Carriage Barn Arts Center 43rd Annual Photography Show Gallery Talk Recap
Thank you to the Carriage Barn Arts Center and Hilary Whitman for inviting me back for the third consecutive year to moderate a gallery talk with artists whose work was selected for inclusion in this year’s juried show. Below, I’m sharing some notes and follow-up leads on topics discussed with each of the seven photographer panelists.
n.b. Tap any artist’s name or recommendation for a hyper-link to more information.
Mariola Camacho “Versailles View I” and “Philly Eye”
Mariola and I were photography classmates at Silvermine School of Art - our teacher Elyse Shapiro now teaches at Western Connecticut State University near Danbury. She is an exceptional teacher and mentor and I credit her with giving me the confidence and encouragement to continue my studies in architectural photography at the International Center of Photography in New York and to launch my own business.
Mariola is the owner School of Rock New Canaan.
She shared some of her favorite sites to develop film: Darkroom.com - Photographic Solutions - Milford Photo
We talked about album covers - this is a favorite book of mine - The Greatest Album Covers of All Time
Jean-Marc Bara “Sun Catcher”
Jean-Marc has captured a frame in Williamsburg, Brooklyn in the spirit of Henri Cartier-Bresson. If you are lucky enough to own a copy of the The Decisive Moment in its original or even re-published edition with the Matisse cover art, you own an asset appreciating in a more favorable arc than most stocks in the Dow Jones of late.
The “Four Ls”: Jean-Marc shared the four pillars of his work: Life, Light, Lines and Luck.
Technique: When heading out for a day of street photography, he typically captures around 3,000 frames using “burst mode” and it takes him about 90 minutes to cull down those frames to the winners.
Paul Einarsen “The Future is Now”
Paul’s photo is set at the TWA Terminal designed by Eero Saarinen at JFK in 1962. A savvy audience member remarked to me after the event that it was interesting how the photographer’s last name is nearly an anagram of the architect’s. I just love visual people and nerdy word stuff! :) Thus, that was one of my favorite observations of the evening.
Paul shared with us some of his techniques for iphone photography as this image was a serendipitous capture between flights. He uses a phone application whereby he is viewing his frame on the iphone screen with the appearance of a black and white image with an orange filter helping him see his planned abstraction in real time.
This image set me into 1960s nostalgia mode and sharing some of my favorite escapes to dip back into this era - a little daily dose of the wisdom of Don Draper et al. is on my daily Instagram feed via Mad Men Quotes, I can’t get enough of the set decoration, costumes and humor of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and my favorite poet from this era is Frank O’Hara. His “tiny book” Lunch Poems had a cameo on Don’s desk in Mad Men, but you’ll have to pick up the full collected poems tome to share my favorite work by O’Hara, “Having a Coke with You”.
Alan Berkson “Kiosk Shoppers”
Alan travels frequently and captured this moment in Madrid, Spain. Truly a “decisive moment” as a young boy and older gentleman peruse titles at a magazine kiosk.
Alan shared some of his sources of inspiration including the work of photographer Alec Soth and his book Sleeping by the Mississippi. Also recommended is the work of Louis Kahn.
For a museum trip, Alan recommends the Yale University Art Gallery.
Ralph Baskin “Afternoon Delight”
Ralph has accepted a new creative challenge with the practice of Infrared Photography, Capturing light from the non-visible spectrum takes his waterfront frame on Milford’s Silver Sands State Park from a traditional setting to an other-worldly seascape.
He has found great support in his pursuit with like-minded photographers including those in an on-line group for Nikon users called Nikonians.
Bill Frucht “Ellis Island #7”
Bill is passionate about shooting abandoned buildings. A tip from a colleague who advised him of limited opportunities via appointment to bring a tripod to Ellis Island landed him at the storied site as a party of one with guides and access to some historic, now empty, spaces, including the medical building which is his photograph’s setting.
He shared that his intent was to find a setting that fit his aesthetic needs with no political statement intended. As he drew more parallels between the immigrant experience on Ellis Island and issues surrounding the same topic in our contermporary world, he admitted that the photo did indeed, take on further depths of meaning or symbolism based on its setting.
We talked about some dystopian tales including my favorite titles Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel and Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng.
Emily Fisher “Red Right Return”
Emily’s daughter is perched on the trepidatious edge of a boat house dock on a cloudy day on Fisher’s Island. Emily has a strong preference for the moody light of a cloudy day. The photo was posed, not candid, and the flourescent orange dress was chosen for its juxtaposition to the blue/grey tones of the balance of the composition.
For me, this image evoked some of the work of one of my photography idols, Cig Harvey and some of the photographs of her young daughter Scout as seen in her latest hardcover Blue Violet. The setting also seemed to represent the classic New England coastline from the Wes Anderson film Moonrise Kingdom.
Some of Emily’s sources of inspiration were Sally Mann’s book Still Life, the work of Andrew Wyeth, the Isabella Stewart Gardener Museum in Boston and DIA Beacon.