photo-eye | BLOG: 2019 Group Show

Showing posts with label 2019 Group Show. Show all posts

Interview by Alexandra Jo

Prints by James Pitts installed at photo-eye Gallery for the 2019 Group Show.

James W. Pitts is a Santa Fe-based photographer widely recognized for his gentle, understated platinum prints created from large-format negatives. Whether in color or black and white, his work nods to elements of minimalism and Zen Buddhism in its simplicity and elegance. photo-eye Gallery is pleased to feature three of Pitts’ color photographs in our 2019 Group Show.

photo-eye Gallery Assistant, Alexandra Jo, recently spoke with Pitts about his creative process and different approaches he takes to make his artwork:

James Pitts – Dried Gourd, 2018, Archival Pigment Print, 17x9" Image, Edition of 5, $650

Alexandra Jo:     Your work in the 2019 Group Show is in color, whereas much of the work you’ve shown at photo-eye previously is in black and white. Do you look at the two approaches differently? Do they have a dialogue with one another or progress in a certain way in your overall body of work?

James Pitts: I actually do a lot of different kinds of work. I’ve photographed flowers for a long time and have worked in both black and white and color photography over the years… I am really open to doing lots of different kinds of things with my art. photo-eye Gallery usually shows the flower pictures and platinum prints, and I’ve kind of gotten known for that, but in all of my work I really just photograph whatever appeals to me visually. The flower pictures aren’t really about the flowers so much, it’s just an opportunity to take a picture. I’ve been very interested in taking photos of objects for a long time, and anything I photograph is really about using the formal elements of photography, things like lighting, composition, etc.

AJ:     That kind of leads into my next question about how you set up your photographs… In a previous conversation with photo-eye Gallery, you mentioned setting your photographs as if they're on a stage and working to find different backgrounds that appeal to your aesthetic. Can you go into more detail about both the process of finding backdrops and setting the stage for your photographs?

JP:     I pretty much rely on chance. I gather things up and put little stage sets together. The photographs in this show that have Jackson Pollock-esque backgrounds are actually papers that were the backs of two of my paintings. I saw them one day and thought they looked interesting. I like photographing things from more than one angle, turning things around, finding comparisons and dialogues someone might find by looking at them… that’s why there is a diptych [in the show] of the same vase and leaves from different angles. I also like photographing things that are small because it’s easier to find an interesting background for small things. I like the intimacy of something small… I even prefer small prints to bigger ones. I can find more interesting paper that has odd stains of metal that has a pattern, and backgrounds that are seamless. You can also see things that you don’t normally see when working small. You are able to pick up things that otherwise go unnoticed.

Of course, there are plenty of opportunities for failure, but chance is definitely a big thing for me. I don’t have any kind of slick philosophy for what I do; I’ve just been in love with photography since I was a kid.

James Pitts – Dried Gourd Leaves Diptych, 2018, Archival Pigment Print, 11x17" Image, Edition of 5, $650

AJ:     I like that idea of chance and opportunity for failure. Could one say that there is a spirit of experimentation in your approach to art?

JP:     Yes, I do think with painting experimentation is more available. You’re not relying on using a machine, but using your body and responding to the materials. But it’s like Eggleston said: “[Photography] is a democratic medium.” It relies on what you choose, what you edit. I like to think about what you don’t include in the photograph instead of what you do include. Everything is available and it’s up to you to decide what you put in front of the lens. I don’t like to put so much self-importance on the process. If people respond to [the work] I’m welcome to the possible creative dialogue.

AJ:     Well, one thing that I strongly respond to in the work is the connotation and subtle reference to Zen Buddhist aesthetics like minimalism, geometry, simplicity and natural texture. Has that culture directly influenced what you find visually or aesthetically pleasing?

JP:     Yes, that culture is very influential on what I find aesthetically pleasing. I’m a minimalist. I don’t like having a ton of things around, so it’s better for my eye to not have a lot of things. It’s been a part of my life for a long time.

AJ:    So that carries over to your aesthetic preferences in photography?

JP:    Yes. I think you’re influenced by everything you see all the time. I have big heroes in art… I love Matisse, Cy Twombly, etc. and I may be influenced by them on a certain subconscious level. But I think you’re influenced by everything you see.

AJ:     The three works in this show are of wilted, shriveled, dying plants, whereas a lot of your other photographs of flowers are of living plants in the prime of their bloom. Was there an influence or specific purpose behind your shift in focus between plants in their prime vs. plants in stages of decay?

James Pitts – Wilted Yellow Tulip, 2018,
Archival Pigment Print, 17x11" Image,
Edition of 5, $650

JP:     Subconsciously, I think so. The photograph of the wilted flower in the exhibition was taken after an eight-year relationship ended. It’s been a difficult time dealing with that because it kind of came out of nowhere, and around that time a friend had said something about how beautiful dying things are, so all of that may have played some sort of subconscious part in the wilted flower, and the wilted gourd photograph.

Also, I like using the backs of books for backgrounds sometimes, and in that wilted flower photograph, I used an Anselm Keifer book that shows a painting he did of collapsing buildings. I love that contrast between the wilting flower and the collapsing concrete structure. It was a coincidence that I pulled that book out and happened to find the juxtaposition interesting. I also just think it’s interesting what age does. It brings some perspective that just gets more interesting as I get older.

AJ:     So is there anything that you’re working on currently, or a different direction you think your work might take in the future?

JP:     I’ve always been interested in the same things, taking photographs, objects, some things have just taken longer to make. I’ve always worked in series. I’m interested in building from what people do in “unintentional art...” I have a series of photographs of utility covers from Tokyo in which I arrange them in a grid. I’m interested in portraits; I have a series of portraits that have never been shown. I love the texture of peoples’ skin and just the way they look… it’s pretty fascinating that we are all different. I’ve also been building boxes recently, thinking about the sculptural element of objects. I’ve also been working with 35mm film to make blurry images. I just love film cameras. Something about using film is really elaborate and nice. But I don’t think my work is going in any different direction… it’s all just a continuation of those things I’ve always found interesting.

I have a friend who is a painter who never shows her work, but to me, if there is no one to see the work it’s kind of pointless. And whether it’s liked or not is kind of irrelevant, I just enjoy the dialogue. Connecting is the most important thing in my world, and in life, for me. Art has been a part of my life for a long time, and luckily I don’t have to make a living off of it, I can just love doing it. Being able to do art and have someone look at it is part of that. I just like doing art, and if I can connect with another person, that’s wonderful. ■

photo-eye Gallery's 2019 Group Show remains on view through this Saturday, April 20th. If you're in Santa Fe, please stop by to see this diverse collection of new and notable works by ten acclaimed represented artists.

» View the 2019 Group Show » View Additional work by James Pitts

• • •

For more information, and to purchase prints, please contact Gallery Staff at

505-988-5152 x202 or gallery@photoeye.com

All prices listed were current at the time this post was published. Prices will increase as the print editions sell.

photo-eye Gallery

541 S. Guadalupe Street

Santa Fe, NM 87501

VIEW MAP

2019 Group Show
on view through April 20, 2019

» View work from the exhibition

Select Included Artists:

» Julie Blackmon
» Kate Breakey
» Mitch Dobrowner
» Michael Kenna
» Clay Lipsky
» Beth Moon
» James Pitts
» Reuben Wu
» Brad Wilson

Profile by Alexandra Jo

Monument Valley, 2014, Archival Pigment Print, 20x30 inches, Edition of 40, $4500

Mitch Dobrowner’s landscape photography is elegant, bold, and powerfully composed. His black-and-white images have an incredible range of value and tone that captures the majesty of nature in a vivid, luminous style. photo-eye Gallery is proud to feature Dobrowner’s Monument Valley and Fly Geyser from his series Still Earth in our 2019 Group Show on view through April 20, 2019.

The artist’s deep, personal connection to each of the landscapes he photographs is legible in the work. Dedication to finding, observing, and personally resonating with a specific location is vital to Dobrowner’s landscape practice, and is clearly visible in the care that goes into composing and printing his images. He patiently waits for the right moment, capturing fleeting instants like when a cloud nestles into the curve of a mountainside only for a minute, or when sunlight slants across the shapes of desert buttes and mesas for a few, perfect seconds.

Fly Geyser, Location: Black Rock Desert, Nevada, 2018,
Archival Pigment Print, 20x30 inches, Edition of 25, $2500

Dobrowner says of his work:
“The Earth is an ever-changing ecosystem. It existed well before we were here and will hopefully be here well beyond the time we leave it. It’s real, at times beautifully surreal, powerfully haunting and alive all at the same time.”

In both Monument Valley and Fly Geyser there is a play between intimacy and vastness as the desert monuments and towering spray of water unfold before the artist's lens. When looking at the work I am reminded of the grand scale of our planet: of how long it takes the wind to carve intricate desert formations, how slowly a geyser erodes the face of stone, and how long those monuments will outlast my own time on this earth. For me, that is truly the power of Dobrowner’s photographs. They connect the viewer to the immensity and ephemeral beauty of nature in a way that feels universal, yet personal and intimate.

More specific information about Monument Valley and Fly Geyser can be found in previous photo-eye Blog posts:

Video: Behind the Image - Monument Valley by Mitch Dobrowner

New Release – Mitch Dobrowner: Fly Geyser

• • •

For more information, and to purchase prints, please contact Gallery Staff at

505-988-5152 x202 or gallery@photoeye.com

All prices listed were current at the time this post was published. Prices will increase as the print editions sell.

Profile by Alexandra Jo

Clay Lipsky – Atomic Overlook: 02, 2012, Archival Pigment Print, 16x16" Image, Edition of 10, $1000

When looking at Clay Lipsky’s photographs in the series Atomic Overlook it becomes difficult to firmly place the images in a specific period of time. By layering historical images of atomic explosions with original photographs of tourists, Lipsky creates a futuristic, post-apocalyptic world in which people watch atom bombs for entertainment. However, the clothing and details of the people in the photographs feel familiar and current. It becomes clear that a line is being drawn between our present moment and what the future of our society may hold.

According to Lipsky’s artist statement: “This series re-contextualizes a legacy of atomic bomb tests in order to keep the ongoing nuclear threat fresh and omnipresent. It also speaks to the current state of the world, a voyeuristic, tourist-filled culture where catastrophe is viewed as entertainment by increasingly desensitized masses.”

Clay Lipsky – Atomic Overlook: 19, 2013
Archival Pigment Print, 16x16" Image Edition of 10, $1000

Indeed, the shifting temporal quality in Atomic Overlook does bring up important questions about the roles of entertainment, politics, and the media in our culture today, and what this implies for society’s future. Where is the line between politics and entertainment? What are the implications of a voyeuristic culture that watches catastrophe from a safe distance, but never acts due to apathy or inability? Mass desensitization to broader environmental and social threats is also an issue addressed in the work that I’m personally very drawn in by. I enjoy Lipsky’s use of the atomic mushroom cloud as a symbol for both scientific progress and the horrific destructive powers that man has created. “Progress” has revealed itself to be a double-edged sword. In this body of work, it is easy to make broader connections to the threats of global warming, industrialization, and pollution in addition to the ever-present looming of the potential for nuclear war.

The photomontage techniques Lipsky uses to create each image are so seamless that visualizing a future in which atomic explosions are a mundane occurrence becomes effortless. The colors, handling of scale, for me, are part of what makes the work so effective in conveying its message.

photo-eye Gallery is pleased to feature two images from Lipsky’s Atomic Overlook in our 2019 Group Show. Lipsky’s work was included in Atomic Playground, an exhibition at photo-eye’s Project Space in 2018, and also featured on the Photographer's Showcase in 2015.

» View Additional Work by Clay Lipsky » View the 2019 Group Show

• • •

For more information, and to purchase prints, please contact Gallery Staff at

505-988-5152 x202 or gallery@photoeye.com

All prices listed were current at the time this post was published. Prices will increase as the print editions sell.

Michael Kenna, Mina, Study 3, Japan, 2011 Gelatin-Silver Print, 8x8" Image, Edition of 25, $3000

Ten years ago, after a particularly tumultuous period in his life, Michael Kenna quietly made a decision to expand his photographic practice to include the human form. Kenna is well known for his minimalistic landscapes, and has been vocal in the past about the absence of the human figure in his photographs stating, "I feel they gave away the scale and became the main focus of the viewer’s attention." But, believing "fixed dogma is not a creative tool," Kenna has created Rafu, 裸婦 a series of female nude portraits made in Japan. Roughly translated, Rafu stands for "nude or undressed female" in Japanese, and the series highlights the human body's unique form and the individuality of each model as well as examining the interplay between the body and human-constructed environments.

Michael Kenna, Namiko, Study 2, Japan, 2016,
Gelatin-Silver Print, 8x8" Image, Edition of 25, $3000

It was important to Kenna not to use professional models, "The women I photographed were a cross-section of friends of friends and their associates: office workers, dancers, yoga practitioners, actresses, and photographers, who wanted to see how it felt being nude in front of a camera…" the photographer states in a recent interview with Zoé Balthus, "…some were being photographed nude for the first time in their lives." Kenna views "both historical and contemporary creative representations of the nude as open invitations to explore this esthetic challenge. My efforts may add little or nothing to the enormous existing mountain of artistic treasures, but that is not important. This is another chapter in an ongoing story.” We are proud to feature six images from Rafu in the 2019 Group Show.

» View The 2019 Group Show

Rafu, Photographs by Michael Kenna
Nazraeli Press, Paso Robles, 2019
Hardbound: $75.00

Earlier this year, Rafu 裸婦 was published as a monograph by Nazraeli Press to coincide with a major retrospective exhibition of Michael Kenna’s photographic work at the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photographic Art. The following is an excerpt from Collier Brown's excellent review of Rafu 裸婦 for photo-eye.

"In some ways, Kenna’s nudes seem inevitable. Having worked with Ruth Bernhard, one of the most accomplished photographers of the female nude in the twentieth century, I can’t imagine Kenna not wanting to try his hand at the genre. The surprising thing is that unlike so many apprenticeships, the work of the apprentice, in this case, resembles the master’s only by way of attention, not style. I see in Rafu an eye toward elegance and form that puts me in mind of Bernhard, but I see a rawness too—a mortality in the bones that reminds of me Eikoh Hosoe and the choreography of Japanese Butoh. There’s also a substance in the darkness, a depth, a “praise of shadow” that writers like Junichiro Tanizaki have described as essential to Japanese art.

Kenna’s monuments and landscapes rise up from the mists. But the nudes are hewn from harder stuff. Sculptural, Klimtian. No angelic down or wisp of incense. No Grecian symmetries. The female nude in Rafu is exactly what the body wants to be: not the dream of itself, not the paradigm or archetype, but the self-containment of its own mystery.

Michael Kenna, Namiko, Study 3, Japan, 2016
Gelatin-Silver Print, 8x8" Image,
Edition of 25, $3000

Mystery is important to everything Kenna has done. The hills and long horizons of his previous books draw us beyond the human shape of things. Oddly enough, that much is still true in Rafu, but in reverse. A photograph, even a print, says Kenna, should be “deliciously unpredictable.” It’s an ambition achieved in Rafu, where each image is a beginning and end unto itself. There’s no way of knowing what the next pose, the next expression, the next mood will be. Rafu is an exceptional addition to the nude genre in photography, living up, in its own way, to Bernhard’s insistence that artists try new things, that they be “consistently inconsistent.” She would have been proud." – Collier Brown

Collier Brown is a photography critic and poet. Founder and editor of Od Review, Brown also works as an editor for 21st Editions (Massachusetts) and Edition Galerie Vevais (Germany).

» Read Brown's Full Review of Rafu » Read Zoé Balthus' Interview with Michael Kenna

• • •

For more information, and to purchase prints, please contact Gallery Staff at

505-988-5152 x202 or gallery@photoeye.com

All prices listed were current at the time this post was published.

Prices will increase as the print editions sell.

by Juliane Worthington

Thomas Jackson, Tutus no. 4, San Francisco, California, 2018 Archival Pigment Print, 20x25" Image, Edition of 4, $2500

Whether it’s straws, translucent plastic plates, or rainbow colored tutus, Thomas Jackson’s intent is to confuse our senses by making objects appear in mid-air in scenes we would never expect to encounter them.

I asked him how he imagines and executes these images without the use of photomontage. Jackson says he begins by finding something everyone can relate to, “I love how the tutus are something we’ve all encountered in some way. For me, it’s a reminder of my daughter’s whimsical, childhood days.” His happiness comes when he can juxtapose an ordinary object into an extraordinary scene.

Represented artist Thomas Jackson stages over 200 tutus on a seaside cliff in San Francisco in preparation

for his image Tutus no. 4.

“I scouted out the location and fell in love with the vast, rugged cliffs, covered in ice plant,” Jackson remembers. He went on to recall the challenge of getting all his equipment and supplies out to such a remote location. Listening to him describe his process, I could hear how much he loves the puzzle of figuring out how to execute his idea as much as the result. With the help of his assistant, and after a lot of factoring and trial and error, Jackson staged the hillside with over two hundred multi-colored tutus zip-tied to thin, green, wooden garden stakes. The effect was, to Jackson’s delight, a way to “see the wind.”

Jackson’s message with his work, like Tutus no. 4, is to make us feel disoriented, confused and even a little unnerved by seeing normal, everyday objects in unusual places. He feels these images make our brains sort of jump out of our thinking ruts and really take a look at the elements of our world. In this photograph, the tutus become a voice for the wind, a way for us to see how playful the Earth is, even on the remote cliffs of Northern California.

Thomas Jackson – Straws no. 4, Mono Lake, California, 2015,
Archival Pigment Print, 30x38" Image, Edition of 5, $4000

Currently, Jackson’s Straws no. 4, Mono Lake, California, 2015 is on view at photo-eye Gallery in our 2019 Group Show.

» View the 2019 Group Show

» View Additional Work by
Thomas Jackson

» Read More about
Thomas Jackson

Jackson is also releasing two new images this week, Kool-Aid no. 1, Muir Beach, California, 2018 and Kool-Aid no. 2, Montara, California, 2018.

Thomas Jackson – Kool-Aid no. 1, Muir Beach, California, 2018, Archival Pigment Print,
20x25" Image, Edition of 4, $2500

Thomas Jackson – Kool-Aid no. 2, Montara, California, 2018, Archival Pigment Print, 20x25" Image, Edition of 4, $2500

• • •

For more information, and to purchase prints,

please contact Gallery Staff at

505-988-5152 x202 or gallery@photoeye.com

All prices listed were current at the time this post was published.

Prices will increase as the print editions sell.

Prints from Beth Moon's The Savage Garden installed at photo-eye Gallery for the 2019 Group Show.

When I got hired at photo-eye Gallery, I knew I’d be surrounded by photographic inspiration on a daily basis, what I wasn’t prepared for was how much personal inspiration I’d find talking with the artists we represent. From my first day on the job, Beth Moon has been a source of mystical connection for me. Her deep love of trees, and the calling she feels to document them in such profound ways, struck a cord in my heart immediately. Having the chance to talk with her about her work and why she does what she does, left me feeling hopeful and encouraged as an artist, a mother, and a human being. I hope you enjoy this heartfelt interview with Beth on her body of work The Savage Garden, a study of carnivorous plants. Six works from The Savage Garden are currently on view in our 2019 Group Show.

» View the 2019 Group Show

Beth Moon, Nepenthes Bicalcarata
Platinum/Palladium Print,
12x8" Image, Edition of 15, $1200

Juliane Worthington: What inspired you to work with carnivorous plants?

Beth Moon: I was living in California at the time, and about an hour’s drive away from my house I found a nursery—my son had this mad interest in carnivorous plants—which was huge! They had so many types from all over the world; they had a special room they kept at Amazonian temperatures for some of the more exotic species--that was just my beginning of learning about these plants. I found them fascinating, with all their intricate cups and pitchers and ways of trapping their prey. The owner of the nursery allowed me to take certain plants home.

JW: The way you’ve processed the photo is very complimentary to the subject—could you talk about how you made these images?

BM: Thank you! Yes, I think anytime you can take the background away, you can really focus on the subject. I made a make-shift studio space in front of a large window (the plants need a lot of natural light). I draped linen behind them, with the natural light coming in, and spent hours with them, with my macro lens, in various stages of light.

JW: The platinum and palladium process you’re so well known for is not something that’s commonly used anymore. Could you share some of the steps involved in developing these photos?

BM: Sure—it’s captured in camera, scanned, and then a digital negative is made. Paper is really important to me! I use 100% cotton watercolor paper which has been made in the same mill in France for the last 400 years. I have equipment set up in my garage (you don’t need a completely dark room like you do in silver printing—there’s a lot of ambient light). I brush onto the paper a liquid combination of platinum and palladium metals and let the paper dry. And then I have this huge 5000-watt bulb housed in this contraption with a vacuum frame that keeps the negative on top of the paper very tight. I expose the paper and then I run it through a number of trays of washing out the residuals, and let it dry!

JW: I love your work with ancient trees, and am finding equal fascination with this series on carnivorous plants. What is it about nature that inspires you to take the time and energy to document it so passionately?

BM: I think you put your finger on it, I just find so many aspects of nature so intriguing and interesting. Usually, I approach these subjects wanting to learn more about them. I think for me personally, photography is a great way to learn and explore. By the time I’m done with a series, which usually takes a couple of years, I’ve lived with that subject long enough I feel like I know it inside and out. The trees, the carnivorous plants are all an extension of my love of nature. The ravens even—you look a bird and just have to wonder, “What is this process? What does it mean to be a bird?” It’s got to be something that really grabs me in order to put that much time and energy in.

JW: I think you’re really good at communicating your humble appreciation of everything you photograph. The time you spend with your subjects really comes through in your work. It’s clear these are not random captures, but that you’ve really seen each individual life. Thank you for sharing.

Beth Moon, Nepenthes Albomarginata
Platinum/Palladium Print, 7.5x5" Image
Edition of 9, $900

2019 Group Show

on view through April 20, 2019

» View the Work

» Read More about the Exhibition

» More Work by Beth Moon

For more information, and to purchase prints,

please contact Gallery Staff at

505-988-5152 x202 or gallery@photoeye.com

All prices listed were current at the time this post was published.

Prices will increase as the print editions sell.

photo-eye Gallery

541 South Guadalupe St

Santa Fe, NM 87501

–View Map–

2019 Group Show installed at photo-eye Gallery

With only a few weeks before the dawning of a new spring, we’re taking a pause to reflect and share with you the images we feel connected to, inspired by and grateful for. Many of you have had the pleasure of visiting the gallery throughout its various exhibits—each show carries with it a unique sense of energy and communication. Our current exhibit, The 2019 Group Show, is a sort of mixed tape of some of our favorite photo-eye photographers. Gallery Director, Anne Kelly, has selected a collection of pieces for this exhibition, spanning many genres of subject matter, but somehow all seem to be asking us to take moment to be quiet with them and listen. Whether carnivorous plant, a faraway landscape outside of time, or the delicate curve of femininity, each gives us space and reason to get quiet and deliberate with our movements. We hope these favorites of our favorites help you slow down and embrace the changing of the season with calm, peaceful intentions.

» View the 2019 Group Show

» Read More about the Exhibition

Anne Kelly selects LN 0309 by Reuben Wu

Reuben Wu, LN 0309, Archival Pigment Print, 15x20" Image, Edition of 5, $950

Anne Kelly, Gallery Director

anne@photoeye.com

505.988.5152 x121

This summer I’ll be celebrating thirteen years with photo-eye Gallery. During that span I’ve had the opportunity to see a lot of inspiring photographs--but it’s certainly not every day I get to experience something I've never seen before! Our newly represented photo-eye artist, Rueben Wu is doing just that. Wu’s images are simply a joy to experience visually, even without the inside scoop of how the work is made, but learning his revolutionary process and dedication to image making moves me that much more. Wu approaches both landscape and night photography with a fresh and innovative approach. Traveling to remote locations, Wu frames his subject matter, often expansive geographic formations, against the inky night sky—but his light source is neither natural or traditional studio lighting. Wu affixes lights to drones using them to illuminate select parts of the landscape occasionally drawing Saturn-like rings and other precise geometric marks in the night sky. This is certainly a feat, but I get the sense that it comes naturally to Wu--or rather the work just flows from him. Though he has since continued to come up with powerful and unique images, there is just something pure and perfect about this first image I encountered. The composition is relatively simple, but complex at the same time: almost symmetrical, but not quite. I also love the color palette of this particular image. Over 15 years ago I took a field experience geology class that inspired my fascination with the striations of colors that appear naturally in rock formations. Wu has perfectly framed this scene with his light which only highlights the natural beauty of the scene. Though the Saturn-like ring was painted in the sky by Wu’s drones--it feels like it could also be a result of natural phenomena. Simultaneously primordial and post-apocalyptic, this image makes me ponder the acts of mother nature that resulted in this formation. I feel myself breathing in a sense of awe and gratitude for this amazing body of work.

Reuben Wu's work will be on display at our booth in The Photography Show, presented by AIPAD, in New York, NY April 4 - 7, 2019, Opening Preview: April 3rd.

» Inquire about LN 0309

» Purchase

Juliane Worthington selects
Mina, Study 7, Japan, 2010 by Michael Kenna

Michael Kenna, Mina, Study 7, Japan, 2010, Gelatin-Silver Print, 8x8" Image, Edition of 25, $3000

In the Buddhist tradition, the white lotus flower is said to symbolize the womb of the world--the awakening that unfolds like petals as one attempts to strive towards enlightenment. Kenna’s image of Mina, Study 7, speaks on a very personal level for me about the relationship of femininity and rebirth resounding in my own life. The fragile edges of the delicate flower seem almost tattered in their unfolding, yet are somehow at perfect ease in union with this beautiful, womanly figure. The blooming light of the lotus plays like yin and yang off the long, dark hair it’s nestled in, reinforcing the concept of interconnectedness between all things. The effect is dramatic, breathtaking, and a reminder of the fragility of life. Michael Kenna’s image reminds me of the importance of slowing down to listen and breathe, and how essential it is to be open and vulnerable with my heart and life so love can be born through me.

» Inquire about Mina, Study 7, Japan

» Purchase

Lucas Shaffer selects Nepenthes Bicalcarata by Beth Moon

Beth Moon, Nepenthes Bicalcarata, Platinum/Palladium Print, 12x8" Image, Edition of 15, $1200

Lucas Shaffer

Special Projects / Client Relations

lucas@photoeye.com

505.988.5152 x114

As an avid lover of platinum prints, it may come as no surprise to readers of our Gallery Favorites articles that I'm choosing to highlight Beth Moon's exquisite Nepenthes Bicalcarata from our 2019 Group Show. Rendered in black-and-white with soft, raking light against a flat background, Moon's treatment of this curiously carnivorous plant is descriptive and sculptural. Removing the subject from its natural context aids in the investigation of its unique form, and Moon's use of large-format materials allows us to delight in the plant's intricate textural details. Beth Moon is a portrait artist for the natural world. Whether she's photographing ancient trees, heritage chickens, or carnivorous plants, time and time again Moon chooses to accentuate and elevate the individuality and survival instincts of life on this planet. I adore her approach as I find it both dignified and romantic. Nepenthes Bicalcarata is perfect for collectors interested in gorgeous printing, flora portraiture, and earthly wonder.

» Inquire about Nepenthes Bicalcarata

» Purchase

• • •

All prices listed were current at the time this post was published.

Prices will increase as the print editions sell.

For more information, and to purchase prints, please contact Gallery Staff at

505-988-5152 x202 or gallery@photoeye.com

2019 Group Show

on view through April 20, 2019

» View the Work

» Read More about the Exhibition

photo-eye Gallery

541 South Guadalupe St

Santa Fe, NM 87501

–View Map–

Julie Blackmon's Fixer Upper, 2018 (right) installed in the 2019 Group Show at photo-eye Gallery.

photo-eye Gallery's 2019 Group Show highlights a diverse collection of contemporary photographic work created by select represented artists, including Julie Blackmon's new image Fixer Upper. Fixer Upper is the latest work in Blackmon's ongoing series of wry and satirical images commenting on American life in the 21st Century. Lately, Blackmon's work examines social and economic trends, as well as political ideology, through the domestic lens of home and family. Based in Springfield Missouri, Blackmon uses her immediate surroundings and extended family as inspiration for her imagery, often photographing on location in her hometown and employing friends and family members as models in her complex and intricately composed tableaux.

In the statement below, Blackmon shares some insight into the process and intention behind creating Fixer Upper.

Julie Blackmon, Fixer Upper, 2018, Archival Pigment Print, 22x29" Image, Edition of 10, $4000

"When I set out to photograph a dilapidated home in our neighborhood, in the process of a "make-over," I started thinking about why I was drawn to it. And I wasn't the only one intrigued. Every person I watched driving by would slow down and crane their necks out to see what was going on. It was like HGTV "live." But I don't think it's a coincidence that the popularity of the home-makeover craze is at an all-time high during this chaotic period of national politics, and the frantic pace of our cellphone-driven lives. I feel it myself. Every trip to Lowes or IKEA is a chance to "improve" my life when other areas might seem out of my control. But I think we're all feeling that kind of anxiety. It's like a collective consciousness. To watch HGTV, and see them take a home that is in complete disarray, and create order and beauty out of it ... no wonder we're all completely sucked in. On a larger level, I think it might be a reflection of a common urge to get America's house in order."

– Julie Blackmon

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All prices listed were current at the time this post was published. Prices will increase as the print editions sell.

photo-eye Gallery's 2019 Group Show is on view through Saturday, April 20th 2019.

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