Selected Works is a group show of photographic prints currently on view at photo-eye Gallery highlighting the diverse styles and subject matter embraced by our represented artists. For the next few weeks, covering the duration of the exhibition, we are engaging the featured artists about their photographs inviting them to tell the stories behind their images.
In this Selected Works segment we reached out to gallery artists Nick Brandt and James Hajicek and Carol Panaro-Smith for some background details concerning their exhibition images. Nick Brandt bears witness to an emotional scene while James and Carol complete a decade long investigation.
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| Elephant Skull, Amboseli, 2010 – Nick Brandt |
"Excuses first. This photo doesn’t really work on a computer screen. That white shape down at the bottom of frame could be a beach ball to the uninitiated. It’s only when you see the full size print — five feet or seven feet long — that you can see that that shape is actually the skull of an elephant. (I guess that the title of the photo, “Elephant Skull” is a bit of a clue, but images need to stand on their own.)
I was actually incredibly fortunate to come across this scene. I have never witnessed anything like this before or since:
For 20 minutes, I watched as, one by one, members of the herd came over and silently touched, moved and smelled the skull. They absolutely knew who the dead elephant was, even though this was all that remained. This is not anthropomorphizing. It was obvious. They knew.
My goal is always to try and show animals as sentient creatures equally worthy of life as us, as not so different from us. I hope that this photo goes a little way towards expressing that."—Nick Brandt
View additional portfolios by Nick Brandt
Read more 'Behind the Photo' stories by Nick Brandt
James Hajicek & Carol Panaro Smith
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| Arc of Departure Diptych 09-4, 2009 – James Hajieck & Carol Panaro Smith |
"The pieces in the exhibition are from a larger series, Arc of Departure. In this final series, after a 10 year span, we completed our exploration of the process of botanical photogenic drawings. The duality of the diptych suggest both verbal and nonverbal conversations about art and life but also the nature of collaboration. The cyanotype portion of the piece represents the intellectual underpinnings of the work while the photogram/photogenic drawings represent the visceral and direct experience of nature.
The most difficult aspect of the piece was managing the printing of the images as they are on a very thin silk tissue that requires a great deal of care in handling. Both the cyanotype and photogenic drawings require the immersion of the image in water for long periods of time. The silk tissue is then carefully glued on to book binding board."—James Hajieck & Carol Panaro Smith
View additional images by James Hajicek & Carol Panaro-Smith
Selected Works is currently on view at photo-eye Gallery and will be up through mid March. For more information or to purchase prints please contact Gallery Director Anne Kelly at 505.988.5152 x 121 or anne@photoeye.com or Gallery Associate Lucas Shaffer at 505.988.5152 x 114 or lucas@photoeye.com
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