Jonathan Medina
Galleries Reviews
I’m not one to go to exhibits as a pass time, nor do I find pictures interesting unless they include something that catches my eye or something that I personally took. During this past trip we got to visit several exhibits that changed my point of view of photography. Once you get a chance to see different photography and how light can really effect a picture it makes someone more interesting in them.
The first gallery was called “Pace Gallery” which showed the work of photographer Irving Penn’s On Assignment. Mr.Penn took pictures of the older modern America. Pictures about the fashion industry, from what poor people would wear to what the rich would put together. Any kind of fashion he took a picture of it, the thing that made his work stand out was his use of tone and contrast, all of his pictures are black and white but the use of high contrast pictures brought out the people and made the pictures more crisp.
Hasted Kraeutler was another gallery that exhibited the work of Nick Brandt’s Across the Ravaged Land. In this exhibit Nick expressed the African Wildlife, most of his pictures are about the wild life but he also captures the African people showing their connection to the wild life. One picture that captured my eye was one with a huge elephant, the picture was using black and white tone, which gave it a dull feeling, but he also used a low-angle viewpoint which gave it the effect as if the elephant was literally standing in front of you. The point of view made the elephant look Huge almost life like.
Robert Polidroi’s Versailles was exhibited in the Mary Boone Gallery, the first thing I noticed when I walked in was that he used color something I haven’t seen in the past few galleries. The main focus to me in this photographers picture was fancy houses, furniture. He was interested in mansions owned by wealthy people. Using space he gave an illusion of a huge room, he used shallow depth of field in most of the pictures that showed a hall way or a simple picture hanging from a wall. On picture that I liked was a picture that showed another picture hanging from a clear white wall. The picture was of a woman in old modern clothing, with a gold oval frame. The wall was white but had straight lines all over it showing that it wasn’t just a flat wall. Those made the picture in the picture pop which caught my eye.
Susan Derege’s New Work, has a lot of dark colors. She likes to take pictures of nature, using a lot on tone and contrast giving it that sexy night or that scary night feeling. She uses shallow depth of field to bring out the main point in a picture. In one of her pictures she has a women’s face out of focus while there is a row of diamond that are in focus. This gives out a good messages to me, in my opinion this means that behind every diamond theres a women, I don’t know if that’s what its meant to be said but that’s how I see it. I also like how the night skies in the photos give off that twilight feeling.
Olivio Barbieri’s “Alps-Geographies and People” in this exhibit the photographer used a lot of positive space. Most of the pictures contain a lot of white due to the mountains; they also show deep space, making the other objects in the picture like a ice climber looking more clear and a bigger part of the picture. The pictures taken by this photographer also have its own personal touch because although most of them are white they show contrast on the lines and the curves, which give the pictures their shape.
Phillip Lorca DiCorsia’s “Hustlers” this exhibit was the most interesting to me, because I was told that the people in the pictures were hired prostitutes. The photos use a lot of tone and contrast to bring it to life, most of the pictures are in a dark room of a strong man but the point to me is that it showed the nightlife. Strong people living in dirty hotels or streets. To me it means that not everyone can survive in the night but the strongest do what they have to do to make it, which in these pictures it’s the prostitutes that live it ruff.
Good observations. Yes, I would say irving Penn uses high contrast sometimes like the famous Vogue cover of the woman in the hat but also sometimes like in the small trades photos uses a full scale of values.
Watch the term depth of field. It can be shallow or extensive. If everything is in focus like in Robert Polidari’s work we call that extensive depth of field.