At The Gallery

I was pleased to be invited by Kristen Bryce, and counseled by Irene Spencer, in my selection of works for the 20th Annual Open Juried Photo Show at the Wickford Art Association Gallery. As the current head of the Photography Department at the Rhode Island School of Design, I am aware of the vibrant creative communities in “the Big Little,” and welcome every opportunity to jury shows or awards for RI photographers. The photographs submitted to the Wickford Art Association’s Open Juried Photo Show did not disappoint. I thank all of those who submitted work for consideration; it is the larger community you create that accounts for the quality of the works on view.

When I walked into the gallery, I was immediately impressed with the vitality and diversity I saw: everything from portraits to landscapes; silver-gelatin to inkjet prints; straight photographs to hand-crafted images; intimately scaled pictures to very large prints. No dominant aesthetic ruled. Digital tools have opened up brave new worlds in photo editing and finishing, but traditional silver printers have risen to the challenge and show their strengths here. At base, a photograph is a lens-generated image. With the whole world as our medium and canvas, we will never run out of fascinating things to visualize and satisfying images to ponder.

As a juror, I looked for works that expressed an alternative vision to the subjects and stylistic treatments we see daily in the mass media (travel, entertainment, fashion, advertising). I was looking for photographs that expressed a more intimate, less public, feeling in the artist’s choices of subject matter and their expression—photographs that took me to worlds I could not otherwise have visited. In the end, every act of selection is biased in favor of the juror’s tastes and interests, but I hope that some of the passion that I feel for the art of photography communicates itself through this exhibition.

Below are a few comments on the award-winning works. Thank you for allowing me to share these thoughts with you.

Awards	Juror's Comments
1^st Place Jillian Barber Among Thorns black and white photograph	At first glance, it was clear that Jillian Barber is a serious photographic artist and student of photographic history. While there is something nostalgic about the classic silver print, Barber’s subject is well suited to this treatment. Imagine this photograph in color—it just wouldn’t work. The gorgeously modulated tones of silver gelatin emulsion give this subject a three-dimensional presence, and her pose and gesture reveal a complex individuality. The emotion conveyed is sensuous and strong and the smoothness of the subject’s skin contrasts beautifully with the textures of the antique lace collar, her hair and the thick heads of hydrangea around her. Everything falls into place in this work, one wouldn’t want to change a thing.
2^nd Place Judith Tate Night Shadows digital photograph	I admit it—I have a weakness for color photographs taken at dusk or after dark and their theatrical qualities. The drama of the shadows cast by the two trees in the foreground plays out on the lawn, bringing our gaze from the shadows into a seductive pool of glowing green light—a green made more vibrant by the reddened post-sunset sky. The festively lighted highway and bridge on the horizon invites us to fanciful speculation about what lies beyond—something more magical than Disneyland. I am enchanted.
3^rd Place William Brennan Untitled photograph	This photograph of a young girl at the piano delighted me with its apparent simplicity as a subject and sophistication as a composition. It was shot from an angle slightly below the girl’s armpit that allows us to see her smile to herself as she exaggerates the lift of her wrists at the keys—like we’re being let in on her private joke. The lines of the piano and doorframe converge at the young player’s midsection, further directing our gaze in an unselfconscious way. But what makes this picture stand out is the photographer’s sensitivity to light: the soft, diffused tones and the luminous space bathe the subject in the most sweet and gentle atmosphere. The result appears both effortless and infinitely moving.
Honorable Mention Greg Arakelian Here Comes Hillary black and white photograph	This large black-andwhite print is a study of old bookshelves with chipping paint crowded with discarded paperbacks, redolent of old hotels and seaside cottages where generations of vacationers have left behind their summer “reads” for others to share. Mysteries and biographies clamor for notice beside all manner of self-help books; some torn apart from handling. Arakelian’s photograph does what photographs do so well: frames and records what is already under our noses, if we just know how to see it (Walker Evans taught us how). Billie Jean King and Katherine Hepburn are the only two cover-portraits in the frame, accompanied by a cover showing a phallic rocket blasting into space. For those who are familiar these two women’s careers and the gender feathers they ruffled, the photographer’s title adds a clever postscript.
Honorable Mention Howard Rubenstein Bodyscape #67 photograph	This very stylish composition struck me as a very successful homage to the Edwardian Pictorialist photographers of a century ago who reveled in brushed-on emulsions, Japanese print aesthetics, and expressive female nudes as their subjects (it was the era of Modern Dance, after all). The composition is elegant and complex without being overly elaborated. Indeed, the photographer knew when enough information was just enough to produce a beautiful, harmonious and slightly mysterious result that allows us viewers to complete the picture in our own ways. It’s a delicate balancing act that many others would have blown.

Gallery Hours:

Tuesday through Saturday, 11:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. and
Sunday from Noon - 3:00p.m.

Wickford Art Association Gallery

June 5 - 24, 2009

Opening Reception:

Juror's Comments

Awards

Juror's Comments

Gallery Hours: