Gallery Showing

Christine Bizier

Professor Kelly Warren

ENC1102

January 28, 2014

Gallery Showing

          As a parent of a Photography Art Major, with a minor in art history, I have learned to love student art shows.  While I can usually find beauty in any photograph, I tend to like those whose subject matter are of nature the most. These include both Mother Nature and Human nature. The medium used in the printing of a photograph, deciding whether to use color or black and white, can also influence the viewers feel of a picture.  “A truly good photograph tells a story. It should connect to the reader. That’s all there is to it really. Things like composition, focus, color, lighting and subject matter are all in a sense just fashionable. But the photos that tell stories are timeless.”― Leslie Dean Brown.

          Sunsets have always held a special place in my heart. While anyone can take a picture of a sunset, to truly master this art requires time and patience. Stephen Hunter’s “Savusavu Sunset-Fiji” has managed to do this feat. The sun setting behind the silhouette of the tree, along with the combination of the colors of the setting sun with the evening clouds, which are reflecting off the water, made this the first photograph that caught my eye. Sunsets tend to be very soothing and bring a sense of calm to the viewer. The beautiful colors that a sunset provides are nature’s way of saying goodbye at the end of a day. The golden hues that blend themselves into orange and red, cast their colors beautifully over the ocean’s surface. While the sun has not completely set, you can still see the slight darkening of the night sky. These colors from the night sky are also reflected in the ocean’s surface, as well as in the depiction of the edge of the horizon.

          Another intriguing form of nature that I find fascinating is fog. There is usually something mysterious that fog brings to a photograph that tends to make them seem timeless in nature. One more photograph by Stephen Hunter “Morning Mystery” was a second picture that I found very captivating. It makes the viewer wonder where and when the photograph was taken. Was this the beginning or the ending of the day? Was this the type of picture the photographer was trying to get? Or perhaps the moment was something completely unexpected. The mystery of the picture was increased by the use of black and white photography. The picture was taken from the ground and looking high up in an attempt to see the sky. And while we cannot see the sky through the fog, we are able to see rays from the sun shining down through the haze the fog has provided. The combination of the fog and the sun’s rays has help to remove the texture from the trees which provided the photographer to once again use silhouettes in his finished picture. The use of silhouettes in fog, mist or haze provides the viewer with the ability to look at the complete picture instead of one specific object.

          The beauty of a new born baby melts my heart. The photograph by Savannah Dobbs, “Daddy’s Little Girl”, brought a huge smile to my face. You can almost feel the love and protection that the newborn father has towards his little girl. The size of the fathers hand in contrast to the baby’s head shows how delicate and fragile a newborns life is. The picture also gives one the feel that this father is strengthening the bond between father and daughter as he gentle kisses her. While you cannot see the father completely, one can just imagine that he has closed his eyes when the picture was taken. I found this to be a great example of black and white photography. While the color version might be just as beautiful, I believe that the use of black and white photography helps to soften the features of the subjects by providing contrast and shadows which helps to bring a timelessness to this picture.

          While I found all of the photographs in the gallery showing interesting, I was completely drawn to those that portrayed nature over the ones that illustrated abstract images. The warm and vibrant colors of the sunset warmed my heart, as well as the father and daughter photograph. I also feel that the works would have been more compelling if they had been larger to view and if they were framed.