Week 003: one two & three

ONE*
Small Town, Edge of the Sea
October 4, 2008 - October 31, 2008
The Forman School: Risley Gallery


"The works by [Lawrence] Russ in the upcoming exhibition are all of scenes and objects by the edge of the water at either Southport Harbor, the Southport Boatyard, or Sasco Beach in Southport. Although they contain no deliberate blurring or premeditated distortion, no computer-generated objects, they are often highly metaphoric, sometimes fantastical, and their provocative titles bear evidence of Russ’s talent as a widely-published poet."

"Russ has written in an Artist Statement: 'The images of mine that I value most partake of realism and surrealism, expressionism and abstraction. I aim to make photographs of objects and scenes that look as though they were discovered inside the soul as much as on the street or in the woods. I want them to be like the stories of E.T.A. Hoffman, in which common things prove to be other or more than they first appeared.'

*The more time I spend observing this image, it does grow increasingly poetic.   However, I don't get the feeling that this photograph was discovered within the soul. It's the association with an actual place that interests me.  It's familiar, as if I've actually been there.  

TWO**
Uta Kögelsberger
October 3, 2008 - November 21, 2008
Photofusion


"Bunker Series comprises of large format colour photographs of the military structures built on the beaches of Normandy and England in World War II and explores the relationship between representation, perception and architecture."

"Built in order to defend occupation of the land, these monumental structures could be described as physical incorporations of terror, and yet their gradual re-assimilation into the natural environment has become a metaphor of failure and defeat. In his examination of World War II bunkers in Bunker Archeology, Paul Virilio explores the symbolic narrative of the architecture and changes in the technology of warfare. These structures have come to symbolise a real politick of warfare that is dependent on the mass mobilisation of ‘bodies’ and the occupation of territory which stands in contradiction to assertions about the nature of post-modern war as ‘virtual’, technological and distanced conflict."

**Honestly, I think the write-up about this exhibition is interesting, but first and foremost, it's the vibrant colors in this Uta Kögelsberger photograph that attract me.

THREE***
Color Me New York - Photographs by Benn Mitchell
Through June 30, 2009
Boca Raton Museum of Art


"The exhibition honors Benn Mitchell as a forerunner in realistic photography, documenting life in New York City during the 1930s through the 1950s"

"This exhibition presents 16 color images shot in the streets of New York City between 1947 and 1980, which capture Benn Mitchell's acute observations, and his award-winning eye for both the artistic and the incidental"

***Girl Eating Ice Cream is cute. I would like to take realistic photographs that appear incidental, even if actually they are not. I get the idea that this situation "just happened" and I like that about this image.