Barbara Bosworth: Sun Light Moon Shadow

When photographer Barbara Bosworth was a child growing up in Novelty, Ohio, she would go on nighttime walks with her father, and they would gaze up at the sky. This practice, which became a lifelong passion, inspired the photographs in this exhibition. Timed to coincide with the total solar eclipse visible in Cleveland on April 8, it explores Bosworth’s photographs of light—from eclipses, sunrises, and sunsets to the luminescent glow of fireflies and a flashlight.

Light is essential to both photography and astronomy. British scientist and astronomer Sir John Herschel coined the term photography in 1839 by combining Greek words that mean “drawing with light.” The camera and telescope, which Bosworth has used together in some of the photographs on view, each collect light. Her pictures of stars are the result of the impact on film of light that has traveled millions of years to get there.

Nine monumental color images of the sky and heavenly bodies are joined by six intimately scaled black-and-white scenes of life and light on the earth. Seen together, they suggest how we endow astronomical phenomena with personal meaning. Bosworth’s art elucidates bonds between humans and the natural world that often go unnoticed.