Reception: March 23, from 6 to 8 PM.
From March 22nd to April 11th at the Chelsea Gallery.
The emergence of a new lyrical tendency in contemporary photography
indicates that a growing number of photo artists no longer feel
compelled to prove their avant garde credentials to the detriment
of the poetic effects at which their medium excels. This is one
of several insights prompted by "Tripping the Light Fantastic:
An Exhibition of Fine Art Photography" at Agora Gallery,
530 West 25th Street, in Chelsea, from March 22 to April 11 (Reception:
March 23, from 6 to 8 PM).
Louise Mann's soft-focused photographic prints and C-prints
of trees in Western Australia present the viewer with near-abstract
interpretations of nature as austere in formal terms as color
field paintings. Indeed, the luminous chromatic qualities of Mann's
prints conspire with her spare compositions to create images of
a singular exquisiteness.
Texas photographer Bob Longoria, on the other hand, adheres to
the classic qualities of black and white photography in his silver
gelatin prints of gnarled trees and plant forms interpreted with
a clarity and tonal subtlety akin to Mapplethorpe¹s floral studies.
Longoria's "purist" vision is auspiciously attuned to
the arid west Texas desert subjects that he depicts with such
intimacy and sensitivity.
An unabashed romanticist, Vladimir Andreyev, born in Russia, now
a U.S. citizen, refers to his work as "poetic photography"
Moved by an "orchestral" feeling while watching a sunrise,
he says "the confluence of poetry and music became my photographic
inspiration" Indeed, all of Andreyev's vibrant color pictures--be
they of sun-kissed landscapes, city skylines, or a single hovering
butterfly-- make his enchantment with the visible world both palpable
and contagious.
The peculiar beauty of desolate places would appear to be the
discovery of Michael L. Dailey, whose color photos evoke feelings
in the viewer similar to those provoked by the paintings of Andrew
Wyeth. Dailey makes weathered wooden farm houses, derelict barns,
and other structures set within stark, flat landscapes resonate
with a sense of human longing that is haunting and poignant.
By contrast, Anne C. Savedge projects an almost baroque quality
in her photographs, through which she aims to "transform"
her subjects rather than merely record them. Trained as a painter,
Savedge has been known to draw on her negatives, scan them, alter
them with Photoshop, and use other methods of manipulation to
produce the expressive distortions that animate her color prints
of floral, landscape, and human subjects, lending them a magic
that transcends the literal.
Israeli photographer Amatsia Raanan has his own approach to seeing
beyond what is right before our eyes. In his color prints of natural
and man-made subjects, he creates compositions that are as notable
for their abstract attributes as for their abiding reverence for
the things of this world. Raanan's sensitivity to light and texture
is especially acute, resulting in pictures that make the viewer
just as aware as the photographer of the many varieties of beauty
that surround us.
For over thirty years, Patrick Walsh has been creating "photomosaics"
by taking multiple pictures of a single subject, then piecing
them together to create large-scale panoramic views of landscapes,
empty baseball stadiums and other suitable subjects. Some of Wals's
compositions have been known to stretch to eleven feet in length;
even on a smaller scale, however, his sweeping vistas imaginatively
envelop the viewer like the visual equivalent of Surround Sound.
Click
here to view the exhibition catalog
Reception: March 23, from 6 to 8 PM.
From March 22nd to April 11th at the Chelsea Gallery.
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