The Pace gallery featuring the works of Irving Penn was overall very fashion/culture/human interest/editorial oriented. The content was mostly people and food but in a large scale. It looked as if almost every photo there was posted in Vogue magazine and some of the articles I saw looked like the typical articles you would see in this kind of magazine yet the photos looked like they could have been part of a foreign affairs magazine. The overall feel of this exhibit is very high-fashioned with some not-very-subliminal messages. The formal devices that Penn uses seem to be mid range/close-up shots, emphasized textures, eye-level and positive space.
The Hasted Kraeutler exhibit was definitely my favorite because his content was almost entirely focused on animals. The photographs displayed showed taxidermy in a natural setting which was a very powerful message to me, and then there were others showing live animals in the wild just being healthy and beautiful, and then a couple of pictures which I think represented the ivory trade, which is a huge deal in Africa and Asia and is responsible for 30,000+ Elephants, Walruses and hippos. The overall feel of the exhibit is stoic, sad, beautiful and strength. The techniques used by the photographer are close-up shots that are borderline dangerous, black and white photos, shallow depth of field, eye-level shots, extensive depth of field and low contrast.
The next gallery was the Mary Boone gallery which was a series of photos from Versailles. These specific photos, however, were taken of the behind-the-scenes portion of Versailles, showing old portraits, abandoned sections, peeling wall paper, yet that portion of palace is still extremely old fashioned and beautiful. The woodwork and colors are amazing and everything is so intricate. The paintings seem to be from the 1600/1700s and there is a very mystical yet eery feel to the exhibit. The photographer used extensive depth of field, close-up shots, high contrast, horizontal/vertical lines, eye-level and emphasized texture.
Susan Derges exhibit in the Danziger Project was strictly a collection of photos of foliage in front of very strong, solid colors. The photos, we were told, were not taken with an actual camera. They were essentially images burned onto clear paper using light. The pictures were very dreamy, surreal and even efflorescent with no sense of urgency. Derges used extreme close-ups, high contrast, shallow space, positive space, high contrast of light and dark and the halo effect.
Olivo Barbiens exhibit, Alps, in the Yancy Richardson gallery was solely on mountain climbing/mountains/water/sky. The overall feel is fun and daring, yet non-threatening. The photographer reduces the texture of the snow/sky/background which pronounces the hikers in the photos. The photos feature very little range of color, long shots, birds-eye and high contrast which produce cartoony sort of graphics in a real setting.
The last gallery we visited was Phillip DiCorsias collection entitled Hustlers, which is a study on male prostitution in the 90’s. This collection seems to me nothing if not a human interest piece with substantial hidden messages packed into every photo. The overall feel varies from photo to photo, from sad to happy to strange to informative to shocking. The photographer seems to use a color-dampening filter, contrast of light and dark, extenside depth of field, eye-level, using light to accentuate certain things, mid-range shots and close-up shots.
