David and Martha Moore have been avid photography collectors as individuals and as a couple for the past twenty years. Their passion for photography has led them on a journey, which began with a personal appreciation for the medium and a thirst to learn more. It prompted them to open Pictura Gallery, which has since become a part of an even larger vision that is The FAR Center for Contemporary Arts. Currently, David Moore sits on the board of Fotofest, one of the world’s leading photographic foundations.

Getting a look at an art collection can allow a glimpse into the minds of the collectors. The Moores collect from an intimate response to the art that they encounter. Each piece they acquire has some spark of personal meaning for them, born of their life experiences. Martha’s career as a schoolteacher, David’s background in the sciences, and their lives as parents have all shaped their decisions about the art that they choose.

Images from the collection arc across the globe; from France in the 1950’s, to cold war era Russia, to present day in the Savoy Islands. They range in subject from studies in physics, to children at play, to a comical pair of penguins meeting on the beach. Curiosity seems to be a driving force behind much of their collection. One senses an innate fascination with the cosmos and its beings, both human and animal. Often, these photographs serve as a connective tissue, filling the gaps of daily life with the stuff of wonder.

Scott Alario’s photograph, Father Fort, depicts a man using the frame of his body to create a small shelter for his toddler. They are in the middle of the forest, but he creates a refuge for his daughter. Outside it is dark, but the warm glow of a lantern illuminates the interior where the child sits. The image is a playful meditation on the nature of parenting.In fact, an entire subset of the collection consists of images of youth, shaped by Martha’s special reverence for children and their immense worth. Images like Helen Levitt’s New York (Broken Mirror) and Samer Mohdad’s The Sun Temple honor a child’s capacity to transform an ordinary environment into a play place of magic. Many of the images provide the opportunity to look at the world through the eye of enchantment. This is perhaps best summed up by Gregori Moifis’ The Children’s Album in which a real bear can delicately play the piano, and nearly anything else is possible. As we continue through the exhibition, scientific curiosity about the earth and its unexplainable mysteries is coupled with a sense of reverence. John Chervinsky’s photographs whimsically embody these qualities. The theme reemerges throughout the show, notably in Zana Briski’s life sized photogram of a bear. Briski sets up large pieces of photographic paper in the woods and then sits in the forest night after night, until she is able to flash a quick beam of light on a passing animal. The resulting silhouette resembles an X-ray. But instead of a map of muscle and bone, it feels like a luminous projection of the animal’s soul.