30 Years of Women, curated by gallery founder Jane Jackson and current owner Anna Walker Skillman, draws from Jackson Fine Art’s 30-year history of showing the most distinguished voices in 20th and 21st century photography. Whilst the gallery is closed, Gallery Director, Walker Skillman discusses the curation by the show and the intimacy between photographer and gallerist.
A: The exhibition draws from a 30-year history of the gallery – how did you begin to delve into the archives?
AWS: I originally started by asking Jane Jackson – my mentor and former owner of the gallery – to curate this exhibition with me. She started the gallery in 1990 and when I came on to work as her director in 1997, the photography fine art world was small and close. I would almost say it felt like an intimate family. She was a highly a respected photography dealer and is still highly regarded in the field. The fact she was located in the south made her unique. I remember first attending AIPAD in 1997 at the Hilton with her that year … I was an inexperienced 27-year-old, but many collectors would come and buy works then and there.
