photo-eye Gallery photo-eye Gallery: Three Works We Love Gallery Director Anne Kelly and Associates Savannah Sakry and Lucas Shaffer share one image that personally speaks to each them, why the work is meaningful, and why it's worth collecting.
Last week in the
introductory post to our Collecting Series, my first tip was to begin with work you LOVE. This week, Gallery Associates Savannah Sakry and Lucas Shaffer, as well as myself, want to share one image that personally speaks to each of us and why we find the work meaningful.
Believe me, it’s not easy to pick just one print, and I think the same applies when selecting a photograph for your personal collection, but here each of us made intuitive and passionate choices based not only our personal aesthetic taste, but themes, and ideas we respond to. Collecting work that delights, inspires, calms, or challenges you means you get to have that conversation – that experience in your own home on a daily basis.
We hope that you enjoy viewing some of our favorite prints from the Gallery and please reach out if you have questions about one of the selected artworks — and if you have any questions that you would like to see addressed in future posts, we would love to hear from you.
–Anne Kelly, Gallery Director
Lucas Shaffer selects Chris McCaw's Sunburned GSP#279
Chris McCaw’s
Sunburned GSP#279 (Pacific Ocean/Movement) is rich, moody, and alien. This atmospheric black-and-white image places you on a wide sea confronting a constellation of black suns against a void of blank sky. For me, the view builds a sublime feeling of unease, danger, and fascination I find utterly delightful. Perhaps equally engaging is the way McCaw makes his imagery. Using hand-made cameras and antique odd lenses each exposure - sometimes lasting hours – solarizes the image in camera on vintage silver gelatin paper yielding a unique print. I love how
Sunburned emphasizes the transformative power of photography showcasing how the impression of light over time can make something truly otherworldly and alter our perception of the natural world. I find McCaw’s work important, and I adore how he has found compelling reasons to continue to make landscape imagery on traditional silver gelatin paper in 2017.
Read Director Anne Kelly's interview with McCaw
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| Gallery Associate Lucas Shaffer |
Joining photo-eye Gallery as an Associate in the summer of 2014, Lucas Maclaine Shaffer began making images in college where he studied at the Maine Media Workshops + College and the University of Illinois at Chicago. Lucas counts Cig Harvey, Brenton Hamilton, and Doug Ischar among his most influential instructors imbuing him with a love of process-based artwork and the power of visual metaphor. Aside from photo-eye Gallery, Lucas has assisted photographers such as Andrea Modica and George Tice during workshop sessions, has taught introductory photographic classes, and prints professionally.
Lucas Shaffer, Gallery Associate
505.988.5152 x114 •
lucas@photoeye.com
Savannah Sakry selects Element II by Chaco Terada
This transparent black and white photograph
Element II by
Chaco Terada is beautifully printed on two layers of silk. To the right of the composition, we see the shadow of what appears to be a tree, or perhaps a tumbleweed drifting over a sea of blissful waves. As you walk by this piece, your eye will catch the light shimmering back from the silk. Originally from Japan, Terada's process is a meditative practice or spiritual journey. She often will include nostalgic moments and personal reflections through the use of expressionistic, free-form
calligraphy by hand with bold, or soft metallic Sumi inks. As a result, her works are each one-of-a- kind, or unique. I love Chaco's ability to blend the natural and spiritual world so seamlessly and her inventive printing method using such delicate fibers. This photograph is elegant, dreamy and perfectly minimal.
Read more about Terada's process
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| Gallery Associate Savannah Sakry |
Savannah Sakry is an artist and photographer living in Santa Fe, NM. Her love for photography ignited with the alchemy of the black and white darkroom at a young age. She received a BFA in Photography from the School of Visual Arts in New York City, NY, where her passion for curating and collecting was influenced by her instructors Alexandra Brez and W.M. Hunt. Savannah joined photo-eye Gallery in 2015 as Associate and is and especially fond of master printing, symbolism, storytelling, and all things magical.
Savannah Sakry, Gallery Associate
505.988.5152 x115 •
savannah@photoeye.com
Anne Kelly selects Balearics, Spain 2014 by Pentti Sammallahti
This small silver gelatin print
Balearics, Spain, 2014 by
Pentti Sammallahti depicts a tiny white sailboat on the horizon of a vast, dark and potentially ominous seascape — topped by a giant white cloud. The scale of this print, which is common for Pentti, invites the viewer to look beyond the surface of this exquisitely printed photograph and to travel inward to the midline where the tiny fragile boat floats… in the middle of the dark sublime ocean. The image is powerful and fragile at the same time and it sparks my imagination… Where is the boat traveling and what will happen next We don’t know … and I love that.
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| Gallery Director, Anne Kelly |
Anne Kelly is Gallery Director of photo-eye Gallery in Santa Fe, NM and has been with the company since 2007. Her interest in photography developed at an early age, influenced by her mother’s love for the medium. Originally from Colorado, she moved to Santa Fe to further her studies in photography under the direction of David Scheinbaum at the College of Santa Fe, where she received her BFA. Kelly ls particular interested in photographic works that employ the use of alternative processes in contemporary work, magical realism, and images that invoke emotion and stimulate the imagination.
Anne Kelly, Gallery Director
505.988.5152 x121 • anne@photoeye.com
