“Permanent Tourist” Photo Exhibition April 29 to May 25, 2008 in San Diego

A new exhibition by The Southern California-based PhotoArts Group is being held from April 30 to May 24 at the Poway Center for the Performing Arts in Poway, CA (San Diego County). A reception for the more than 25 artists in the show will be held Saturday, May 17, from 1:30 to 4:30 p.m., and the public is invited.

The photographers in The Permanent Tourist exhibit were asked “What does it mean to be a permanent tourist on life’s journey,” “How do we see the world as tourists?,” and “What does it mean to be a tourist?”

Photo artist and PAG member Larry Herzog points out that “photographers, by the very nature of what they do, are invested in a zen-like act: freezing fragments of the visual landscape, and hinting at their larger poetic meaning. Photographers are voyeurs of the earth and its cities. They capture nature’s exquisite details, snippets of the grandeur of towns and cities, the choreography of people in unique landscapes…In the best of cases, photographers remind the viewer to slow down. They are the archivists of what we need to save on the planet.”

For more information about the exhibition, visit the main website for the exhibition and companion book: www.permanent-tourist.com. The PhotoArts Group (PAG) website is another good resource, with past and current show information, and biographies of many of the members exhibiting in the show (and many fantastic photographs).

Separate Tables, San Francisco Lunch 2007 photo © Peter Gorwin