Christopher Rauschenberg

Photo courtesy of Northwind Art

Christopher Rauschenberg will give a free public talk about photography and related topics in Port Townsend this Saturday.

Rauschenberg, the curator of the “Wet: Reflections on Water” photo exhibition at Northwind Art’s Jeanette Best Gallery, will speak at 5 p.m. Saturday, April 15 at the gallery at 701 Water St.

“I’ll talk about how things look together, and what some of the issues are that the show raises,” he said, “and I’ll talk about photography, how it describes the world, and how it’s integrated into everyday life now.”

An artist whose works are displayed in museums and galleries around the globe, Rauschenberg was the juror chosen last winter to select the 40 photographs in the new “Wet” exhibition.

Photos have a key role to play, Rauschenberg said, who is also a cofounder of Blue Sky, the Oregon Center for the Photographic Arts in Portland, Ore. In these times, we need to find ways to recognize each other’s shared humanity, and “I feel like photography is one of the ways to do that.”

Rauschenberg, the son of famed artists Robert Rauschenberg and Susan Weil, notes that photography — and art, for that matter — is far less rigid now than it once was when it comes to media and boundaries. 

Structures have been loosened, and “my father was one of the main looseners,” he mused. 

“Wet” will stay on display through April 30 at the Jeanette Best Gallery, which is open noon to 5 p.m. Thursdays through Mondays. Voting for the People’s Choice Award, a $100 prize, is going on throughout the show.