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Claudia rules! at the Portland Public Library…

Posted in EXHIBITS/SHOWS, Maine on January 9, 2012 by voxphotographs

Claudia rules at the Lewis Gallery at the downtown main branch of the Portland Public Library (Monument Square), but not for long.

From now until only January 28 you can sweep down the stairs into the gallery to soak up Bruce Brown’s latest curatorial offering: “Around the House”. The first thing you’ll most likely see are three big, stunning pictures by Luc Demers, including “South Window, 2010″, my favorite, below. These works push to the edge of reality and then beyond and I’ve never seen anything like them in Maine until now. I found them thrilling. If you spend time getting up close and studying them you’ll be rewarded with surprises.

But as you ease your way around to the left be prepared for the shock of Ben de Haan’s three edgy works from a very well-explored body of work of 14 images called “Like Animals”. He’s a young artist and it’s unusual to see such complexity so thoroughly explored from someone who is 24 years old. “Like Animals” is about “crooked fairy tales” and “a darker and perhaps alternative reality regarding consumption, identity, and truth.”

Then you’ll meet Claudia. Jeffrey Becton’s newest work “Wharf House, Claudia” was causing a stir at the opening and, in fact, Claudia’s presence is so formidable, it is difficult not to want to start a conversation with her. Becton has been creating one-of-a-kind photo montages for years, at the very beginning of digital capabilities, and before anyone else in Maine even thought of it. His newest images have moved into a new realm, and the two in this show will demand your full attention.

The party doesn’t lag a bit after after you leave Claudia. The neighboring quartet of work by Ilya Askinazi is so powerful I could spend a day with them and still feel like I had a lot to learn. I’ve never seen a photo like “Untitled #1″ (listed as a Lodima Silver Chloride Contact Print) and am told it’s actually Sean Harris’ head and Bruce Brown’s apartment’s venetian blind. It’s astounding and completely supported by the three other stunning works presented. (Two of these are “Azo Prints” and Askinazi tells me: “Azo was the most beautiful contact single weight paper Kodak produced since the late 1800′s and was their longest paper in production until 2006, when they stopped all production of silver gelatin paper. Together with a group of other dedicated nut cases, I have am making a similar stock. This paper has an extra layer of a special chemical which reflects the light shined directly on it. Azo was the paper Brett Weston showed to his father Edward, marveling about its deep endless blacks…”.)

There is engaging work from well-known artists Cig Harvey, Melonie Bennett, and Jon Edwards and not-as-often-seen artists Kate Philbrick, Claire Seidle and Roberta Baumann. Some fresh work from Daniel Davis – beautiful, large selenium-toned silver gelatin prints – reflect his fairly new status as a young father, as do many of the works in the show – centering on children themselves or the detritus of their days.

Two artists presented their work as dye-infused coated metal prints and many people sought out Sarah Szwajkos and René Braun to ask them about their photographs. Szwajkos presents one 24×24 piece flanked by a set of four 11×11 works, all with a satin finish. Braun’s 12 small black and white on-metal pieces are presented with a glossy finish. It’s a presentation that is hugely popular with both private and corporate collectors, as well as Maine’s fine art photographers.

René Braun’s works were taken over the last ten years either at the artist’s home in Maine or his mother’s in Czechoslovakia. They stand on their own for sure, but I enjoyed hearing his stories about them, as they are very personal images for him.

I wrote about Noel Krell’s amazing image “Anina at Rest, 2008″ a couple of years ago and have not forgotten its impact, so I was delighted to be able to study it again. If you haven’t seen it, you are in for a chill and a thrill when you do.

When you end up at five of Thomas Birtwistle’s interiors you’ll want to get right up to them. They will leave you smiling – just to be a part of these hot slices of color and life.

It’s great to kick off 2012 with a show of work by 17 Maine-based or -connected photographers, and “Around the House”, sponsored by CMCA in Rockport, is a banquet of styles, sensitivities and processes, and a very satisfying repast it is. We would expect nothing less from Bruce Brown, curator emeritus of CMCA – and irrefutably one of Maine’s biggest champions of its fine art photographers.

“Around the House” – through 1/28/28 – and all under the watchful eye of Claudia.

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Zero Station provokes…

Posted in EXHIBITS/SHOWS, Maine on December 12, 2011 by voxphotographs

The show of work at Zero Station through February 4, 2012 is good timing for the winter months because it demands some effort from the viewer to appreciate what its all about.

“Formal Evidence” was pulled together by David Segre and features the work of three artists: Thomas Birtwistle, Cole Caswell and Bryan Graf. Before you go to the gallery, I strongly recommend you visit their websites – it will make a difference to what you take away from seeing the work itself. While Birtwistle’s work is eminently accessible, the work on view from Caswell and Graf left me feeling very much like I was missing the point and I found their artist statements impenetrable. I didn’t feel that way when viewing their websites. For all three artists, the work on view at Zero Station is but a tip of the iceberg of their extensive portfolios of work and the website visits will help you appreciate the whole pie of what they create.

Birtwistle’s artist statement does enhance the back story of the particular series of work featured in “Formal Evidence”. I know his work as I represent it via VoxPhotographs and this is a strong collection and it’s been very much in the public eye the last 3 years.

However, I couldn’t get the link between it and the other two artists in the show, so I e-mailed David Segre to ask him to explain the point of it all and he responded:

“Through analog and contemporary methods of photo capture and printing, all three artists portray the relationship between our natural world and the chemicals that can not only damage and preserve our surroundings, but that can also be used to represent stories captured in images. Thomas, Cole and Bryan use experimentation and chemical manipulation to create photographs that reinforce our conflicted relationship with nature.”

Hmmm.

Well…here’s another go at it – obviously my confusion represents a minority of one – Phil Isaacson gives intelligent insight into the show in the 12/11/11 Maine Sunday Telegram and I reproduce it in its entirety here:

“FORMAL EVIDENCE” at Zero Station introduces itself as work by three artists utilizing formal, historical and experimental methods related to photography. It’s an apt description. In one way or another, the show has components that draw upon traditional, pre-digital image making. It speaks of commitment to the values of photographic tradition and non-electronic skills. I note the substantiality of the event by pointing out that it is produced by a guest curator, David Segre, an applaudable effort by Zero Station.

There are three participants: Cole Caswell, Thomas Birtwistle and Bryan Graf. Caswell’s principal images are of the Meadowlands, the gigantic toxic dump that has served the New York City area. They were obtained through the ancient wet plate collodion process, a technique of heroes. It requires hauling a darkroom around from site to site and other efforts that are indescribable.

Caswell prints the large negatives so obtained on lightly treated common newsprint. The resulting huge images, in their physical coarseness, speak eloquently of the subject matter. The grittiness and imperfection of their sheets become adjuncts of the horror of the dump.

On a different subject and a more experimental level, two large black-and-white images garnered by exposing film treated with chemicals in a damp cellar have celestial suggestions. The bizarre markings, whatever their cause, suggest things that are not of our world.

Birtwistle offers five formal portraits of jarred vegetables and other consumables (can you eat dried clover?). In their self-assurance and perfection of their arrangement and elegant state of preservation, they achieve iconic status. They seek veneration, and meet you head-on in homely splendor.

Graf’s work is a presentation in the workings of an aesthetic evolution. It starts with a Polaroid of a simple view from a window or perhaps of a clutch of wisteria or a borrowed snapshot of a lake. From there, in reproduced form, it makes its way onto a sheet of sunbleached paper, which, in turn, inspires a photo created on a black-and-white negative.

My details on the process may not be precise, but the fact of the transition is the thing. The existence of a path is where the fascination lies.

This is a fresh, unusual show. It tells us something about where photography was, and suggests realms to which it might go.”- Phil Isaacson

World-class in Belfast – Koichiro Kurita

Posted in EXHIBITS/SHOWS, Maine on October 13, 2011 by voxphotographs

There’s really no excuse for missing this exhibition of Koichiro Kurita’s historic processes prints at Waterfall Arts in Belfast. It’s on view for weeks yet – through November 23.

But what IS urgent are the artist’s talk and workshops offered in conjunction with the exhibit: Kurita will speak about his project and work on October 20 at 7 p.m.in Belfast and offer workshops on making platinum/palladium prints at the Montville facility on October 21 for beginners, and on Oct. 22/23 for a Master Class.

The backstory is that Kurita became inspired by Thoreau’s “Walden” to change his life from that of a commercial photographer to a nature photographer. His project, “Beyond Spheres” will take years to complete as he follows in Thoreau’s footsteps making calotypes, or talbotypes, a process first used by William Fox Talbot in 1841.

The prints on view at Waterfall Arts are, quite simply, exquisite. If you don’t feel something pretty large while viewing them, you need a day off. Making platinum/palladium prints is all about tonal control as the process allows a very narrow tonal range, and Kurita, whose work is in museum collections worldwide, is a master.

Although much of the “wow” in the press about his work is tied to his multi-image large works, the smaller works affected me the most. They seemed more complete in themselves as a creation - the composition is tighter and holds me in closer to the image. And that sense is borne out by the stunning perfection of the little 7.5″x4.5″ (approx) matted and signed images next to the desk you can purchase for $350(sample below). They took my breath away, they were so perfectly composed and executed. If you don’t see them out, ask for them.

The premium image in the exhibit for me is “Species & Individual, Montville, ME 2011“. It is four vertical prints stitched together to make a final image that is 10″x32″ and it is a miracle of tonality. I still can’t believe it. I can’t find it online and am not sure I would reproduce it here if I could – what’s the point when any reproduction of this finely tuned piece of heaven would be a total failure?

The “Concord River, Concord, MA, 1992” is in the realm of perfect for its use of the medium and composition, as well as a much more complex content than at first meets the eye. If you study it, you will be rewarded. And its perfect partner is “Ichi, Catskill, NY, 2005” for the reflection of a tree trunk that provides the opportunity to see into the bottom of a stream. On the same wall is “Fall, Mystic, CT, 1991” that held me for a long time – so delicate, so powerful, so totally perfect in execution.

If you think it’s hard to come up with something new for nature photography, you will find it here because of the results of Kurita’s obvious total attention to his subject matter and process. A marriage made in heaven – and a long-term marriage at that: some of my favorite images in the exhibit were some of his earliest: “Winter Pond, Baxter, ME, 1990“, “Feather, Baxter National Park, ME 1990” and “Mt. Katahdin, Baxter National Park, ME 1990“.

There’s a sheet of info.at the front desk about Koichiro Kurita’s “Beyond Spheres” project and more online.

Yes, I have a larger vocabulary than using “perfect” this many times in a review would suggest. But there’s no higher realm than “perfect” and Kurita’s prints deserve nothing less.

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Sara Gray at Gleason/Portland: a foot in both camps

Posted in EXHIBITS/SHOWS, Maine on October 11, 2011 by voxphotographs

I wrote about Sara Gray’s photographs in December of 2009 when I saw two images that were included in the terrific photography show at George Marshall Store Gallery, curated by Mary Harding. At the time here’s what I wrote:

“I was delighted with Sara Gray‘s two square format images – have seen much of her commercial work in Down East magazine and elsewhere, and figured her work leaping across commercial photography lines in such a show as this could possibly be dismissed. Uh-uh. Take the time to read them closely – they’re gorgeous and well-deserving of the inclusion. I’m just surprised I haven’t seen more of her fine art photography work around.“

—-

When I corresponded with her after the 12/09 show I asked whether she had more work at this level, but she lamented most of her work was editorial in nature. So, I was surprised to see the full page ad for an upcoming show of her work at Gleason Fine Art. I went online, but found no fine art body of work on Sara’s own website yet.

At Gleason last week, I was pleased to see four or five images that did transcend the editorial/scenic genre. When I asked Andrew Gleason if the gallery is beginning to represent photographers he told me Sara is a close friend of the Gleason family and they wanted to honor her in this way.

Perhaps if Sara’s Portland show of work at Gleason had been shaped and curated over a year’s time, it would have more heft, but that said, it’s worth a stop in to appreciate her eye for color AND the fact that the prints are gorgeously printed – by Photo Craft Imaging in Colorado, a big factor in the artist’s favor in my book. Edition size hurts the credibility of the show: If you’re going to pin an edition of 50 on an image celebrating the beauty of Maine, it belongs in a tourist gallery, not a highly regarded fine art gallery like Gleason Fine Art. An edition of 3-10 per image/size denotes the image is more precious. Not to mention it implies the artist is always shooting great images, and knows the next ones will be just as great.

By far the premier image in the show is the one in the ad and above: “Sand Patterns at Low Tide, Old Orchard Beach, ME“. If it had been presented at a good 24″x24″ or larger instead of the 17″x17″ on view, it would pull people in off the street like a magnet. I looked at this image in the ad for a very long time appreciating the strength and abstract nature of the “aerial view”. Surprise, Heather. There’s the issue of the horizon line. It’s not an aerial view at all – and simply stated, it’s the best beach/sand/water/sky image I’ve seen in a long time.

Only one image in the show is larger than 17″x17″ and that really is a shame. This 20″x20″ “Tree in Snowy Field at Dawn” is breathtaking, and although it’s been done before, when I looked at it, I felt I was seeing such a take for the first time. I couldn’t get a good reproduction of it, but wanted to include this jpg for reference regardless.

Shows like this take a shocking investment in printing and framing, so I understand the smaller size range. I would suggest next time fewer images be presented and larger so the viewer can appreciate better the fine details of the work.

The image at the top of this posting, “Dock at Sunrise“, didn’t make it on to my “fine art photographs” list at first because the content teeters on the scenic genre, but I kept coming back to it. It is a photograph so wondrously created I had to step aside and let it make the leap. It did, and quite without my help, thank you very much.

I had no such hesitation with the elegaic “Dawn, Mt. Katahdin” below.

There’s nothing wrong with scenic photography and if you live in Maine why the heck wouldn’t you make beautiful photographs of beautiful places? The hard part is to take photographs no one else has, would or can. That’s the unique vision that is fine art photography and I wish Sara would make the leap more often for us.

Sara Gray: Transitions is on view at Gleason Fine Art/Portland through November 30, 2011.

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Anticipating the photograph: Madeleine de Sinéty at the PMA

Posted in EXHIBITS/SHOWS, Maine on October 6, 2011 by voxphotographs

There are three good reasons to take a walk down Congress St. in Portland this fall.

The first is to observe the funkiest cultural soup around. It never fails to entertain hugely.

Second, the Portland Museum of Art’s newest CIRCA exhibit honors the work of Madeleine de Sinéty and thank goodness for that, because it is a forty year span of deeply moving images. I expected to observe and make notes, not to be deeply moved and loathe to leave the exhibit’s presence.

Madeleine de Sinéty – The Widow, 1991. Courtesy of the Artist.

Madeleine de Sinéty: Photographs is a soul-feeder. And the work exemplifies one of my favorite quotes. Helen Levitt responded to the comment about her work that “Anyone could take these photographs.” by saying “It’s not about taking the photograph. It’s about anticipating the photograph.” And for those artists recording a community, as de Sinéty did in Poilley, France, that’s a vital key to success. Another is to love and respect the people whose lives you are recording. And with these two keys in her hand, de Sinéty’s works open the door to a brilliance all their own. I just kept asking myself – “How did she do this?”

Madeleine de Sinéty – Christine and Collette – First Communion,1947. Courtesy of the Artist.

While the works made in Poilley, France in the early 70′s are the clear winners for me, there’s hardly a photograph in this exhibit that didn’t make me stop and study it. Not only does she get the most amazing content, De Sinéty brings it to life using sharply contrasting tones, and the photographs, mostly black and white, are visually arresting as a result. Her eye for taking the un-obvious and making it a major player is beyond brilliant.

Madeleine de Sinéty – Mere Fine and Her Cow, 1992.Courtesy of the Artist.

While some of the photographs are crisp and a bit jarring because of it, most of them feature a graininess that works perfectly for such earthy images.

Although the reproductions in the exhibit catalog (a steal at $14.95) are superb, Thomas Palmer’s black and white digital prints are a marvel – for those of you who still don’t get that digital printing is an art form, not a button to press, go and stick your face up as close to these prints as you can get so you can see exactly what an “art form” is. There are seven color prints, made elsewhere and I’ve forgotten where, which are a joy in the quality dept. and are reproduced really well in the catalog as well.

Madeleine de Sinéty – Marie Christine and Her Hen, 1975 .Courtesy of the Artist.

Did people really live like this in rural France in the 1970′s?? I never would have believed it and kept referring to the date on the tag to make sure these weren’t from the previous century – maybe some photographs from Peter Henry Emerson’s 1886 publication “Life and Landscape on the Norfolk Broads” got mixed in when the exhibit was being installed? Check out “Maria Leading Coquette, 1974″ or “Lunch Under the Apple Trees, 1974″ or the color image “Firewood Cart, 1974″ and you will shake your head in disbelief. Although de Sinéty returned in 1992 to document the changes, looking at “Mere Fine and Her Cow” above, you’ll think those intervening 20 years didn’t bring much change at all.

The pictures from her trip to Poilley in 2001 document most definitely a community that at last has its toe in the 21st century, but the ride via Madeline de Sinéty’s photographs to get there is one worth taking.

The exhibit includes photographs from trips to Uganda between 1998-2000 and a decade (1985 – 1995) in Maine as well. They all shine with de Sinéty’s signature success at pulling you right into the heart of the moment each photograph was taken, but perhaps the artist’s own heritage as a Frenchwoman lent an extra layer of insight while photographing her own countrymen, as the photographs of Poilly are almost too real to share with the rest of us.

Well, once you’ve dragged yourself away, not forgetting to view the photographs installed at the first floor elevator banks as I did (I hate that space, but I’ll be back and catch them the next time), move on to Reason Number Three. Otto Pizza, right around the corner. Savor the wonderful exhibit you’ve just immersed yourself in while eating the best pizza in the state while watching that crazy Congress St. sea of humanity. One, two, three.

Madeleine de Sinéty – Boy With Dog, 2001. Courtesy of the artist.

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Bravo at Bates…

Posted in EXHIBITS/SHOWS, Maine on September 29, 2011 by voxphotographs

I’ve never been able to get excited about Manuel Alvarez Bravo. It’s a combination of things – Central/South American culture doesn’t interest me the way other cultures do. Can’t help it. Besides a lack of interest in what Bravo often found important, it may also be the era – time and time again I fail to be moved by much of the black and white work of our photographic pioneers of the 30′s – those simple images that they introduced to the viewer for the first time, and that, by now, every freshman photography student thinks they invented. Thirdly, I’m not convinced of Bravo’s skill, frankly.

BUT. Like I always say to the friend who often tags along to see photograph exhibits and shows with me: it’s not ABOUT whether or not you like it. It’s about this artist’s place in the history of photography. So, far from a sense of duty propelling me Lewiston-ward, it’s a matter of wanting to understand better the entire 180+- year spectrum of fine art photographs. And that’s reason enough every time.

Manuel Alvarez Bravo: Fotografias de Mexico (1933-1976) is on view at Bates College Museum of Art in Lewiston through October 29 and is comprised of 15 vintage prints. Some of these images definitely awakened a sense of delight in me, in particular “Hands in the 210 of Fernandez Leal, 1933″ below and the other two images I’ve included in this posting.

This exhibit has compelled me to spend time online reviewing Bravo’s oeuvre and my appreciation has grown, as it should.

Bates Museum College of Art is the current venue in a long list of Maine art museums that has gifted us with terrific photographic exhibits in the last couple of years. I know we’re not New York City all too well, but I’m amazed and grateful by The Portland Museum of Art, Colby College Museum of Art, University of Maine Museum of Art/Bangor, Bates College Museum of Art and Bowdoin College Museum of Art’s quality, high level exhibitions: these professionals take fine art photography seriously and have given us some memorable and important exhibits to learn from.

That’s certainly true about this Bravo exhibit – I’ve made the trip and am very glad I did. While Bravo may never become one of my favorite master photographers, I got what I came for – a larger understanding of his place in the big picture. But I also got something else – after a prolonged view of more of his work online, motivated by this exhibit, I am convinced that his works have more originality than I had previously believed.

Photographic treasures at Maine Historical Society

Posted in EXHIBITS/SHOWS, Maine on August 12, 2011 by voxphotographs

I’m a photo history nut and love vintage photographs (I own the 400 original vintage images featured on VoxPhotographs), so was rather thrilled to find a kind of buried treasure today at the Maine Historical Society exhibit “Dressing Up, Standing Out, Fitting In: Adornment & Identity in Maine” in Portland.

One of the first things you see in the exhibit is a pair of exquisite miniature portraits by Maine’s own Chansonetta Stanley Emmons of Kingfield, but they aren’t photographs. I didn’t realize she was also a painter, so I learned something important about this under-appreciated photographer when I read she had made these watercolor on ivory portraits of her and her husband in 1887.

I was delighted by the extensive and creative use of photographs by the A.H. Benoit Co. on Middle St. in Portland (above). The two huge reproductions of photographs (1930 and 1950) of their store windows are fabulous, and I had a good laugh at the 1960 photo of 18 of their employees hanging out in the street with company wares (hats) on their heads.

I’ve seen “gem” tintypes (ca.1880) before but never a chain of six of them encased in a tiny book-like locket that extends out when opened. And then there’s the terrific colored ambrotype (ca.1860) of a Skowhegan firefighter that any collector would kill to own.

On the right wall as you enter the exhibit are two terrific examples of painted portraits – but these are really special: taken in 1901 by Charles E. Brown of Eastport, they are portraits of two Passamaquoddy Indians, Mary Mitchell Selmore and Chief Sopiel Selmore in all their regalia.

There are many more ambrotypes to enjoy, including one of a Mason all tricked out, and daguerreotypes portraits that show off the highfalutin collars everyone really got into in the 1850′s. Most of us today wouldn’t survive a week in the uncomfortable, tortuous clothes and styles this exhibit has on display.

I loved seeing the highback tortoiseshell combs – I couldn’t believe how intricately they were carved. The Woodford Comb Factory made them at Woodford Corners between 1820 and 1849. Not photographs I know, but this is not a photographs exhibit so we get to expand our horizons and and enjoy seeing the hats, dresses, combs, collars and more that Mainers strutted their stuff in in the last 200+- years. I tend to get “Antiques Roadshow” syndrome when I see this amazing stuff, my first attack practically overwhelming me several years ago on my inaugural tour through the Henry Wadsworth Longfellow home next door. All I can see is dollar signs in every corner!!

There’s a terrific large-scale reproduction of the bustling sidewalk in front of Storey’s millinery shop (1914) at Congress and Oak, and an adorable 1897 studio portrait of little Arthur Stanwood of Brunswick dressed to the nines.

Well… please: lock me into the photo archives at MHS for a year! My definition of heaven.

No excuses on this one, folks: this exhibit runs through May 27, 2012.

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Waterville Part II: Colby College Museum of Art

Posted in EXHIBITS/SHOWS, Maine on August 4, 2011 by voxphotographs

Unless death intervenes, there is absolutely no excuse for any fine art photographer in Maine to miss the current photography exhibits at Colby College Museum of Art in Waterville: American Modern: Abbott, Evans, Bourke-White, and Andrew Moore: Detroit Disassembled. As well, I wrote in the spring about an ongoing exhibit: “Celebrating a Gift: Photography from the Collection of Norma B. Marin.” All three exhibits run through October 2.

I need to start here with the Andrew Moore exhibit so he doesn’t get overshadowed by “American Modern”, but I suggest you see it last so it is uppermost in your memory.

Frankly, I am so tired of abandoned building shots I could scream, so imagine my astonishment when I was utterly transfixed by the seven images on view. As I review the full project on Moore’s website, I remember having seen images like “Walden Street, Detroit” – the abandoned house completely overgrown by vines – before.

The power of these images can not be overstated: the security guard told me he’s seen people from Detroit moved to tears when viewing them. I found them shocking, and still do even as I review them in my mind and on Moore’s site. Detroit has wasted away fully one-third of its previous 138 square mile span, and the artist says it best when he states Detroit has been “thrown spectacularly into reverse.” Moore has an extraordinary eye for substance and color, as well as presentation. The images are scaled big enough to practically walk into at approximately 44×35 and are perfectly and appropriately presented. These two represented electronically here can not begin to do them justice.

When you read the history of Detroit’s once elegant, thriving train station (“Waiting Room”, above), and see Moore’s recent (all works were shot in 2008 and 2009) photograph depicting its total abandonment and demise, open to the elements and ironically destroyed by the city’s own industrial lifeblood as personal vehicles became our transportation mode of choice, it’s like viewing a corpse, plain and simple. Moore has succeeded utterly in communicating the emotion of this city’s terrible strangulation. But in the end, these pictures are not vehicles for social or urban commentary. They are spectacular photographs that are clear in intent and technical prowess without a word of commentary.

—–

The main squeeze through October 2 at the Museum is, of course, “American Modern: Abbott, Evans and Bourke-White” and I had the exhibit practically to myself the entire 1.5 hours I spent viewing it. I was able to really soak it up as a result, and took away a serious photo history lesson. The texts accompanying the show were excellent and clear and avoided telling us how to view the images, which I appreciate always. Instead, I learned about the birth of documentary photography without being numbed senseless by information overload, and now appreciate fully that something we take for granted these days didn’t exist before the 1930′s. Think Life Magazine sporting Margaret Bourke-White’s “Fort Peck Dam, Montana, 1936″ on the cover of its inaugural (only 9″x6″ by the way) 10 cent issue published on November 23, 1936.

By the end of the 1920′s a new movement was emerging and it was called “Precisionism”. It was defined by images including “clean lines and repeating visual elements”. Margaret Bourke-White’s Otis Steel smokestacks says it all:

All three of the artists featured in the Colby exhibit published books of their works – Abbott: “Changing New York” in 1939, Evans: “Let Us Now Praise Famous Men” in 1941, and Bourke-White: “You Have Seen Their Faces” in 1937.

In “Changing New York” Abbott documented the city as it transitioned from its 19th century personality into the bustling 20th. She took “canyon” shots where new towering skyscrapers cast long shadows over their elegant ancestors, as seen in this image:

But the most powerful images in this exhibit for me are Margaret Bourke-White’s and especially the work in her book “You Have Seen Their Faces” for which she collaborated with author Erskine Caldwell. They documented the rural America hardest hit by the depression, and the photographs are haunting, visionary and sensitive – and a reminder that this master did not only record the cold face of industrial America.

Iron Mountain, Tennessee, 1937 © Estate of Margaret Bourke-White/ Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY Margaret Bourke-White Collection, Special Collections Research Center, Syracuse University Library. All Rights Reserved

While Berenice Abbott’s work never moves me for some reason, of course I understand its importance. Walker Evans is one of the most vital influences for contemporary photography and his lunch counter shot is one of my favorites.

Lunchroom Window, New York City, 1929 © Walker Evans Archive, The Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of Arnold H. Crane, 1971

But, in this exhibit it is definitely Margaret Bourke-White’s work that resonates with me. She became a renowned photojournalist but never again tackled a social documentary project like “You Have Seen Their Faces.” Evans, too, moved on – returning to NYC from his travels in the south to a major one-person exhibit and to take clandestine photos of his fellow subway riders. Abbott took a complete turn away from social documentary after her book was published and concentrated on scientific photographs.

The last three images in the exhibit are the perfect wrap up to an incredible viewing experience: a close up portrait by each of the three masters including: a beautiful, simple and complete portrait “Untitled”, 1936-7 by Bourke-White, Abbott’s “Portrait of a Miner, Greenville, West Virginia” 1935 which was my favorite of her works exhibited, and of course the iconic “Allie Mae Burroughs”, 1936 portrait by Walker Evans.

While the entire exhibit is a treasure, these three images are the perfect place to leave us with the full impact of the stature of three of America’s most important fine art photographers of the 20th century.

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Waterville, Part I: Common Street Gallery hosts Birtwistle and Sorg

Posted in EXHIBITS/SHOWS, Maine on August 4, 2011 by voxphotographs

The newest kid in town in Waterville is Kate Barnes (no, not that Kate Barnes) and her sparkling Common St. Gallery. On a cool street in a great setting across from a shady park, Common Street Gallery is currently the only fine art gallery in the city. And that’s why Kate opened for business. She had nowhere to go in town to see art.

Kate is a painter herself and studied at Meca and USM, among other venues. Like most Mainers in the arts, she also wears two hats, to pay the bills, but one hat is hidden under the other: she teaches classes for adults and kids in the gallery several times a week.

Her current show features the work of Thomas Birtwistle and Sarah Sorg and that’s why I trotted up there to visit her. (okay, see Waterville Part II: Colby College Museum of Art above!) I’m familiar with the work of both artists: Thomas’ work is represented by VoxPhotographs and I reviewed Sarah’s portfolio earlier this year in Boston at the Griffin Museum’s annual portfolio review. See my earlier post about that. (May)

Unfortunately, there are only 10 days left to see this show as I simply could not get to Waterville before this – and the show opened June 17th.

Most of Sarah Sorg‘s work depicts the changing face of Bangor. She doesn’t editorialize but presents the facts visually. Thankfully, her artist’s statement is short and factual rather than loaded with the irony and politics that would tempt most artists. Sarah’s attitude should be adopted by all fine artists: it’s about the work. Almost all of the images featured in this show are taken at night or very early morning while these properties are “resting” and before the rest of the world starts stirring as well, and they remind me of catching someone unaware: The face and body language are relaxed into the honest, real them when they think they are alone. No pretenses.

Thomas Birtwistle is always full of surprises, and Kate selected mostly lean and straightforward pictures – much like Tom himself. Stairwells, motel interiors and more, and I love this “Blue and Yellow Kitchen”. I came back several times to admire “Bedroom” which I saw for the first time at this show. Tom’s subtle wit is evident in the details of many of his photographs – a reward for the careful viewer.

And in the rear of the gallery are surprise collections of work by Marty Kelly and Katie Brown so you will get some serendipitous viewing when you go! Common Street Gallery is open Thursday and Saturday, 11-4.

My take: Photo National 2011/UMMA Bangor

Posted in EXHIBITS/SHOWS, Maine on July 17, 2011 by voxphotographs

I think University of Maine’s Museum of Art is hosting the most important photo event of the year: Photo National 2011, A Survey of Contemporary Photography.

It’s not that the exhibit is the end-all, be-all of work. It isn’t. But it is an important step for Maine’s fine art photography community in that national contenders are being hosted on our turf. Usually we surround ourselves with ourselves. This exhibit provides the first step in a journey towards becoming part of a larger fine art photography community - and less parochial.

Here are the quick facts: 34 artists selected out of 140+- artists submitting. The exhibit includes 76 works. The two jurors were George Kinghorn, Director and Curator at UMMA and Brian Paul Clamp, Director of ClampArt Gallery, NYC.

The first room in the exhibit area is the Thomas Hager exhibit, so you get off to a good start visually, an understatement for sure. See my most recent posting on that exhibit.

Last week I found, after a careful, hour-long survey of the exhibit, that my impressions of the visual standouts of the show – the eye-feasts – were, to an image, the same ones I found distinctive during my spotty viewing at the June 23 members’ reception. They are all color images: Harold Ross‘ “Clothes Line, Maine, 2010″, Jim Nickelson’s “Nauset Marsh, Sunrise, 2008″, Michael Mergen’s “Precinct 22016, Corona, CA, 2010″, Sarah Szwajkos’ “Morning Sunlight on Gold Blanket, Unmade Bed, 2005″, two of Robert Moran’s images installed next to the entrance doors before you enter the exhibit, and Shoshannah White’s “Sugar Cubes, 2010″.

It is the strong and intelligent selection of black and white photographers who score with the most intellectually challenging work: Sean Harris, Melonie Bennett and Paul Greenberg all presenting silver gelatin prints, Anne-Claude Cotty pinholes, some toned, and Rowan James, Tom Hubbard and Magnus Stark, pigment prints, albeit by different names such as inkjet.(“Pigment Prints” is the correct term for this process of making prints and I was brought up to date on this by Scott Peterman last fall.) Do these artists a favor and spend the time with their work that it deserves.

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Disappointing was the selection of interiors photographs included in the exhibit. I found them trite, and lacking in power and substance. Many of the interiors in this exhibit are just more examples of why irony needs to be taken out of the equation going forward for fine art photographers – photographing the mundane or the run-down to “give it the attention it deserves” (remember the incredible artist statement quote I included in a posting last year? “I see things normal people don’t see.”): it’s been done. And done. And done. Even so, there was, in my opinion, a lack of truly excellent photographic skill in much of this genre. Exceptions: Sarah Szwajkos shows how it should be done: no irony, simply technical skill mixed together with lush colors and a unique vision. Ditto Robert Moran with his grainy portraits of objects eschewing pithy “irony” in preference to straightforward exploration and visual risk-taking. Shapes, color, composition.

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A curating decision I take issue with are the two exhibited images by Lisa Kessler – works from her series “Seeing Pink”. Go through the slideshow for “Seeing Pink” on Kessler’s website and you’ll be tickled pink (sorry) at the terrific way this body of work is fleshed out (sorry again). You can’t begin to imagine her intent from these two mutually diluting images in Photo National 2011. To give us a sense of what the artist intended with this series, three images are needed: One of these and two more images that better demonstrate the scope of the series.

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The exhibit should be carefully viewed by all of Maine’s fine art photographers and photography students with respect to presentation. Cheap plastic or metal frames, photographs framed with no border/mat, and photographs that are not sized to give the viewer the best possible experience with that image, are in evidence. Contrast them with the work and presentation of Rania Matar’s two images from her extraordinary series “A Girl and Her Room”: crisp, quality white wood frames, a pleasing ratio of white around gorgeously printed works, and perfectly scaled (that said, I’d love to see these images life-size). No wonder she’s finding a serious international audience and winning awards everywhere. Of course, her visions are maturely realized and carried out and culled – all signs of an artist who isn’t wasting anybody’s time presenting herself as deadly serious in a highly competitive artworld. The simple black wood frames, image size, investment in museum glass and professional framing, and the master print quality of Jim Nickelson’s two landscapes (the only landscape photographer in the mix, by the way, which is interesting in itself) demonstrate another who understands inspiration is just the beginning for any artist.

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Another curating issue I have is that one of the artists was limited to one work in the exhibit. Julie Gray’s “Puzzle, 2001″ is a strong piece, but how can you be represented at a national juried exhibit by one photograph? I feel sorry for her at being weirdly singled out in this way.

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If you are anywhere in the state of Maine on August 11, call now to snag a place in the audience for the 6 p.m. panel discussion at the Museum: “New Directions in Photography” featuring comments by exhibit Curator Brian Paul Clamp, Susan Danly, Curator of Photography, Portland Museum of Art, and artist Lisa Kessler. George Kinghorn will moderate. Call the Museum office at 561-3350 as space is limited and you must RSVP.

And yes. I market the work of several artists included in this exhibit, but to say I was delighted at how firmly their work stands on its own two feet and often leads the way in this exhibit is the biggest understatement of all. Without exception, ALL of the Maine artists and their work included in Photo National 2011 are stand-outs and it makes me (parochially) very proud.

If the University of Maine Museum of Art is not on your exhibitions radar, make the correction now. It’s a contender.

PHOTO NATIONAL 2011, A Survey of Contemporary Photography, is on view through September 24, 2011. Admission is free.

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