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Evansville, IN Museum Hosts Paris Bridge Photographer Gary Zuercher in Virtual Fund Raiser November 6, 2021

By: Get News

Evansville, IN, USA – October 26, 2021 – The Evansville Indiana Museum of Arts, History & Science is holding a virtual fund raiser in conjunction with Gary Zuercher, award winning photographer and author of The Glow of Paris: The Bridges of Paris at Night, at 6:00 pm CST on Saturday, November 6, 2021.

Highlights from the evening feature a behind the scenes tour of the museum’s photography exhibition featuring Zuercher’s stunning photographs of Paris, an exclusive artist interview with Gary, a champagne demonstration by Jane Owen and a live auction hosted by Tim Black and Scott Wylie.

Proceeds will benefit the museum’s educational mission and 2022 initiative, The Zip Code Neighbors Project, which provides reduced or free admission to households, after-school youth organizations, and schools within the neighborhood’s 47713 zip code. For more info about the event go to https://events.readysetauction.com/evansvillemuseumartsscience/parisatnight.

Zuercher spent five years photographing the 35 bridges over the Seine River at night during the winter months and another year researching the history of the bridges, gathering anecdotes, printing and assembling the prints.

The Evansville Indiana Museum of Arts, History & Science is located at: 411 SE Riverside Dr, Evansville, IN 47713. For hours and more information visit the website at: https://emuseum.org or call 812-425-2406.

Watch an Interview with Gary Zuercher on his book, photography and the exhibition at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03DB41Dsiys.

The Glow of Paris book is an eclectic collection of extraordinary gelatin-silver photographic prints of the bridges of Paris-nighttime images that are breathtaking. Accompanied by a fascinating historical portrayal, the book presents a unique and aesthetic vision of Paris because no one else has ever photographed and written about the bridges that cross the Seine in this way.

The Glow of Paris Exhibition features 86 silver gelatin, black and white photographs from the book, accompanied by maps showing the Seine River bridge locations, discussions of the bridge histories, story panels, a four-minute video and a cell phone audio tour through the exhibit.

• Of Zuercher’s work, the Columbus Dispatch said, “His style is reminiscent of American landscape photographer Ansel Adams.”

The Virginia Peninsula Daily Press said, “The photographs are just so visually splendid, . . . it’s almost like you’ve pre-staged artwork because it is lit by the City of Paris.”

The New York Times said of Zuercher, “. . . a lifelong photographer, was so passionate about the way the bridges look at night that he spent more than five years photographing them in black and white”

The Mansfield New Journal said, “Zuercher’s 86 black and white photos bring into focus the beauty of the 35 bridges that span the Seine River in the City of Light.”

“For the most part Parisians take these architectural wonders for granted, relying on their functionality to get them where they want to go each day,” says author Zuercher. “They don’t appreciate the beauty because most don’t see the glow of the bridges at night. And most have forgotten that from the time of Julius Caesar for more than 2000 years, the bridges of Paris have played an important role in world history.”

View The Glow of Paris Exhibition Video at https://www.ParisBridges.com.

Here are just a few of the accolades bestowed upon The Glow of Paris: The Bridges of Paris at Night.

IPPY Gold Medal… “a dreamy new take on the 35 bridges that span the Seine.”

Kirkus ProConnect named The Glow of Paris, “THIS WEEK’S BOOK TO DISCOVER”

The High End Magazine featured The Glow of Paris in a four page article.

Southern Season Magazine featured a full page review of the book in its Spring Edition.

The Glow of Paris – was the Number One best seller on Amazon.com, in its category multiple times since publication date.

Apogee Photo Magazine says, “This book should definitely be a part of the library of any architect, historian or photographer. Simply stunning!”

The London Book Festival and The Los Angeles Book Festival proclaimed The Glow of Paris one of the best books in the photography/art category in the 2015 competitions. Independent Publisher Book Awards bestowed a Gold Medal First Place award for Best Non-Fiction in Europe.

Kirkus Reviews called The Glow of Paris one of “Nine Best Books Out This Week.” (Jan 20) and further stated: “A superb pictorial evocation of the City of Light, full of dazzling images and intriguing lore.”

The fascinating narrative that accompanies the artistic black and white photos includes historical facts and little-known tidbits about the bridges, such as:

• The history of these bridges precede the birth of Christ. In 52 BC Julius Caesar conquered Paris; the earliest recorded mention of the bridges is found in Caesar’s Gallic War commentaries. Most of the later history evolves from around the time of the Middle Ages and thereafter.

• On the morning of October 3, 1943, an aircraft hit the Pont de Tolbiac Bridge and crashed into the Seine, killing the four Frenchmen on board. The four were members of the Free French Air Force who had flown from an airfield in England to participate in the allied bombing of a power station outside of Paris.

• Bridges constructed prior to the late eighteenth century normally had houses and shops built directly on them. Floods, ice floes, fires, boat collisions, and structural failures frequently destroyed the bridges. The collapsing bridges took the houses and shops down with them, and often their occupants as well. In 1769 Louis XV finally outlawed the construction of houses on the bridges, but it took until 1808 for the last building to be removed.

• Early on, the Pont Neuf was the center of a permanent fair, a meeting point for all the sophisticated as well as the vulgar pleasures of the capital. At any moment you would find street performers-acrobats, fire-eaters, and musicians- charlatans and quacks, as well as hustlers and pickpockets, not to mention a lively trade in prostitution. Among the many businesses were several famous “tooth pullers.”

“This information will be of great interest to not only tourists and historians but also to Parisians who have limited knowledge of the 35 bridges in their city and are surprised at the number of islands in the Seine,” says Zuercher. “There is a great deal of truth in the words of author Monique Marty who wrote of the bridges – ‘They are the extension of the streets, the hyphens between the two river banks. We cross them on foot, by car, by Metro. We see them without looking at them and that’s a shame’.”

Zuercher, an artist in the darkroom as well as behind the lens, lives half a year in Paris and the other half in Washington, D.C. He develops the film into negatives in Paris and then makes the prints in the D.C. darkroom. Often he would make 20 to 30 prints before coming up with just the right photo for his book.

The results of his work prove what was written by Ansel Adams, “The negative is like the score of the music and the print is like the performance.”

The stories related to the project are rich enough to fill another book, such as the time he was refused access to a church roof to photograph an aerial shot because he could not be there while the nuns were sleeping. Or when he had to use mountain climbing equipment and the aid of city firefighters to climb to the top of city hall to shoot seven bridges from the air. Or when young thugs threatened him while Zuercher was working at night but were defused when he offered to take their pictures and email it to them.

The Glow of Paris: The Bridges of Paris at Night (ISBN 978-0-9906309-0-6, Marcorp Editions, 2015, 208 pages, $49.95 is available on Amazon and at: www.marcorp-editions.com).

About Gary Zuercher

Gary Zuercher’s career path has been quite different than that of most professional photographers because he has simultaneously combined a highly successful business career with a successful career as a professional photographer.

He is also a commercial, multi-engine, instrument-rated pilot with more than 2,000 hours logged as pilot in command.

For more than thirty years Zuercher provided photography for numerous companies and advertising agencies needing commercial images for publications, advertising, brochures, media, and marketing.

During the same period Zuercher produced 15 company and product promotional films in which he worked as editor or co-editor and as cameraman and/or photographer. While doing this, he successfully founded, built, and developed both the WaveTek group of companies that pioneered the development of the waterpark industry and the Rain Drop Products company.

WaveTek manufactured wave making machinery and waterslides for swimming pools, installing more than 160 wave pools worldwide. After the successful sale of WaveTek, Zuercher founded and built Rain Drop Products Inc., a firm that was one of the originators in the introduction and development of the Sprayground® and water playground concepts into the public recreation marketplace. For his pioneering leadership in wave pools and Spraygrounds, Zuercher was awarded the Industry Leadership Award and was in the inaugural group of inductees into the World Waterpark Association Hall of Fame.

Over a period of five years, Zuercher took his cameras out into the Parisian night to capture stunningly evocative images of the bridges that span the Seine. Using his artistic eye and sophisticated photographic technique, he created these glorious black-and- white photographs, rich with detail and possessing a clear, luminous quality.

No one else has ever photographed all the bridges that cross the Seine in Paris in this way. We don’t see crowds of people or heavy traffic. Nothing obscures the beauty and strength of the structures, the romance and symbolism of the bridges. Shooting in black and white allows the details to shine: the architectural elements, artwork, nearby buildings, trees on the riverbanks, and starry lamps casting paths of light across the water.

Zuercher divides his time between homes in Paris and Washington, DC with his wife Dominique who is French.

Media Contact:

For a review copy of The Glow of Paris or to arrange an interview with Gary Zuercher contact Scott Lorenz of Westwind Communications Book Marketing at scottlorenz@westwindcos.com or by phone at 248-705-2214.

Media Contact
Company Name: Westwind Communications Book Marketing
Contact Person: Scott Lorenz
Email: Send Email
Phone: 248-705-2214
Country: United States
Website: http://www.book-marketing-expert.com

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