Image City Photography Gallery
Newsletter
Issue: # 53March 30, 2012

We publish our brief Newsletter during each of our exhibits to pass along information and reviews of the exhibit, photographic tips, selected images and news of other participation opportunities at Image City. We thank you for your interest and we look forward to another great year of fine photographs and events. We hope to see you at each of our 13 shows in 2012.

In This Issue
"Through the Student Lens 2012" our Current Show
Bruno's Critiques
Courses and Workshops at Image City
Gary Thompson's Photo Tips
Image City Critiques -- Next Session Wednesday, April 4th at 7pm
Calendar of Upcoming Events at Image City

Through the Student Lens 2012

Current Show Runs Through Sunday, April 15  

 

Through the Student Lens 2012Our current show at Image City is the third annual Through the Student Lens, 2012.  We had a great turnout for the opening reception and enjoyed seeing the enthusiasm of the young photographers and their family and friends who came to see the exhibit. Eighteen regional schools are participating. We heard many compliments on the creativity, quality, and vision of the artists. We curated the top five photographs from each school for the print exhibit and the additional photographs are shown on a video display. We selected Pittsford-Sutherland High School for the "Best of Show". Don Menges, chairman of the exhibit said "I think this is the best student show we have had, we enjoy seeing both the interest and quality of the art increase each year we have produced the exhibit."  Bruno Chalifour chose three special photographs from the exhibit that reviews in the next article. We are grateful to the contributions and underwriting of Michael Hager, Museum Photographics, and Jason Campbell, of Frameworks, for the printing and mounting. Proceeds from the sales of their photographs go to the student photographers.

 

In our East Gallery in an exhibit titled "A Pig's Tale", François Leteuil, a photographer living in France, takes us in a series of 20 exceptionally produced photographs to a farm where he documented the events surrounding the food production. At the opening reception, Bruno Chalifour, who produced the exhibit with François, described the series both as art and as documentary photography depicting the reality of farm life and it was of interest to all the students, young and old, of photography attending. A photo from the exhibit is shown at right.

 

The Guest photographers include Camera Rochester award-winning photos are by
Sa Kim Tran, Archie Curry, Jeno Horvath, Bill Shannon, Shaantonu Hossain, and Susanne Roth. We round out the show with work by David Perlman and Jim Patton, Artists-in-Residence, and Gallery Partners Dick Bennett, Carl Crumley, Steve Levinson, Gil Maker, Don Menges, Dan Neuberger, Betsy Phillips, Gary Thompson, Phyllis Thompson, and Sheridan Vincent.

 

The participating schools are Allendale Columbia School, Brighton, Charles Finney, Charlotte, East Rochester, IIT @ Edison, Fairport, Gananda, Greece Olympia, The Harley School, Hilton, Irondequoit, Mercy, Norman Howard, Pittsford Sutherland, Webster Schroeder, Webster Thomas, and Wheatland Chili.

 

For full details of the show click hereBe sure to check out the link to the "Preview of the Show Gallery" to see a selection of the fine works in the show that runs through Sunday, April 15.

Bruno's Critiques

Review of Three Photographs by Bruno Chalifour

 

For this exhibit, Bruno Chalifour, noted noted photographer, photography critic and historian selected his favorite photographs from the show. He shared his analysis and comments. Click here to see a larger image and to read the full comments, we will add a synopsis here in the newsletter.

 

 

Into a Good Book by Nathalie Lichstenstein, Allendale Columbia School, the first selection, Bruno commented "Collage, vantage point, tongue-in-cheek tone, surreal situation. Alice in Wonderland? Leonardo da Vinci collaborating with the Monty Python? Doesn't this young reader entertain a definite resemblance with Mona Lisa? Add to her added smile the general warm tone of the photograph and the only missing link is a Tuscan landscape in the background. Enigmatic in a sense, lightly-humored tension, the surreal quality of the real juxtaposition face/cover of the book make us take pause here too. No utterly distracting elements...... In all, a very successful pseudo-collage.....more

 

 

 

For Aaron, a photograph by Emily McDowell, Brighton High School, Bruno noted  that she "succeeded in creating a strong photograph using strong compositional lines, including quasi symmetry, high contrast and strong texture. Through the use of an unusual vantage point/angle of view, she managed to show us another side of reality, a more mysterious and graphic version of it. She created the successful tension of her photograph thanks to its above-mentioned characteristics but also because she suspended the processes of our minds for a fraction of a second or more. At first the subject of her photograph does not look like anything we know, but in fact it does not look like something we know, the way we usually see it. That neck becomes an almost gritty if not threatening abstraction. Here again, we take pause. We think and we appreciate the vision, work done and the aesthetics achieved. It took the invention of photography, for us to see such images. Never before the invention of the medium had a visual artist represented the world, the human body, and here a neck in that particularly manner....... Emily's work is deeply anchored in a long photographic tradition, one that believed in the power of the photograph to reveal another facet of the world to us, one to which we had not had access so far..... more"

 

The For his third choice, Bruno chose Clara Riedlinger's Keuka, observing that "The most obvious quality of this photograph by Clara Riedlinger is one that Bill Brandt, the most renowned British photographer of the 20th century, called "atmosphere." In order to achieve such a result the photographer, especially when/if the image imposed itself to her while she was looking at the real scene, needs vision, what another famous photographer, Henri Cartier-Bresson, summarized as the meeting of the eye, the mind, and the heart. As in Bill Brandt's work this particular image displays a key element, tension. Tension is what makes us, the viewers, take pause, scrutinize, spend more time in front of the photograph, and ultimately remember it. The power of this particular example of tension lies in the tranquility, the silence, the subtlety with which it is expressed in terms of lines, light, and density (light and density=subtle play with contrast and tone as seen in this photograph). All these components are the key ingredients of a genuine photographic vision. Going further the photographer used a clever and subtle photographic process: blurred zones, the usual result of controlled depth of field, in front of and beyond the subject, isolating it, truly focusing and making us focus on the main subject whose sharp lines stand even stronger even when curved....... more"

Gallery Learning Experiences
Courses and Workshops at Image City 

 

For the past few year's visitors to Image City Photography Gallery have encouraged us to provide learning experiences to enhance their understanding of photographic techniques or photo editing tools. We are proud to announce our second series of Gallery Learning Experiences.

 

Click Here to visit the Image City website for full description of the courses and workshops offered. Be sure to sign up early, the number of participants for the courses and workshops is limited. There is no mail-in or online registration. Please visit the Gallery to sign up for courses. We accept checks, cash, or credit cards.

 

The following summary highlights the offerings: Adobe Lightroom with Steve Levinson, Learn NIK Silver FX Pro 2 with Gil Maker, Simple Secrets to Great B & W Photography with Cole Thompson, Preparing a Portfolio with Bruno Chalifour, Cell Phone Photography with Gil Maker, Layers & Masks with Don Menges, Hands On HDR with Don Menges & Carl Crumley, Night Photography with Carl Crumley, Topaz Image Editing Plugins with Don Menges, Close-Up and Macro Photography with Lois Trieb and One-on-One Coaching with Gallery Partners.  

Gary Thompson's Photo Tips

Power of Minimilization - Cloud over Hemlock Lake (cropped)

 

Good photographs, particularly landscapes, often contain high quality smaller component images within the photograph. This phenomenon is sometimes referred to as "images within images". Moving in tighter and isolating one of these subgroup images can often significantly change the drama and emotional feeling of a photograph. Ideally, this cropping is done in-camera at the photographic site by using a longer lens or by physically moving in closer to the isolated subject matter.

 

Often we don't recognize the power of the isolated image while we are taking the initial photograph. Later, when proofing the whole image, we may then realize that a certain section of that image contains the real essence of what we are trying to communicate. Hopefully, in those instances, there is enough information contained in that cropped portion of the overall image to produce a quality photograph.

 

An isolated section of last month's photo tip image is used to illustrate the "Power of Minimization" in this month's tip. By moving in tighter and full framing the cloud and its reflection, a totally different emotion is created. Instead of the peaceful harmonious feeling of last month's scene, a more dramatic feeling is now produced. Using a horizontal composition to emphasize serenity last month, and a vertical composition to emphasize this month's more dramatic higher impact, but less peaceful image enhances the different emotions communicated by both final photographs.
 

 

 
To see a larger image and past Gary's Photo Tips Click Here.

Image City Critiques

At Image City on Wednesday, April 4 at 7pm

 
Each month, we enjoy the good turnout for Image City Critiques, our free program at Image City to provide participants an opportunity to engage in a friendly, constructive, and positive critique and review of their photographs. The sessions are held on the first Wednesday of the month. Join us for the next on Wednesday, April 4th from 7:00-9:00 pm. The assignment for this session is images with geometric patterns. All images should be mailed to Gil Maker gmaker@mac.com at least the day before we meet. Samples will be sent to the Critique email list. If you would like to be on the email list, send a request to Don Menges at dmenges@rochester.rr.com.
Calendar of Events
Image City Photography Gallery, 722 University Avenue 

 

April 4 - Photo Critique at Image City, 7 - 9pm
April 15 - Last day of Through the Student Lens
April 18 - Opening Day Ghost of Auschwitz and Birkenau by Cole Thompson
April 20 - Artists' Reception 5 - 8:30 pm
 
Image City Photography Gallery   Hours: Wednesday - Saturday 11 - 7, Sunday Noon - 4  
 

There is no admission fee to visit Image City Photography Gallery

Contact Information

 Image City Photography Gallery, 722 University Avenue, Rochester, NY 14607

585.271.2540 
website: www.ImageCityPhotographyGallery.com 

 

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