Last week, I had the pleasure of visiting a hand full of art galleries located the neighbourhood of Chelsea. After visiting these galleries, I had a discover three photographs that I found quite powerful and define the true definition of art.

The first gallery we visited was in Aperture with the pieces by Stephen Tourlentes. One photograph that that allured my attention was that one titled “Rawlins, Wyoming State Death House Prison”. Looking at this photograph, we can see that glimpse of light that draw attention and us question “what is are those lights?”. In terms of lighting, it is very soft with a grey to black gradient. It’s beautiful and looks like 19^th century painting. On the contrary, this photograph has dark meaning behind it. Like the title stated, this a death row prison. Thus, this is  the meaning of the dark side of beauty.

This photograph by Jeffrey Milstein, titled “Newark Airport Terminal B, 2017”, was the most powerful photograph I had the pleasure observing. This struck me because it reflected something I wanted to be. As a little boy, I wanted to become a pilot. This love of aircrafts and flying was all I wanted to do. I had the opportunity to attend a college for aviation and there I believed in 2020 I would be flying for Lufthansa or Delta. Unfortunately, my dream was crushed due to finance reasons and I was forced to go elsewhere. To see this photograph, it showed me a dream that lost and a career I could have had.

The last photograph I will discuss is the portrait of Ella Watson by Gordon Park. This photograph was captured during the 1940’s, when the majority of the US was racist. With that noticed, blacks where restricted from high paying jobs that their white counter parts had. So, we had to settle for the jobs that white people didn’t want to do.  Like cleaning, farm work and especially taking care of their very own children. We this so strongly represented here. We see a black woman, most likely tired and bored of a job, but strong, as she stands upright with no expression one her face. Broom and mop, she stands in front of the American flag, looking determined to provide for her family.

The photographs at Facades – Grand Tour at the Yossi Milo Gallery was simply amazing. It’s not because of the pictures but the effort and work went into creating those pictures.Each picture was created by putting together thousands of photographs. No matter where you stand too look at the photos it seems like that’s the center of the picture. That’s truly amazing.

Jeffrey Millstein’s leaning out displays a lot of aerial photography. The pictures are very nice but at some extent I feel like that the photographs were over edited. The composition and and the subject of most of the photos were very nice and pleasing.

Gallery: David Zwirner

Exhibition: Scenes from the Blackout  (Photographer: Stan Douglas)

This galley showed us photographs of an event where New York City had a power blackout. I really love this exhibition. The photos were beautiful and very thought out. Every single one of them were eye-catching. I really loved the one where the woman was stuck in the elevator.

This photo at the Jack Shainman gallery caught my attention because it showed MLK at his prime. The was be geared towards him at his strongest without him even knowing. the black and white photo is what makes it clear that it’s only him that carries out the message of honored power amongst people who want equal right and to be treated as humans.

At this exhibit it didn’t interest me at all when I first, took a glimpse at it.That’s until the guy actually explained what was happening in this photo. the church itself was composed of thousands of pictures to create such vivid details in this photograph. It slightly got me intrigued by the other exhibit photo after hearing the background story of what i’m seeing.

Take me to church

This photo immediately caught my attention when I walked into the exhibit. I had originally thought that this piece was a painting. when i gazed at it, it took me back the major black out of 2003 in NYC. It was hot dark, the crime rate was high, but in the end it somewhat what brought us closer together as a city that never sleeps. This photograph embodies camaraderie and survival.

Apperture Foundation: Prison Nation

The United States has the highest rate of incarcerated people per capita in the world. The exhibition Prison Nation, as the name implies explores the theme of prison and incarceration in the United States. The selection of photographs in the gallery shows many different sides to life in prison and the prisoner’s themselves. Prisoners and Ex-convicts are often stigmatized as being morally incapable or lesser humans, rather than being put there by a failed legal system. One of the photographs that I was most intrigued by was Troy Holding a Guinea Fowl Chick, GreenHouse Program, Rikers Island Jail Complex, New York by Lucas Foglia. I love this photo because it humanizes the prisoner. (Troy) The moment captured here shows that not all prisoners aren’t these hardened dangerous menaces to society because even they can appreciate the little things (literally)

Yossi Milo Gallery: Grand Tour – Facades

The current exhibition at the Yossi Milo Gallery explores the different facades of churches around the world. Regardless of one’s religion, I don’t think it’s up for debate that some of the greatest architecture in the world exists because of churches. The series of photographs are extremely crisp and detailed and highlight the complexity of the architecture. What makes these photos even more impressive is that they are each made up of thousands of close up images.

Benrubi Gallery: Leaning Out

The exhibition /Leaning Out/ on display at Ben Rubi Gallery shot by Jeffrey Millstein celebrates aerial photography. Personally, I’m not very impressed by aerial photography. I find it to be like a cheat code, of course, people are supposed to be wowed by aerial photography cause humans don’t fly and we never see that point of view. There was, however, one photo from the exhibition that I was fascinated with (pictured above.) The reason why I enjoyed this photo, in particular, is because it’s not your cliche aerial photo of NYC instead it shows a directly vertical perspective. The rooftops of some of the buildings in the photos are instantly recognizable (at least for someone who pays attention to architecture and trespassed on rooftops.) I thought it was very interesting to see the difference from rooftop to rooftop, it is a very uncommon way to appreciate the architecture of a building.

For class on Feb 28 we took a trip to Chelsea where we viewed eight galleries. Here are three of the most memorable to me.
Prison Nation at Aperture
Artist: Lucas Foglia , Bruce Jackson, Emily Kinni, Jesse Krimes, Jack Lueders-Booth, Deborah Luster, Chandra McCormick and Keith Calhoun, Zora Murff, Nigel Poor, Joseph Rodriguez, Jamel Shabazz, Sable Elyse Smith, Stephen Tourlentes
This exhibit was a collection of images that were taken inside of prisons of inmates, recently released from prison and getting reacclimated, and art made by inmates. The main series of the exhibit were the images that were of the inmates who were performing religious plays. The mood of the inmates seemed to be indifferent to the situation. They sat in costume staring into the camera while they waited. The portraits were well lit on the subject against a black background in high contrast, which helped to bring the focus to the costume and facial expressions. Most of the subjects were placed right in the center and cropped near or bellow the waist. The exception to this was one image of a man in costume armor. He was exposed from head to toe sitting on a stool draped in black cloth. This image allows for the audience to see more of what is taking place around the photograph.

Moving Stillness at James Cohan by Bill Viola
Focusing on The Sleepers instillation, we enter a room that is painted all black with several barrels filled with water and placed around the room. The barrels have a blue glow coming from them and once inspected reveals a t.v. screen at the bottom displaying a sleeping person. The room is still and quiet, while peering down on to this sleeping person I get an uneasy feeling, like I am violating this person’s privacy. Yet I couldn’t look away, I pulled out my phone and recorded this moment of protected exposure. The videos were very close to the subject, giving little context to the whole room they were sleeping in. What was strange was that none of the subjects rolled over.

DCTs and Scenes from the Blackout by Stan Douglas at David Zwirner
The works on view are a series of images that started off as staged photographs that depict what if scenarios in the event of a blackout. The images are dark with minimal sources of light, high contrast. What makes this work more interesting is how he edits them. Douglas manually manipulates color, frequencies and amplitudes to create the desired feel, then prints them on coated surfaces to give them a more surreal feel. One image shows a loot. A hand is shown in the near center of the image, top left of a glass window with a hole in it. The hand is lit by a single light, highlighting the theft.

Chelsea Galleries was an interesting trip. It was cool to see different types of photography styles that are out their in the world today. Its quite amazing how you can great so many different beautiful works of art with one tool, a camera.

Prison Nation

This was the first exhibit I found interesting. You’d don’t normally get to see photographs from inside prisons. Prisons in general are a mysterious place, you only know what you get to see on TV, and from what we know thats not always the most reliable source. So it was definitely interesting to see photos from real prisons taken by photographers. It was interesting to get a real understanding of what its like to be incarcerated. We got to see what inmates did on day today bases and also see what it was like for them after their prison experiences. The photos I saw gave me a better outlook on life. The photos where the inmates where being freed still had such a sad feel to them. You would think that the prisoners would be happy to be free. But sometimes thats not the case because they have been out of the real world for so long they are not used to it. 

Facades – Grand Tour

The second exhibit I found interesting was the Facades. Markus Brunetti’s high quality photo compositions of European architecture was highly impressive. At first we just thought that these where 1 super high quality photo. I was also intrigued how he got a clear shot with no people around. I soon came to find out that each photo is actually a composition of tens of thousands of smaller photos captured over months composited together to create one large super high quality photo. I can only imagine how tedious this process was, but the results are extravagant. The quality is ridiculous its soooooo high quality. You can see absolutely every part of the architecture, it actually got more quality the closer you got. Thats something that you don’t normally see. The amount of time and work that went into each photograph definitely places this exhibit at one of my favorites.

Leaning Out – Jeffrey Milstein

The third exhibit I found interesting was the Leaning Out exhibit by Jeffrey Milstein. This exhibit featured high quality drone photographs with a birds eye view over remarkable places. Its super interesting that once you get a different perspective over normal everyday things they become these beautiful patterns. You don’t look at streets as streets anymore or railroad tracks as railroad tracks anymore, you start too see beautiful shapes and patterns. I just found it super interesting seeing things from a different point of view.

Philip-Lorca DiCorcia is one instructing photographer with a stunning unique style. His photographs to me almost look like paintings. I love the stylized look that he goes for with such instructing lighting technique. He always appears to have 1 or 2 subjects in all of his work. The subject always appears to be glowing and illuminated from the background. Looking at his work it is easy for thew viewer to see who the main subject is. The photograph that stood out to me the most was the one of the young man standing in the parking garage illuminated by the one light in the photo. I just find the photo so interesting and inspiring. I love the tones of the photo and just the lighting. I love the way his face and shoulders are illuminated and thatches so bright up against this dark surrounding.

The Chelsea Galleries was an interesting experience. There were a few exhibits that fell short of my expectations but there was definitely many that I greatly enjoyed.

The Leaning Out exhibit at the Benrubi Gallery was one of the first exhibits that really spoke to me. Jeffrey Milstein clearly took time to find the perfect angle and location to snap his ariel pictures of industrial sites. His photos are full of symmetry and patterns which are very appealing to the eye. In the chaos of the busy images, you are able to filter out the noise and get a real sense of the 21st-century life which is heavily polluted with industrial materials. Whether this is a good thing or bad thing is subjectively up to the viewer. The colors captivated in the image also promote this conflicting idea as seen in the photo below. Even though this is an industrial site, the light seems to be taken when the sun is setting or rising and the reflection off of the metal is very captivating and to me kind of calming.

Another exhibit I enjoyed was Facades – Grand Tour at the Yossi Milo Gallery. The main reason I enjoyed this one is because I previously was an architect major and really enjoy the beauty of buildings and structures. Every time we look at a big building we mainly only get an obstructed perspective and never the full view. Markus Brunetti was able to capture his buildings from a straightforward perspective without any line of sight obstructions. This is a view we rarely get to see. I was impressed with his determination to photograph so many detail shots and then take the time to manipulate them in photoshop to get perspective he was going for. The buildings he chose also had a great use of color which appeals to the eye along with symmetry as well. Displaying these photos on the scale that he did was also appealing because I think he was trying to mimic the actual feeling of when you are standing next to these structures. My favorite building is attached below.

The last exhibit I enjoyed was the one of Gordon Parks exhibit. This is because I appreciated his motivation to bring awareness to the lives of blacks in the 1940’s. He uses high contrast in his photos for impact and to bring focus to his main subject. Another thing he does is use his background for support in his message. For example, in the photo of Ella Watson (down below), you see her standing in front of an American flag which represents the American dream. Unfortunately, she is frowning and is holding a broom and mop which to me represents that the American dream is not all it is believed to be. It is also a reference to the American Gothic painting by Grant Wood. Overall this exhibit did leave an impression on me.

At Aperture the the exhibit was called “Prison Nation”, where each photograph tells us about what prison life is like on the inside and what its like being on the outside. One of the pics that caught my attention was called “The GreenHouse Program”, which was shot by Lucas Foglia. It shows two female prisoners playing around while watering the greenery. The light looks like its diffused a little bit. This was shot by the rules of thirds in a way. Even though their in prison they get special privileges which gives them a warm smile and to have fun. The next gallery is called the Benrubi Gallery and the exhibition there is called “Leaning Out” by the photographer Jeffrey Milstein. Most of the photos I’ve seen were mostly aerial overview which is very rare for anyone to capture at such a high angle. Some of the overview shots showed patterns of repetition and also rule of thirds in a few of his pics. David Zwirner is the last gallery on the trip. “Scenes from the Blackout” is the last exhibition which goes way back in 2003 which was a good yet crazy year for me then. The photo I liked the most was when the guy is stuck in the elevator. I believe it was called “Solitaire”. Yes I know its the worst rotten luck to get stuck in an elevator during a blackout. But that didn’t stop because he was entertaining himself by playing with cards with a lit candle on the side. This was a over head shot. While he is entertaing himself out of boredom he keeps looking at that little as if it is the symbol of hope to never give up.