Past Exhibits

Probably for the majority of people the word warrior evokes images of the male gender. Yet throughout history women have been thrust into positions of leadership and conflict, rising to the challenge, either alongside men as equals, or in many cases, even better than their male counterparts. Generally it has been men who have written the histories of the world. The heroic actions of women, with rare exceptions, have been inadvertently or intentionally omitted or diminished.

This photographic project seeks to remind all of us that what makes a warrior is inner spirit and strength, not outward gender. Rocky Bull’s subjects are not new heroes, but instead individuals from history who deserve to be recognized alongside and with the same reverence as their male counterparts.  “The photographs of the women that I have chosen are not meant to be imitation portraits of the real persons involved as the actual figures are long deceased. Rather, my work is intended to invoke the collective as well as the unique aspects of the warrior spirit of each of the women shown.”

Malcolm Easton's project Keepsakes of Strangers derives from his visits to estate sales at homes of the recently deceased. He focuses on the humbler possessions left behind. These objects—typically stained, dusty or patched—carry hints of their connections to the everyday lives of their owners. Malcolm selects some of these things to be photographed. Working with natural light in his studio, he finds that illumination can bring new life to items that might otherwise seem outworn. He also explores juxtapositions that allow objects to relate to each other in unexpected ways. These inspirations lead him to create small monuments, temporary memorials to the people who handled these objects and kept them close for many years. Using sunlight reflected by a hand-held mirror, he photographs his subjects in isolation. In so doing he intends the images to have one foot in the world of light and another in the void. His intention is to address themes of loss and transformation.

At the age of 91, Francine Moskovitz looks back over her 40 years as an enthusiastic photographer and says, “My journey has been adventurous. I’ve gone from underwater cameras, to single lens reflexes, to digital cameras.” Her work has included painting and sandwiching slides, weaving photographs with Mylar, producing double images with a reflective glass pane, and presently, manipulating and combining digital images. This exhibit follows a photographer’s path from the 1970s to the present, with excerpts from numerous portfolios.

Francine Moskovitz became involved with photography first by joining her husband in scuba diving.  She loved the undersea world and reveled in trying to capture on film the corals and tropical fish. From the ocean she moved to a swimming pool and after much experimenting, ended up photographing nudes, “which brought me my first attention as a photographer!”

Around the time she moved past underwater photography, Photoshop became available, and it opened up a whole new range of possibilities for her.  “Since then,” she says, “every photograph I do is re-worked in Photoshop—sometimes a little, sometimes changed into a new image, or completely re-made into a composite of several photos. Working on photographs at the computer for several hours a day has become a way of life for me.”

In celebration of the National Park Service's 100-year anniversary, Viewpoint Photographic Art Center has invited all high school and college students of photography and students in Viewpoint Workshops to submit photographs taken in national or state parks or other protected lands for an exhibit in the Viewpoint Step Up Gallery. 

This exhibit, entitled National Treasures, runs from August 9 through September 3, 2016. It will coincide with an exhibit in Viewpoint's Main Gallery featuring images from Yosemite National Park, Point Reyes National Seashore, and Death Valley National Park by three prominent photographers.

IMPORTANT DATES FOR ENTRANTS TO REMEMBER:

May 7 Entry period begins
July 16 Entry period ends at 5:00 p.m.
July 18 Entries juried for acceptance
July 19 Photographers notified of acceptance by Viewpoint
July 30 Accepted entries due at Viewpoint
August 9 National Treasures exhibit opens at noon
August 12 Members and Artists Reception, 6:00 to 8:30 p.m.
August 13 Second Saturday Reception, 5:30 to 9:00 p.m.
September 3 Exhibit closes at 5:00 p.m.
September 6 First day to pick up unsold prints
December 10 Last day to pick up prints.

► Entrants may still DOWNLOAD THE PROSPECTUS for additional important details on submitting  images, print sizes, labeling, selling  work and the agreement between the artist and the Gallery.

Thank you for your participation!

Helmut Schillinger: A Different View of Haiti
Helmut Schillinger arrived in Haiti with a naive sense and desire for tropical allure and adventure. He got more than he wished for, the good as well as the bad. Many of his European values were turned upside down, but the misery and poverty that he encountered were often balanced by a natural beauty and a different kind of wisdom that he was taught by the largely illiterate rural population. Schillinger says, "I let you the viewer of my images decide whether what I found and photographed contributes to the view of a still largely African world. Someone said once that Haiti today still has more of the original African lifestyle than Africa now."

Jane Schreibman: Littoral Legacies
Jane Schreibman's photographs were taken by the Arabian Sea, where it touches the shores along Mumbai — here the masses give way endless space.  The sea is thick with dreams; they float on the water, churn through the waves, and end up as mysterious objects on the shore, packages wrapped in palm leaves, bouquets of orange marigolds, or fragments of the Gods. Young girls wander the sands looking for golden cloths and bracelets released to the sea as the Goddesses disintegrate, strange entities emerge from the tides. Walking along this shore is haunting.

Wildlife photographer Douglas Herr seeks partnership with the animals he photographs. He spends the time needed to allow an animal to become comfortable in his presence. This allows the animal to relax and often allows him to use use shorter lenses than are customary for wildlife photography. This in turn allows in the photograph a sense of the animal's preferred habitat. In the ideal photograph, the animal is fully aware of and comfortable with his presence.

In the past two decades, Adrienne Sher has divided her time, artistically, between photography and theatre.  "I find that the two disciplines complement each other very well," she says. "Theater is verbal, collaborative and interactive with the public.  Working in the darkroom or at the computer is quiet, solitary and meditative.  I find the more I learn about photography, the more I exchange ideas and techniques with other photographers, the more engrossed I become, and passionate to learn more."

Sher is particularly drawn to vintage cameras and archaic film formats, small and large.  "I love alternative processes, hand printing, wet paper, the smell of the chemicals, the brushes and glass rods." The images in Underwater are an attempt to capture some of the romance of the hand-processed print using digital tools. All of the images in Underwater are Archival Pigment Inkjet Prints.

Today, mistaking plastic debris for food in the Pacific gyre is a common occurrence resulting in the death of countless albatross each year. Plastic is often designed for "single-use" (think straw, cup, bottle) but, by its nature, every molecule ever developed is still with us today. The paradox of beauty, created from artifacts recovered from the remains of dead albatross, generates a message that can more sustainably inform the viewer. We live in a disposable society — what we throw away, we ultimately consume. Before we seek to change what we dislike, we must consider the consciousness and intention that has created what we see.

In the Main Gallery during both February and March, Viewpoint presents Jerry Takigawa's unique and important project, False Food. The plastic artifacts used to create these images were gathered from the remains of an albatross found on Midway Atoll. False Food calls attention to this environmental issue through an ironic aesthetic. It’s a way of taking a global problem and finding a way to make it personal.

Viewpoint is delighted to present an extraordinary retrospective exhibit celebrating fifty years of photography by John Wimberley.

Wimberley says that selecting the images to include in this exhibit wasn't an easy task. "Rather than choose one image from each year, or those fifty which have been most well-received, I opted for an eclectic collection of what I consider to be my best work. My criterion of selection was based primarily on each photograph’s quality of relationship between physical description and spiritual resonance."

"In terms of a human life, fifty years is a considerable period of time," he says. "In terms of a spiritual journey, it's both long and extremely short. As I look back over the decades since I first purchased a camera on April 6, 1966, that duality becomes very striking. Photography has lost absolutely none of its excitement and gratification: whenever I photograph is still like the very first time. I have decades of experience yet am forever a beginner. As I move past the half-century mark, I feel that I’ve only just begun to make photographs."

This month's Step Up Gallery ​exhibit is a collection of images taken by members of the Viewpoint Gallery Installation Crew (the Hangin' Crew). The images vary in subject, style, and media, as well as treatment and presentation, therefore these photographs reflect the unique individual views of the various crew members.

Each person on the crew is a member of Viewpoint Photographic Art Center and together they volunteer one to three days a month to take down the previous show, box it up, prepare the walls by patching and painting, then lay out, mount, label and light the next​ ​exhibit in time for the Members' Reception and the Second Saturday Art Walk.

The Installation Crew Members come with varying backgrounds, knowledge and experience in photography and few have had prior experience in gallery installations. Most of the members are just people who want to help, who are willing to learn from others, and who take great care with the work of the Viewpoint's exhibitors. Some members have been part of the Crew for only a few months while others have enjoyed hang​ing exhibits​ for many years. They have realized that preparing Viewpoint exhibits is fun​,​ and for the most part​,​ a social event as well as a work party.

Roberta Bailey's Imperfect Perfection: Floral Portraits celebrate Nature’s lifecycle. For her, "they capture the evolution of flowers from buds into mature blossoms and flowers past their prime and that I have dried. I strive to highlight their unique beauty at each stage." After being intrigued with floral portraits created by an enlarger, Roberta came up with the idea of using her flatbed scanner for a similar look. "At the time, I knew of no one who was using a scanner to capture fine art digital photos, so I had to develop my own process through trial and error." Scanners have a very high resolution because they are engineered to enlarge slides and negatives with exceptional detail so they are well suited for close-up images.

When even using the same floral subject she can create vastly different images just by experimenting. "I am never sure of what will appear.... it is frustrating and exhilarating." She says, "I am surprised that I love some of the images that I have been creating, as they are not what I thought I liked, or I would have thought them weird. My evolving artistic vision and acceptance is exciting."