John Bauguess

Why Not?

March 4-28, 2010

Why Not? is John Bauguess’s first retrospective, spanning nearly four decades of his career as a fine art and commercial photographer, journalist, and documentarian based in Oregon.

The black-and-white photographs in this series depict the fleeting theatricality Bauguess finds in daily life on city streets, at civic celebrations, and in the places where people relax and play. Sometimes lighthearted, often surprising, Bauguess’s images offer glimpses of the region’s recent history. We find well- known figures — John Belushi on set in Animal House, Senator Mark Hatfield working a crowd in Eugene, Ken Kesey in a reflective moment with his dogs — among Oregon’s less famous fiddlers, fair-goers, and café patrons. Each person has their place in Bauguess’s everyday tableaux.

John Bauguess studied journalism and creative writing at the University of Oregon, and photography at the San Francisco Art Institute. Working as a photographer since 1967, Bauguess’s images have appeared in numerous newspapers, periodicals, and books published in the US and abroad, including Barry Lopez’s Of Wolves and Men (1978). His work has been exhibited across Oregon and Washington, in New York, and is part of the collections of the Knight Library at the University of Oregon, the Oregon State Capitol, and the Oregon Liquor and Control Commission.