For my second cultural event I visited the Colorado Photographic Arts Center which is located in the Denver Public Library on the 5th floor. The space is an open room with nondescript features and photographs framed and hung on the walls. The neutrality of the space is nice because it encourages the audience to focus on the art without distraction.
The show that was posted at the time of my visit was the 2011 Juried Show. All members of the Colorado Photographic Arts Center were invited to submit their work for this Members Show. The photographs displayed were those that were chosen by two jurors: Elijah Gowin and April Watson. 23 artists were selected and one artist was selected to present a solo show.
The artist who received the solo show award was Rowan James from Tennessee. His work was described as "a meditation on the American landscape". James presented a number of black and white photographs that were interesting both in terms of lighting and subject matter. I found his work titled "Grove" to be particularly beautiful. "Grove" was a photograph of a forest landscape that was lit in a naturally stunning manner. The lush greenery (I'm assuming it was green, but the photo was black and white) created interesting contrast because the leaves provided a natural range of tones depending on their angle toward the camera. What struck me most about this photo was the way that the light was peeking through the dense tree covering, creating a presence that seemed almost God-like. The lighting was amazing because it was the type of moment that happens spontaneously in nature and is often overlooked or unseen. I also enjoyed James' photograph titled "Sunrise" because the lighting was similarly natural and awe inspiring. In "Sunrise", a tree stands alone, blocking the sun. The sun is streaming through the branches of the tree, but the physical presence of the tree dissipates the sunshine and creates an orb of light around the tree. Again, I loved this photograph because it was a natural moment that was frozen in time and posted in a gallery so that people could appreciate it. James' work seems to implore people to stop and see the beauty that surrounds us.
I found a number of the other photographs to be beautiful as well. I really enjoyed Paul Sisson's "Hope", in which he used a light source and a long exposure to superimpose the word "hope" onto a calming stream landscape.
I also enjoyed Kari Varner's untitled image of a woman's thick mane of hair with two hands. This photograph was beautiful to me because there was a nice range of tones which added dimension and allowed each strand of hair to shine individually. I also liked the abstract nature of the print because it caused me to pause, figure out what was being depicted, interpret the image, and contemplate the meaning of the image.
Jacqueline Bates' photo duo "Nina & Jackie" caught my eye as well, but I preferred the photo on the left, which I will assume is Nina. The woman in the photo has a raw, vulnerable expression that made me freeze. Her eyes were big and dark, and they seemed to hold a story. I loved this photograph because there is no way that the subject's expression was contrived. The photo oozed human-ness and was incredibly moving, though it is hard to explain why. Often it seems that the most important pieces of art are the ones that touch you for no apparent reason, leading you to dig deep and explore the self.
Randall Stillwell's "Jeanie" was an incredibly detailed black and white portrait of an old woman. I liked this photograph because the background was a stark black which causes the eye to gravitate to the woman's face. Aside from the obvious contrast created by the jet-black backdrop against caucasian skin, there was an incredible amount of tonal range in the woman's face. The lighting illuminated the top of every wrinkle in her contoured skin and left shadows in the crevices. The camera was perfectly focused so the wrinkles appeared real enough to touch and gave the print surprising texture and dimension. Her age spots varied in darkness, size, and spacing which made me linger at the photograph for quite awhile, taking in all of the detail. I really liked this photograph because I think the process of aging is very interesting and I think that life's wear and tear on the face is tragically beautiful. It would be interesting if a photographer could take portraits of people at regular intervals for their whole lives in an effort to document the process of aging. "Jeanie" struck me, not only because I find aging and the details of elderly faces interesting, but because my mother drew something similar to this photograph. My mom found a photographic portrait of a man and decided to use graphite to reproduce it. It took her about 6 months, but she produced a drawing that was shockingly detailed and realistic. My respect for her artistic talent was increased exponentially because of that drawing and it is one of my most beloved works of art of all time. Therefore, the photograph of "Jeanie" reminded me of something dear to me while illustrating the aging process which I find so poignant.
Finally, I absolutely loved my professor's (Roddy MacInnes') work titled "Hands". This piece is a 7x7 grid of black and white photographs of open palms. First, I really liked this work because it appears to include a variety of skin colors. Diversity is incredibly important to me and is something that I miss terribly at the University of Denver (the #1 least diverse school in the nation only a few years ago). The different skin colors create a range of tones that vary from square to square. Tonal range is also present inside each individual box, as the topography of each palm creates shadows and highlights. I think this is a very interesting subject matter because palms, like fingerprints, are completely unique. Because no palm is identical to another, photographs of palms are like anonymous portraits. The presentation of these photographs in a grid simultaneously expresses anonymity and individuality.
In total, I truly enjoyed this show. It was nice to see the work of a number of photographers and to see a number of different subjects. The lack of continuity kept me interested and kept me thinking analytically.
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