Last night the Photographers Exchange met at the Irvine Fine Arts Center for the second in-person pop-up exhibition and subsequent ‘critique’ of the participants artwork since the start of the pandemic. It was really nice to be able to meet and greet, even if slightly encumbered by masking, which everyone appears to be getting very comfortable with. With the new and quickly spreading Omicron COVID variant (70% more contagious that the earlier variants), it’s not worth taking any changes with the approaching holidays.
This month the group was a bit larger and the lens-based artwork was even more diverse; abstract hand-sewn photo-collages to the very documentary-style natural landscapes (except where light-painting might visually assist a night photograph).
The critiques range from the why-I-like-it to a more in-depth analysis of a photograph and its potential meaning(s). The latter analysis is what resonates with me; what I attempt to provide and what I was seeking for my Anthropogenic Crisis series that I exhibited (above, and below).
Case in point. I brought five recent photographs from my Anthropogenic Crisis series, one of which I was attempting to tweak the out-of-color-gamut to no avail just prior to this event. I exhibited the five prints in a sequence that progressed from those that had a distinctive cyanotype appearance, to a pair of images that were nonrepresentational and abstracted. I should not have been surprised that most recognized that these prints were created from photographs created for my Memory Pods series, which is good news and bad news. Nice that my Memory Pods series has this type of lingering impact, but I suspect that what I was hoping for as the disruptive nature of the new work could have been discussed a bit more. Nevertheless, I did get some really good feed back (and more ideas) for this new body of work, especially regarding the last two images (one of which, below) which appeared to better resonate with the group about my concept behind the Anthropogenic Crisis series.
All in all, I believe everyone appreciated an opportunity to have a brief exhibition of their printed artwork and hear how their artwork did and sometimes did not connect with the participants. As well as some nice in-person discussions about art and life in general.
Photographers Exchange of Southern California 