An exhibition of black and white photographs featuring portraits of blues and folk musicians beginning in the 1970s. Featured in the exhibit will be blues musicians photographed in Chicago, Mississippi, North and South Carolina, East Texas and Irish traditional musicians from North Connacht and a number of places between.
Born in Chicago, James Fraher currently lives in County Sligo. He has had a long career and passion for creating portraits of musicians stemming from a combination of playing and listening to music along with a desire to meet the creators and purveyors of the music he so cares about.
Fraher’s photographs have appeared on over one hundred fifty music recording covers and in publications including: Irish Arts Review; Irish America; Irish American News; BBC News; Living Blues; Guitar Player; Downbeat; Juke Blues; Texas Highways; Rolling Stone; Chicago Tribune; Chicago Sun Times; and in The Blues a documentary series produced by Martin Scorsese.
Fraher’s photographs are in the permanent collections of the Smithsonian Institution, the Chicago Blues Archive at the Harold Washington Library Center, the University of Mississippi Blues Archive, Oxford, MS, and Woodson Research Center at Rice University, Houston, TX. Photographs by James have been exhibited in museums and galleries in the United States, Ireland, Scotland, Italy and France.
James Fraher’s awards include the Keeping the Blues Alive Award presented by the Blues Foundation in Memphis, TN, 1996. Fraher has co-produced a number of music recordings including: The Lost American Bluesmen, Shadetree label; Big Boss Lady, Johnnie Mae Dunson, Lakada label; One’s Own Place, Kevin Henry; One Out of the Fort, Johnny Henry; and Farewell to Evening Dances, Colm O’Donnell all on the Bogfire label.