The Quiet Landscapes of William B. Post

In his mid-fifties, New York financier William B. Post developed a new hobby, photographing comely young Edwardian women primping and simpering in sentimental poses. He would have remained a dilettante had he not gone outside for a little fresh air. Post’s country place in Maine set him in the midst of a wild beauty and changing terrain that inspired him to craft a new kind of landscape photography. In exquisitely processed scenes featuring graceful forest paths, unruly apple trees, and waters moving through frozen fields, Post documented what looks like a lost or mythical land (and a century later, it probably is lost). Post’s work was eventually championed by Alfred Stieglitz, proving that the gentleman hobbyist had become an artist, but it was all but forgotten in the years after his death. Now it’s once again on the radar; this gathering of fifty-nine silver prints is the largest exhibition of his photographs to date. 612-870-3131; www.artsmia.org