Pictures of nautical New England showcased in museum exhibition

Herbert B. Turner's "Gloucester, Old Man with Fishing Hooks" (1928) is one of 65 photographs on view at the Johnson Museum through March 22.

Gritty photographic images of New York City streets, nautical life of New England and European landscapes are part of "A Pictorialist Vision," an extensive show of the works of Herbert B. Turner on display at the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art through March 22.

Sixty-five photographs by Turner are included in the exhibition. Nearly half are devoted to picturesque Gloucester, Mass., where Turner lived for much of his life.

Turner took up photography at the age of 36, leaving behind a successful, albeit short, career as a publisher. Freed from a 9 to 5 work-day life, Turner took to the road with his camera in hand and traveled throughout Europe, snapping the sites of Venice, Spain and England.

Members of royalty were favorite subjects of Turner's and he often captured them off-guard. However, in her exhibition guide, Johnson Museum curator Nancy Green notes that Turner's pursuit of royalty was "with less aggression than today's paparazzi."

But it is Turner's endearing prints of nautical subjects -- a weather-beaten row boat, sea captains in front of a tangle of fishing nets, harbors at sunset -- that he seemed most proud of.

Other exhibitions on view at the Johnson Museum are "Richard Artschwager" (through March 15), featuring drawing, sculpture and painting from one America's most influential artists of the postwar era; "Rembrandt and the Art of Etching" (through March 15); and "Treasures of the Johnson Museum" (through March 8), an exhibition of works from the new Handbook of the Collection, which includes Dürer, Goya, Whistler, Matisse and Picasso.