nicknamed him “Foto Bob.”
The New York transplant and current Calipatria resident said he was initially attracted to the area and its subject matter after having watched the 2007 feature film “Into the Wild,” which was directed by Sean Penn and filmed partially at the Slabs.
“As a photographer specializing in portraits, I was looking for faces that were compelling,” Zahn said. “I felt as though I would find them in Slab City.”
Through his recent work, Zahn said he also found himself welcomed by many of the Slabs’ residents, who normally are leery of outsiders.
The locale is unlike any other place the well-traveled Zahn has had the opportunity of residing and working, and resonates with his own sense of identity, he said.
“It’s about freedom, America and survival, and above all else art,” Zahn said.
An established documentarian and photographer, Zahn had relocated to California in 2014, after having struggled in New York to regain his personal and professional bearings following the Great Recession of 2008, he disclosed in a recent interview with BuzzFeed News.
The exhibit had originally been scheduled to open about a year ago, but was postponed on account of a medical emergency, Zahn said.
Much of the photographs on display also form the basis of a book about Slab City that Zahn is in the process of finishing and which should be available in three to four months.
“It’s very similar to past work in that I’m telling a story not only with pictures but using words of people in the frames,” Zahn said. “So they are telling the story as much as I am.”
An existing endorsement for the upcoming book will include one from Academy Award-winning documentary filmmaker Barbara Kopple, and possibly other notables, Zahn said.
Zahn has been following his passion for art since he was six years old, and has since built up a lengthy body of work that is highlighted on his website, www. bobzahn.com
An associate member of the American Society of Cinematographers, Zahn also founded Broadcast Video Rentals Ltd. (BVR), which for the past 30 years has rented digital camera equipment to top filmmakers across the globe.
Zahn’s exhibit will share gallery space with David Zielinski, IVC”s dean of Arts, Letters and Learning Services.
Zielinski’s photographic exhibit, entitled “Land/ Escape,” will consist primarily of desert landscapes.
The joint exhibit will be open from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. today and run through Sept. 26 at the Juanita Salazar Lowe Art Gallery on campus.