GOINGS ON SANTA BARBARA : Glimpses in Time : Exhibit Compares Photos of Today, Yesterday

In its early days, said art curator Beth Goldberg, photography was thought of as a completely objective art form--what you saw was what you got. But over time, this belief began to fade. Photographers, like the rest of society, proved to have their own biases that were reflected in their work.

With that in mind, Goldberg, the curator at Sonoma State University’s Art Gallery, has put together what she calls a semi-historical photo exhibit by comparing and contrasting 20 contemporary photos with 20 older ones.

The exhibit, titled “Photos Updated: Similar Images/Dissimilar Motives,” will arrive at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art on Saturday.

Goldberg says that by looking at contemporary imitations of older photos, changes in society’s beliefs over time become clearer. Although the subjects are similar, the underlying message that the photos are trying to convey or the response they are trying to elicit can be quite different.

In the exhibit, Goldberg juxtaposes the 1981 Judy Dater nude self-portrait with the 1910 Ann Brigman nude.

“Dater’s photos are very explicit and confrontive. She’s very into exploring herself,” Goldberg said. “She feels that stripping herself nude is a way of looking into herself.”

On the other hand, Brigman’s photo is much more serene.

“She was working out of the romantic period,” Goldberg said. “Even in the techniques, the soft focus, she shows the female nude coming out of a crevice in a rock. It’s modest, you don’t see anything. The way she molds into the landscape was the tradition of the time. She makes the photo look like fine art by softening the focus.”

As with Dater’s shot, most of the newer photos in the exhibit were made to imitate the older ones and were not just coincidence.

“Contemporary photographers are very much indebted to the earlier ones,” Goldberg said, “at the same time they are critiquing them. They want to break away, disregard the conventions and do something new.”

The exhibit will run through June 17. The museum is at 1130 State St. Gallery hours are 11 a.m.-5 p.m. (Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday), 11 a.m.-9 p.m. (Thursday), noon-5 p.m. (Sunday). Admission is $3 for adults, $1.50 for children, except Thursdays when admission is free. Call 963-4364 for more information.

If you want music with an international flavor you may want to check out what the Lobero Theatre has scheduled over the next couple of days.

Friday night, Brazilian musician Egberto Gismonti and his quartet will perform in a benefit celebration of the 10th anniversary of The Society of Jazz and World Music.

Gismonti’s music reflects his early classical training combined with the sounds learned during time spent with the Xingu Indians of the Amazon basin. He plays the piano and guitar, along with traditional Amazonian instruments.

The show begins at 8 p.m. Tickets are $16 and $26, which includes a reception for Gismonti after the show.

On Saturday, French violinist Christophe Boulier will make his American debut in a concert sponsored by the Music Academy of the West. He will perform works by Cesar Franck, Olivier Messiaen, Johannes Brahms and Nicolo Paganini.

Boulier, now 25, demonstrated his musical talent early. At the age of 5 he began studying violin at the National Conservatory of Aubervilliers and just two years later appeared as a soloist with the French Radio Orchestra. By age 10 he had won numerous awards and had already made two television appearances.

Show time is 8 p.m. Tickets are $16.50 and $18.50.

Santa Barbara’s 12th annual Festival of the Arts will close this weekend with a flurry of activities.

On Saturday, more than 100 local artists will open their studios to the public from 11 a.m.-5 p.m. “Anybody will be able to just walk in,” said festival director Tanika Ossman. “People like to go into sculptors’ studios.”

Then on Sunday, it’s the grand finale. Three venues--El Presidio de Santa Barbara State Historic Park, de la Guerra Plaza and the Santa Barbara Historical Museum--will have live, continuous music and other performing arts from 11 a.m.-6 p.m. The music will range from jazz to Celtic to country-and-western. There also will be poetry reading, story-telling, children’s activities and international food.

Whoopi Goldberg in the company of the Bard? Well, maybe that’s not how the movie star/comedian is normally perceived, but at least on Saturday night she will be in a largely classical mode in “So Many People Have Heads: An Evening of Song, Prose and Verse” at UC Santa Barbara’s Campbell Hall.

Goldberg will join Patrick Stewart ( Capt. Picard in “Star Trek” and a former member of the Royal Shakespeare Company) and Charles Keating (a Broadway, television and Shakespearean actor). The three performers will read from an eclectic mix that includes the works of James Joyce, Jules Feiffer, Monty Python, Robert Burns and Albert Camus.

The performance is a benefit for ACTER (A Center for Theater Education and Research). Headquartered at UCSB, the organization is responsible for bringing Shakespearean actors to universities throughout the United States.

Show time is 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $20 and they are going fast. Call 961-3535.