A photography backdrop often is nothing more than 8 feet by 10 feet of cloth or canvas that hangs in a studio. But certain backdrops do more than set the scene for a family portrait. These canvases might expose the history of a centuries-old tradition, depict political turmoil in societies around the world, or cast a critical eye on cultural stereotypes.

James Wyman has seen such backdrops and more. A favorite is a 33-yearold Guatemalan canvas depicting an angel, surrounded by trees and flowers, who walks barefoot toward the edge of a pond, her hands reaching out to bless whomever stands beneath them. Across the pond, women dance beside a white gazebo. A setting sun casts soft hues of orange and yellow behind tall trees lining the distance.

The backdrop is among 20 featured in an exhibit called From the Background to the Foreground: The Photo Backdrop and Cultural Expression, which has toured photography and art museums and science centers in seven U.S. states and in Nova Scotia and will be on display at Ohio University’s Kennedy Museum of Art from May 27 to August 3.

The exhibit reveals a lesson in the history of many cultures, seen through the lenses of photographers who made and continue to make a living of traveling portrait making, says Wyman, director of the Kennedy Museum of Art. Wyman curated the exhibit, which comprises props, audio and video recordings, 19thand 20th-century photographs, interactive installations, contemporary and folk art, and texts from Asia, India, Europe, Africa, and the Americas. Hundreds of artists, curators, collectors, and anthropologists contributed the more than 200 materials that make up the exhibit.

“It was just a discipline that was so prevalent, so pervasive, yet so overlooked,” Wyman notes.

In addition to taking a comprehensive look at the history of backdrops, the exhibit also forces visitors to make connections between art, photography, and culture, Wyman says.

Visitors to the exhibit are invited to take their own pictures before the backdrops, an exercise Wyman hopes will make people think about the connection between the way they choose to represent themselves and the representations of other cultures.

For more information on the exhibit, visit the Web at www.ohiou.edu/museum/.