This year’s fine art photography exhibit includes a number of rare and valuable prints as well as newer works by regional artists. Some of the prints have been in Viewpoint's collection for years, donated by the original photographers and rarely make an appearance except for special occasions such as this. The exhibit presents a unique opportunity to view a wide range of fine art photography spanning over 50 years.
Growing up Patti Garcia had only one doll, she called him Tony. He was her best friend in a world of little materials or possessions. She left Tony behind when her parents moved to the USA and even though she was gifted with many new toys, her doll was still her best toy. She since has left dolls and other playthings behind and has found a new meaning for these creatures. Dolls capture a time of innocence, a time of simple games. But they also have a mystery about them, “they have been misunderstood in a world of suspicion”, says Garcia, they have a sense of the past, an almost eerie and scary feel of souls living in them. This is what captivated her when she first started to photograph them. She has now been shooting images of dolls for more than ten years. They all live in a box, no one has seen them, only Patti finds them as treasures to her collection. “I would like to share these images with the rest of doll enthusiasts and artists who can see what I see” shares Garcia.
The entry period for this very special exhibit is May 1 through July 29, 2018. The Exhibit will run from Sept. 4 through Oct. 6, 2018.
The Gladding, McBean & Co. factory, in the Placer County town of Lincoln, has operated continuously since 1875. Starting as a clay pipe manufacturer, “the pottery” soon expanded its product line and by the end of the 19th century was producing the architectural terra cotta that continues to ornament buildings in major cities across the U.S. and beyond. From 1987 to 2011, Gladding, McBean was the site of Feats of Clay, an annual ceramics exhibition that introduced thousands of visitors to the factory. Between 1996 and 2011, in workshops organized by Gene Kennedy, nearly 300 photographers explored, documented, and interpreted Gladding, McBean, a working factory as well as an icon of California’s industrial heritage. This juried exhibit celebrates that extraordinary opportunity and the photographic legacy it has given us.
There is nothing Farrell Scott loves more than capturing what happens behind the scenes to bring food to our tables. Whether it's documenting a busy kitchen or a working farm, she is only too happy to be in the middle of it all and seize the action. At the same time, when she’s in the studio creating a still life of a chocolate layer cake with ganache or a cheeseburger dripping with barbecue sauce, Scott has found how she communicates best with the world.
For the past several years, Scott has been working with a restaurant group designing their establishments from top to bottom. What she’s witnessed, time and time again, is the passion and full dedication of the people that bring beautiful, local food to the dining table. The story of their food is told repeatedly - just look at the millions of food images posted daily. But what’s their story? The Executive Chef that is an avid bow hunter, the Chef de Cuisine who has a wicked golf game or the Sous Chef that grows food and edible flowers. Scott wanted to find out about who was creating the amazing meals she was experiencing. Thus came about her first deep dive into portrait photography to bring you - Chefs Off Line.
Scott, a native of Sacramento, is a commercial photographer specializing in the art of food, agriculture and architecture. To challenge herself photographically, she enjoys exploring the waterways of Sacramento and Yolo creating night images any time of year while disregarding the weather.
Roughly 40% of US households have a gun and there are enough guns – approximately 300 million – to arm nearly every man, woman, and child in the country.
At the core of The Void series is a desire to consider these facts and to create a set of images that speaks to their implications. Each of the images is created from individual bullet holes. While shooting is fundamentally a destructive act, by bringing these holes into the darkroom, enlarging them and then processing and printing the results, Garrett Hansen is able to balance this destruction with creation. The viewer is presented with images that speak to the sublime – they are both attractive and terrifying at the same time. In many ways this reflects our own opinions of guns in America, a country where the debate between rights and controls continues to rage. The Silhouette series engages the broader culture of guns in America. Every week Hansen goes to a local gun range and collects the cardboard backings that are used behind their standard target. The targets depict an unarmed man’s silhouette, a highly common target throughout civilian and police gun ranges. The third component to this ongoing project is comprised of bullets that have been collected from gun ranges. Each bullet, sculpted by impact with a ballistic steel wall, takes on a dramatic new form. The newest component to this ongoing series is entitled Memorial. This work acknowledges and lays bare the heavy price of having a heavily armed civilian population.
Garrett Hansen graduated from Grinnell College, where he studied economics and political science. He completed his MFA in photography at Indiana University and has taught at several universities in the United States and in Asia; he is now an Assistant Professor of Photography at the University of Kentucky. Garrett has had numerous solo and group exhibitions in the United States, Europe, Indonesia, and Japan.
The Currents series, by Beth Young, is borne of a reverence for the life blood that sustains us all: water. This series examines the various forms it takes as it circulates throughout the Earth, from clouds and mist in the atmosphere, to ocean waves and thundering waterfalls' to calm reflections. Throughout this process, water changes it’s state of being several times: ever-changing, refracting light, carving through stone, timeless, sensual, always steadfast.
“Dripping water hollows out stone, not through force but through persistence.” - Ovid
Viewpoint Photographic Art Center presents its annual Members Exhibit throughout the month of July. The strength of this annual exhibit is both the artistic quality and the diversity of the images submitted
The show includes over 90 images by Viewpoint members in a variety of styles and themes. The collection ranges from alternative process, to black and white, digital and time-lapse photography. The art of photography is constantly evolving as the science of the art continues to explore what is possible. The Members Exhibit brings this eclectic range of technicalskill and artistry together in one large and visually impressive exhibit.
(Image: Richard Adams©Moon Over Mono Lake)
Douglas Vincent works to convey fleeting moments that resonate as metaphors for guiding his life — subtlety, simplicity, the sublime. The canvas of his inspiration is the American West, its brush strokes of wilderness and agriculture. He values intimacy of place, returning frequently to locations where time and communion have deepened his understanding of both place and self.
Douglas has disciplined himself to explore without a camera. The ability to see photographs is a mysterious balance of curiosity, receptivity, and experience. The acuteness of his receptivity, a discipline of letting go, can often be elusive and frustrating. The process is a meditation, a "non-effort" in becoming fully present and immersed in his surroundings. When inspiration is found, it necessitates careful consideration of subject and light. Returning, under optimal conditions, to make the intended photograph can take minutes, a day, sometimes years. Or not at all. While intended photographs are sometimes lost, Douglas believes this approach enables him to create intimate meditative photographs that evoke both a sense and transcendence of place and subject.
Architecture and Abstraction explores architectural lines, symmetry, and textures. The images are primarily black and white. Some, however, have regions of red to produce an intriguing and striking black/white/red scheme, similar to that found in aposematism, i.e., a warning coloration used by some living species. Many images feature symmetry. In asymmetrical images, some elements are encouraged to begin and end in the corners—as though a complete story is being told. At other times, the discrete shapes have dissolved into something amorphous and abstract, leaving ambiguous impressions behind.
Gary E. Karcz’s photography interest began when he was a young teenager. At that time, he took photos for his school’s yearbook and his city’s newspaper. This interest persisted through his different jobs: retail sales, construction, IT support, and an educator. He now devotes more time to photography, as an art form, primarily focusing on architecture and architectural abstractions.
Jerry Kapler’s current photography endeavors have included creating conceptual images which tell a story. He begins with his own original digital images and scans of older black and white negatives from the 1960s and 70s, which have been colorized in Photoshop. His ideas are expressed in individual images or with three to five images, which create a narrative.
When generating a new piece, Jerry’s goal is to create a surreal environment that will evoke emotion in the viewer. Even though the subject matter may contain religious or death elements, the initial underlying motivation is to see how these individual elements create a final interesting result. In essence, he enjoys putting together images that surprises both himself and the viewer. His strongest influences have been the surrealist Maggie Taylor and René Magritte as well as numerous medieval artists.
Emerge from the Aether is a collection of wet plate collodion images comprised of portraits and still lifes Dan Herrera has made over the past three years. In an age of megapixels, camera phones, and a perpetual stream of digital images, Dan’s exhibit invites the viewer to slow down and experience storytelling within the scope of historical photographic printing methods to a time when photography was still in its infancy. This approach to slowing down and having his hand present in all stage of the process produces unique prints that are both rich in content and physical surface quality, blurring the lines between photographic realism and painterly illusion. The aesthetics of working this way are used as a means to absorb the viewer in a narrative futuristic and nostalgic.
It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see. ~Henry David Thoreau
In this series, Wendy Baker combines her passions for travel and architectural and portrait photography to create visual stories evoking a feeling of mystery.
Her dreamlike images always begin with a sense of place. She then adds her photographs of models, clothing, and other elements. She states, “I love to travel. I’m captivated by the idea of magical journeys—whether to far-off lands or deep into the self. My goal is to create a feeling of fantasy — transitioning from the known to the unknown by using beautiful light, muted colors, symbolic details and compositions with strong leading lines.“ She often adds touches of archival glitter to her printed pieces before framing.
As the owner of a commercial photography business based in the Sacramento area, she is constantly developing new skills. She loves everything about the creative process. From getting up before dawn in a new city to capturing the perfect light, to sitting at her computer combining the elements she’s gathered into a unique visual story, one that she hopes will spark the viewer's imagination.
Please join us at Viewpoint for a very special Artists Reception for the Sacramento After Dark exhibit on April 13 from 6 - 8:30 p.m.
Guest are invited to join in a kick-off celebration for Photography Month Sacramento with a special Artists’ Reception and to get a preview of the new exhibits with photographers in attendance.
There will be a selection of wines, craft beer, light appetizers and an array of desserts to enjoy.
$15 per person (18 and under free). Purchase tickets HERE
This unique exhibit was inspired by the Instagram page #sacafterdark which is curated by Vicky Thompson. The curatorial committee at Viewpoint reviewed hundreds of images from this page and selected 80 for the exhibit. The Viewpoint curatorial members were impressed by the beauty and artistic quality of the images. The exhibit includes landscapes, abstract images, portraits and more all captured from sunset to the early dawn hours. The collection of images creates a wonderfully atmospheric exhibit.
Please join us for a Viewpoint Fundraiser at the Luther Gerlach Artist Reception!
This dual-purpose event offers the opportunity for both our members and general public to enjoy a special artists’ reception and to get a preview of the new exhibits with photographers in attendance.
Guests will enjoy a selection of wines and craft beer, light appetizers and an array of desserts.
$15 per person (18 and under free). Purchase tickets HERE
Viewpoint is privileged to present internationally renowned photographer Luther Gerlach and his mammoth wet-plate collodion photography. The past meets the present in this intriguing photographic process created with wet chemicals, glass and tin plates. Luther Gerlach is one of the photographers responsible for the resurgence of this method in contemporary art. He demonstrates these processes for the J.Paul Getty Center. He travels the world in a converted darkroom bus for mammoth plates and created the only existing see-through, functional camera and darkroom chamber where small plates are shot and processed before your eyes.
Stephen Johnson is a landscape photographer, designer and teacher. He has been photographing since 1973 and concentrates on landscape projects exploring wild, endangered spaces and human-altered lands, making images that depict a respect for the land and a real-world celebration of our relationship to nature. The Life Form Series comes from Johnson’s lifelong fascination with organic form and design. Not only has he found solace in the natural world, but his respect for all living things has profoundly affected how he has lived his life. Johnson’s photographic work has long reflected this interest and respect. His fascination with sensual organic form knows no limits. The natural beauty that drew him to photography is most profoundly manifested by the very sensuality of natural form itself. Its beauty is deeply emotional, bound up in the basic instinct and desires of our humanness. According to Johnson “Finding such form in the real world has been my career”.
Stephen Fischer is an outdoor photographer specializing in landscape and wildlife imagery, covering many areas of the American West. To capture more unique results, he enjoys the challenge of exploring out-of-the-way or less convenient locations, and at all times of the year. Based out of Sacramento California, some of his work has centered around the natural habitat of the area, while also trying to give others a better appreciation of its beauty.
Savannahs of predominately blue oaks dispersed over bucolic grasslands on gently rolling hills, these lands reflect the state of the California foothills closer to its native form. Providing a quiet solitude and an oasis for wildlife, while isolated from the hustle and bustle of encroaching suburban sprawl, the oak savannahs in California are disappearing at an increasing rate.
Stephen Fischer's exhibit of black-and-white photographs provides a documentation of these lands south of 50 in their undisturbed form as captured ahead of their destruction over the past decade.
In late 2014, Isabel Karl-Herunter, David L. Robertson and Maurice Warniers had their first opportunity to capture photographs together at a workshop near Mendocino, California, organized by Greg Gorman, a highly-respected portrait photographer. Four months later, David and Mattia Zaldini met at a photography workshop in Venice, Italy, photographing Carnevale. What was immediately evident was that these four photographers had diverse but coherent approaches to portraiture.
Although these photographers come from Austria, Belgium, Italy and the USA, and approach photography from very diverse directions, they share a common passion for portrait photography presented in black and white. They prefer black and white images because that removes any distractions and focuses attention on the “hero” of the image.
Born in Iran in 1966 Cyrus Javid lived there until he was 25. He migrated to the United States in 1991 and became a US citizen in 1999.
Mostly a self-taught photographer, Cyrus strives to be better with every photograph. Line, color, shape, form, texture, balance, movement, pattern, and proportion are integral parts of his images. Through their use, he hopes to create images that are unique, and to offer his viewers a new perspective. Javid loves color images but dreams in black and white.
The images in this exhibition were made a few years ago. Javid’s adventure took him to Casablanca; Rabat, with its green hills by the Atlantic ocean; Fes, with its ancient winding medina; Ouarzazate, the gateway to the Sahara Desert, with its shifting colored sands; the rugged twisted roads of the Atlas Mountains; and finally, the amazing Marrakech, where spice and argon oil souks and snake charmers fill the long winding alleys of Jamaa-el-fna.
Judy Molle is passionate about nature and photography. Judy uses the InfraRed Light Spectrum to capture what is usually not visible to the naked eye.
With a sense of adventure, in 1991 Judy became intrigued by the unpredictable nature of the InfraRed spectrum and began experimenting with InfraRed film, quickly mastering her technique with this material. Judy's Copper Duo-Toned Infra-Red images are uniquely one-of-a kind Art Prints.
Many of Judy's photographs are of mysterious landscapes that express and accentuate her love of the natural environment. Using the InfraRed Spectrum, Judy creates unusual images of ethereal places one could only imagine or perhaps reincarnate to.
Born in 1957, in Vilafranca del Penedès (Barcelona), Spain, Pep Ventosa has been fascinated with photography from his first camera gift at the age of 10.
Ventosa states, "I use photographs as raw material, like paint, to create new imagery. I like to explore the space between painting and photography. I believe photography is not only a tool to document things but also one that’s part of the rich history of picture making. I’m particularly interested in representing familiar subjects in ways perhaps not seen before."
"We are surrounded by trees, yet we often walk by them without a thought. In this series, I walk in a circle around a tree, shooting it repeatedly along my path, then overlay and refine the shots to discover what became of the the orbit, the tree and its environment in the round. I like the idea of rendering what is sometimes a complex environment into an abstract backdrop, leaving the tree with the leading role."
Dale Green grew up in the San Franscisco Bay Area. He served in the United States Navy as a Hospital Corpsman, earned a degree in Computer Science from CSU Sacramento, and worked for 28 years in Silicon Valley as a software developer and technical writer. Happily retired, he now lives in Rocklin, California.
Road Trip is an exploration of weird Americana, those strange and wonderful things you see along the highway on your way to somewhere else. Green states, "On these trips, I look for incongruous and humorous juxtapositions—a dinosaur attacking a pizza, a Greek statue guarding a truck stop, a sign advertising picnic sites beside a defunct nuclear power plant. I've been asked, 'Did you Photoshop these?' I reply, 'Nope. You can't make this stuff up.' And that's one of the reasons I love photography. With so much strangeness and weirdness out there, I can't wait to get back on the road and take more photographs."
Balance is the theme of the 2017 Twelve exhibit, Viewpoint Gallery’s annual December juried show. In life, balance is the oft sought equilibrium of daily activities from menu planning, exercise, speaker output, tire maintenance, and checkbooks. It is the obviously necessary skill of the tight rope walker, bicyclist, ballet dancer and bowler at the line. As a principle of art and design, balance describes compositional arrangement such as symmetrical, asymmetrical or radial, but in broader understanding, artistic balance indicates the totality of elements working together for meaning and visual impact. Balance itself can be symbolized simply by the placement of the horizon line or by the dramatic tilt of mast and sail against the wind. Balance is in the internal tug of subjects vying for attention within the frame or the quiet push of opposing space or textures. Within the craft of photography balance is tonal range, contrast, and color corrected to match expectation. Yet while balance comforts in its seeming correctness and familiarity, perhaps art is most interesting just at the edge of being out of whack. The principle of balance is open for your photographic interpretation. Any subject and photographic approach is invited for this juried exhibit.
Ken Meyers is a visual person. He says, “Sometimes I find it hard to put words to my feelings. I suppose that's one of the reasons that I love photography.” As we have all heard the saying “a picture is worth a thousand words”, no place would be truer for Ken than his visits to the concentration camps. Ken made two separate visits over a few years to Dachau, Auschwitz, Birkenau, as well as other places connected with the atrocities of the holocaust, such as Anne Frank's home and Schindler's Factory.
As Ken photographed these places, he was haunted by black and white movies playing in his head - A mother having her children ripped from her arms, the Nazi's assuring those packed like cattle in the train cars that they were being transported to a new ghetto and that everything would be fine, the bodies piled in mass graves or being burned by the thousands. Ken adds that he is sickened by the experiments of Josef Mengele and that he cried out in pain and sorrow for his fellow man. “How can any human being do this to another?”
These images are his attempt to pass on to you his vision of these dark places. Ken strongly urges all to pay a visit to the camps, if given the opportunity. He believes that, “when you do, you will have an indelible mark placed on your soul for all that lost their lives in those horrid camps.”
In the world of pristine photographic prints, some people might consider it a heresy to print images on fabric and then sew on top of the image with thread. Kerby Smith finds it quite liberating. He has been photographing for over 50 years, and has exhibited in a wide range of venues. For most of that time he printed on paper, matted and framed his photographs under glass. But, he was never comfortable seeing the image behind glass. He prefers the up close and personal relationship the viewer gets with the image when there is no glass barrier between them.
Before archival ink jet printers, Smith experimented with printing black and white photographs on canvas with a silver coating. He developed the canvas using garbage cans of developer, stop bath and fixer. He washed the printed canvas with a garden hose running into a plastic barrel. Then he would stretch the canvas for gallery presentation.
Today, in creating his digital images, he begins with a photographic capture which provides a first look at the scene. Then in his digital darkroom, he explores the possibilities of where the image can take himself and the viewer. Smith says “I want to take the imagery to a place where it will put a smile on the viewer’s face when he or she interacts with it. I often move a few degrees off reality to create the view I imagine. Sometimes, it is with an extended palette or color range, other times it is simply a change of viewpoint or scale”.
Fundraising Auction: Nov. 4, 6 to 9 p.m.
The annual auction of fine art photography is the centerpiece of Viewpoint’s fundraising efforts, enabling the organization to continue to build its outreach, education and exhibit programs. This year Viewpoint will feature over 50 photographers from its in-gallery portfolio program. Many of our portfolio artists are well-known and highly collectable with images sold in galleries throughout the country. The exhibit and auction will include an extensive selection, which highlights a variety of photographic styles.
All the images in the exhibit will be auctioned off on November 4th at an elegant affair including appetizers, luscious desserts, wine and beverages. The silent auction will begin at 7 p.m. and conclude by 8 p.m. Ticket are just $10 a person, so please invite all your friends and family—this is a night to celebrate our local photography artists and to support Viewpoint!
© Sharon Bussert
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Viewpoint Photographic Art Center is the proud recipient of a SMAC Cultural Arts Award grant.
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