NEW YORK, NY.- Cynthia-Reeves presents Sense of Place, featuring the art of five contemporary photographers, including the major New York debut of legendary photographer and Sigmar Polke contemporary, Johannes Brus. The exhibition opens on Thursday evening, June 24th, with a reception open to the pubic, and will run through August 20th.
Specific to the photographic medium are issues of presumed transparency. To counter such assumptions, SENSE OF PLACE includes works that rely upon overt manipulation to further communicate the "essence" of the depicted places. These images aim to elicit emotion rather than merely convey objective documentation.
The places addressed are diverse, ranging from the unique skylines of cities around the world to the intimate spaces of the domestic sphere. From the haunting images of a deserted, sere landscape of Turkey by Paul Taylor, to the formal compositions of blue-collar streets by Elke Morris, the photographers ably capture their subjects, and draw on technique and aesthetic vision to present their unique views of place.
Johannes Brus' Vorholle is a large-scale, four-panel photograph that incorporates collaged imagery from his innovative and signature multi-layering negative printing process with chemical, coloring manipulation. When entering his world, viewers find themselves in the realm of the surreal--a fabricated fantasy, with overt and playful references to animus and anima.
Luc Demers' acute control of light offers an intimate look into domestic space. A fluid interaction between darkness and light defines Demers' commanding series Darkened Rooms. The bright, forthright light fissures capture the eye, while the works' predominantly dark backgrounds imbue his images with a narrative potency.
Elke Morris’ selectively blurred and saturated images of buildings give her Domicile series the trompe l'oeil effect of miniaturization. Though printed large-scale, it feels as if one is looking at models. This toy-like nature, enhanced by Morris's use of color, is at odds with her subject matter. Photographs of people's homes connote intimacy and the private sphere, and Morris' child like presentation shifts the viewer from observer to outsider, setting up a psychological push and pull which ultimately engages her audience on a deeper level.
Using a video camera, Shuli Sadé shot the top of a newly constructed tower in Tel Aviv every night for two consecutive summers. Sadé kept the video camera's tripod and angle in the same position, effectively recording the changes in environment over the two years, as the tower and its position within the video frame remained constant. From the footage gathered, she created Time Units, a multi-panel work of frozen video stills printed on transparency and fused to plexi.
Jeffrey Stockbridge’s Divine Lorraine series examines the once luxurious hotel, exposing the subtle beauty of the building's decay and capturing the mystery of abandoned places. He uses camera movements and a low f-stop to shift the focal plane and blur areas of the image. By manipulating the depth of field, Stockbridge controls where the viewer focuses in his images.
To create his Images of Turkey series Paul Taylor used turn of the century photographic techniques to develop his glass plate negatives and create his prints. By choosing vintage photographic process, Taylor creates a dialogue between his medium and his subject, the ancient hillside town of Ortahsir,, evoking within the viewer a distinct sense of age and history.
