Photography and the Federal Reserve

                                                  (c) Colleen Henderson

What do photography and the nation's monetary policy have to do with one another? Four Trees in Snow, an image from MEG member Colleen Henderson, was recently acquired by the Federal Reserve Board. If we're lucky, it will inspire Fed officials to replicate its sense of stark simplicity as they work to maintain the stability of the U.S. financial system. 

Acquired in honor of Vice Chairman Donald Kohn's retirement from the Federal Reserve Board, Four Trees in the Snow, is now part of the Fed's permanent art collection.  Established in 1975, the Board's Fine Arts Program has grown to over 500 works of art, including images by many well-known photographers such as Ansel Adams, Alfred Eisenstaedt, Walker Evans, Edward Steichen, and Paul Strand, to name just a few. 

Chosen personally by Mr. Kohn,  Four Trees in Snow captures Constitution Gardens -- national parkland located only a few blocks from the Federal Reserve Board's headquarter building -- late on a winter evening after an unusually heavy snowfall in DC.  The stark, rigid tree trunks play in contrast to the soft snow and distant pond  reflections.