If you’ve been to a community event in Modesto in the past few decades, there’s a pretty good chance William Harris snapped a picture of you there.
The 78-year old Modesto resident, known for his prolific public photography, turns everyday moments into fine art. Harris, called Bill by friends and followers alike, produces work that spans several mediums, including acrylic and watercolor paintings, wood cuts, and most-notably, photography.
Over the last 40 years, Harris has spent his professional and personal time documenting the Central Valley in all its lights. Some of those works are on display at his solo exhibit “Bill Harris: From Life” at the Turlock Carnegie Center’s Ferrari Gallery through May 16.
Career began in San Francisco shooting protests
Harris started his art career in San Francisco, when he picked up a camera to capture people taking to the streets during anti-war protests and the Civil Rights Movement in the late 1960s. Today, he showcases his neighbors taking to the streets again – sometimes in protest, but mostly in celebration.
As a young man, he studied at the California College of Arts and Crafts, now known as the California College of the Arts, where he practiced several mediums. In the late 1980s, he settled in the Central Valley and found a career as a graphic designer at The Modesto Bee until 2007.
The job didn’t start off with many creative opportunities, he said. He mostly shot business openings and official handshakes.
“(Then) we started doing things for nonprofits, everything from community hospice, things like that,” he recalled. “So that was a little more rewarding photography, as opposed to just shooting a handshake, even editorial people, when you just got to go and do the grip and grin, like somebody with a shovel and all that. Nobody loves that, but somebody has to do it.”
His photography is noticeably influenced by and reminiscent of photojournalism.
Since the late 1980s, Harris’ passion for observation of everyday life evolved as he walked around the city and rural backroads, capturing moments that most people are too busy to notice.
“It’s just, there’s so much around you,” he said. “What I’m trying to show is the things they’re missing.”
For example, he has a series of flea-market toy -bins that are seemingly unimportant, as he describes. After moving to Modesto, and discovering moments like these, his style of landscape and street photography and photorealistic paintings transformed into abstract pieces.
Showcase of work emphasizes beauty in the mundane
Because of his prolific portfolio, Lisa McDermott, executive director and curator of the Carnegie Arts Center in Turlock, offered Harris the opportunity to showcase his work during the annual Valley Focus exhibit. She curated different eras of his work that emphasize his devotion to finding beauty in the mundane.
“The show comes together in a way that tries to represent Bill’s creative output and sort of the way he sees the places that he lives in, because that’s sort of the subtitle of the show is ‘From Life,’ because Bill is a painter documentarian of the world that he experiences around him,” McDermott said.
This is the first solo exhibition of the series to fill the 3,000-square-foot Ferrari Gallery. It is often a collection of works from artists in the region.
“A lot of artists pick the same subject over and over again, or work on the same medium,” McDermott said. “And here, we’ve got Bill working in different places, different subject matter, different media. So it really creates a real liveliness and variety to the installation.”
At first, Harris was a bit intimidated by the offer, but since the exhibit opened on Feb. 10, he’s thought of several other pieces he would like the opportunity to show in galleries across the region. He recalled putting together small photography shows in local galleries around Modesto in the past, but he said that’s less common today.
“Modesto is losing galleries,” he said. “So at least there’s Carnegie, which is a really beautiful place. I mean, you walk in there, you think you could be in San Francisco or somewhere because it’s real. It’s a nicely built gallery.”
Exhibit still doesn’t include full scope of Harris’ work
The current exhibit took a year to finalize, and there were still so many pieces Harris wanted to present. As local galleries shuttered, Harris got creative and found new ways to present his collections, if only for himself and loved ones.
With the help of digital cameras and online photobook stores, Harris created coffee-table books dedicated to different eras of his work. He has one dedicated to the toy-bin abstractions, another full of concert photography and more.
Over the decades, Harris has become known for his photos of musicians on stages across Modesto. But, this side of his work isn’t a highlight of the Valley Focus exhibit.
“A lot of the live music stuff that I have just didn’t fit in,” he said.
“Someday, I’d like to have, whether it’s a smaller show somewhere, of everything from PorchFest, and of course, that includes musicians on every porch, and concerts at the State Theatre, things like that.”
Chris Murphy, the founder and publisher of the free local arts and culture tabloid ModestoView, has worked with Harris a lot over the last 30 years and is a genuine fan of his work.
“Bill Harris is just a freaking Modesto treasure. I mean, there’s no doubt about it. He does it for the love of it,” Murphy said. “He’s not just going to shoot. He’s a participant that enjoys it, and that’s where the magic comes from.”
Murphy has hired Harris to shoot local events such as the Modesto Area Music Association Awards, various concerts and celebrations, but he notes that the artist makes any local event he attends look great.
He’s always thinking about what would make a good shot.
“He takes the time to get the right angle. And best of all, he captures the spirit of the event,” Murphy said. “He gets the expressions, and he sees who’s having fun, or when the musicians are really getting into it, or just some simple, just observations in town. There’s really nothing like it.”
Harris and his girlfriend, Lynda Thiel, share their love of art. He said she’s the one he goes to when he’s looking for photos to turn into paintings.
Recently, they were in San Francisco visiting the Legion of Honor when a dance rehearsal in the middle of the gallery took them by surprise. Harris instinctively reached for this camera. He joked that Thiel often reminds him to put the camera down and enjoy the moment.
Folks around Modesto get to see local events though Harris’ professional lens often. He is diligent about posting galleries on his personal Facebook page for all to see – often posting dozens of shots at a time.
“If you’re at an event, and Bill’s there, you know, it’s going to be photographed,” Murphy said. “Just the best, and he shares it all.”
Visit ‘Bill Harris: From Life’ in Turlock
“Bill Harris: From Life” is display at the Ferrari Gallery at the Carnegie Arts Center, 250 N. Broadway in Turlock, until May 16. The gallery is open 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. Entry is free for SNAP beneficiaries and up to three guests, and children under 12 years-old accompanied by an adult. Student and senior tickets are $5. General admission is $7. Learn more at CarnegieArtsTurlock.org.
You can find more of Harris’ work on his website WilliamHarrisPhotography.com and on his Facebook page.
Vivienne Aguilar is a reporter for The Modesto Focus, a project of the Central Valley Journalism Collaborative. Contact Aguilar at vivienne@cvlocaljournalism.org.