Four Photography Shows To See Now

JOHN CLARKE AT SOHN

By Anne Day

More than one trillion pictures were taken last year — a lot of photographic images.  Way, way, way  more than ever in the history of the world. 

After taking pictures for over 40 years, I’m getting tired of too many images. Although I feel compelled to post there, I’m sick of Instagram. Too many pictures — some good, but ultimately overwhelming. 

Still, no matter how many people make pictures, some photographers make art with a camera. John Clarke, a painter, photographer, musician, and writer, in his current exhibit, “Lyrical,” manages to make us forget about all the other pictures that crowd our world. The exhibit, 14 large pieces at Cassandra Sohn in Lenox, Mass. is a mixture of Clarke’s non-photographic pastel and paint on paper, pure photographic pigment prints and photographic pigment prints with paint and pastel worked into the image. 

Clarke does something musical with his art and the camera is almost incidental. The paint scatters colorful notes across the paper and the whispering pencil and pastel  lines  embellish the long exposure photographs Clarke makes in nature. Clarke, who studied music in college, says that he always listens to classical music when he creates art. 

Three of the pieces in the show do not involve a camera at all, they are works of paint, pastel and pencil on paper that Clarke did while listening to “Für Alina” by the Estonian composer Arvo Pärt. The other works in the exhibit are all created while listening to a single piece of music per picture. He starts with a photographic image, sometimes a long exposure taken with an iPhone and others with a proper camera. He takes the time-blurred image as a starting point and then draws on it with pastel, colored pencil and paint. The effect is, as the title suggests, lyrical. 

Sohn Fine Art, 69 Church St., Lenox, MA. www.sohnfineart.com, Exhibit up through Feb.10. 

GLEN SEELENBRANDT AT SHARON TOWN HALL

by Karl Saliter

The Sharon Town Hall serves artists and the community by hosting shows. We are warmed by the presence of individual and collaborative art in our public space. Hats off to Zelina Blagden, the curator at Sharon Town Hall,  for bringing art to enliven the walls. 

Glen Seelenbrandt’s “Middle Distance” is his first show. He is an avid photographer, and a math teacher at Indian Mountain School. Glen’s background seeded his artistic impulse. Involved with the “Beautiful Losers” movement, Seelenbrandt says: “I grew up deeply involved with skateboarding and BMX (bicycle motorcross) in the 80s. Many of us were raised on the same passionate media (writing, videos, design, photos, music), and were inculcated into the same ethos of  ‘do it yourself.’ There was an unflinching belief that what we were doing mattered despite what the mainstream told us.”

“Middle Distance” is a series of  31 pieces. Layered hybrids of photography and collage, they are close-up images of objects chosen because they were not intended to be visual products. This show is the artist’s attempt to uncover the unseen.

Seelenbrandt says, “One of the largest and most important parts of that culture was the high value placed on creativity and freedom. Do whatever you want and who cares what other people think.”

In his show, Seelenbrandt is trafficking in the place between our myopic, screen-based hours and our screen-free reality. His work is presented in circular format, lending the show a cellular feel. The small square frames, arranged in groups of four with a mathematician’s precision, work well.

There is beauty in any artist’s first show underlining the overlooked. Expect more from Seelenbrandt: he has deliberately led with a soft step here.

We can all be grateful to play a small part in this artist’s unfolding. 

Sharon Town Hall, 63 Main St. Sharon, CT

JOHANNA LINDSAY AT PLACE

By karl Saliter 

You might get arrested in Millerton. Head down the hill and peek in the window at “Place.” A framed photo awaits your gaze. It is a floating pool doughnut. Industrial-food-red glazed, and mass-produced in a confetti of sprinkles, it offers to hold you. The ultimate petroleum plaything, (And, for the record, it shimmers.) The photo presents color juxtaposition, light like Tipton, and an exquisite composition. But that’s not why this image will stop you. It’s about story. Keep looking. Stay stopped. Look to “Business As Usual” for unexpected sadness, to “Pantyhose” for a slightly less skinny, less sexy leg shot. And find deep mystery in “Mid City Lanes.” This story is a good read.

The photographer is Johanna Lindsay. She is unself-consciously documenting New York life.

Step inside. You’ll see  “Pusherman,” a large (36x 36”) photo of a blue classic car. You could fit three bodies in that trunk. The cobblestones and New York City Bricks which frame the old blue rocket are as integral to the work as the wheels. It is not so much that she found the car as it is where the photographer found it, and how she saw it. 

All the images were shot on her iPhone, and posted to her Instagram account, #fromthewestvillage. 

Sonne Hernandez, artist and curator/owner at Place, elevated the body of work into this charming and intelligent show. And if you find, once inside, that the images flow with a seemingly chance precision, that’s her work. She took hours to achieve a jumble of order, pulling an all-nighter before the opening as a matter of course. Her appreciation is infectious, and as an impresario, her skills were integral to the very successful opening. 

Place also features furniture from Joan Osofsky of Hammertown Barn, clothing by Mimi Ramos, and fine art selections from Hernandez. The trifecta allows a warmer experience than a traditional gallery, and is well worth the visit.

Place is at 23 Main St., Millerton NY, the exhibit is up until March 13. www.placemillerton.com

HOUSATONIC CAMERA CLUB AT NOBLE

By Anne Day

This year’s Housatonic Camera Club exhibit at Noble Horizons packs the room with many photographs. Many are good. The club, which meets the third Tuesday of each month at 7 p.m. at Noble Horizons in Salisbury, is a group of dedicated photographers both amateur and professional. Some of the group are still shooting film but most work in digital. This year’s show includes 17 photographers with several images per participant. 

Many of the images are colorful landscapes, but there are also still lifes and wildlife photographs.  

The large prints  of John Landon are particularly striking, especially his postcard perfect image of Matsumoto Castle with two swans swimming in front of it. Nancy Zannini pays particular attention to to the power of light in her picture of an orange autumn  tree that stands out in a group of leafless trees with a dark stormy sky behind them. Marsden Epworth’s carefully executed surreal images stand out for their clean, simple composition and beautiful prints. In “Squash Dreams,”  she places golden antlers behind a gritty green gourd to create a new type of animal altogether. My favorite picture in the show, a large black and white print, “Shell Dreams”  is a serene juxtaposition of  a large dark feathered wing with a pearly white shell as if the two formed an angel of some kind. (Epworth is a former editor of and frequent contributor to The Lakeville Journal’s Compass.) Lazlo Gyorsok’s “Birch Tree Reflection” is a scattering of white birches surrounded by red and yellow leaved trees reflected in a pond —a quiet and velvety autumn picture. 

Dawn Dingee achieves the impossible in “High Jump” a picture of a deer in mid-air jumping from bright daylight into an unknown darkness. 

Bert Schmitz has two powerfully simple black and white images in the show, “Shaker Bowl,”  a round wooden bowl with a linen towel hanging over its light rimmed side and  “Growing Wild,” a close up of some extraordinary glowing fungus on the side of a tree. 

Brian Wilcox, a professional, presents three spectacular drone shots of local scenery. Seen from the air, these images are different from any I have seen of the area. I was especially impressed with the often photographed Cornwall covered bridge, seen from above, with a light covering of snow. 

“Housatonic Camera Club Annual Exhibit,”  is up until Feb. 18 at Noble Horizons, 17 Cobble Rd. Salisbury, CT