Kinney-Lindstrom Gallery
May 9 – July 9, 2025
Picturing the Past draws attention to the work of Mason City photographer Safford Lock. The exhibition will highlight Lock’s dedication to documenting Mason City, and the Midwest as a whole, through photography. Safford Lock was the owner and operator of Lock Photo in Mason City for more than thirty years. In that time, his photographs recorded many aspects of life while bringing verve and energy to these sometimes stagnate images. The exhibition will also feature selections from the Museum’s photographic collection. These images serve to enforce the view that documentary photography can be both informative and full of life.
2025 marks the 45th anniversary of the Cerro Gordo Photo Show, an annual competitive exhibition that Safford Lock and his wife Lena sponsored from its inception. The Locks wanted to encourage the people of Mason City and Cerro Gordo County to actively document the life and world around them. What a wonderful way to celebrate the art of photography.
Image: From the Museum’s Permanent Collection – Steve McCurry, Firefighter Scales Ladder, color photograph on paper, 2001.
[2016.4] Museum Purchase Using Funds Donated in Memory of Dr. Russell Schurtz.