Revising
Nature: Landscape Photography
from the Baruch Collection
Nov. 19 To Dec. 16, 2003
Landscapes
can be as varied as the eyes of their beholders, as the work
of the five photographers in Revising Nature
testifies. With their creative vision, Marilyn Bridges, Sally
Gall, Ralph Gibson, Erica Lennard and Joel Meyerowitz transform
or “revise” nature, producing unexpected aerial
sightings, silhouettes, and still life landscapes that appear
“frozen” in time. More poetry than natural science,
these images alter reality as seen by the naked eye through
the use of light, perspective and distance.
Revising Nature: Photographs by Marilyn Bridges, Sally
Gall, Ralph Gibson, Erica Lennard and Joel Meyerowitz
will be at the Mishkin Gallery from Wednesday,
Nov. 19, through Tuesday, December 16, 2003.
Opening reception, Tuesday, November 18, 2003, 5:00
PM to 7:00 PM is free and open to the public.
Marilyn Bridges’aerial explorations of topography both
sacred and secular have taken her from England to Oklahoma,
from Stonehenge to an Alaskan glacier. Peering down through
the lens of her camera, the artist discovers the unexpected
symmetry and design in a farmer’s field, in a multi-lane
highway, or in an industrial intrusion that imposes its own
geometry on the land. A licensed pilot, Bridges looks at the
world from a perspective that transcends earthbound reality.
In contrast, Sally Gall’s muted, flattened images use
scale and light to achieve tableaux that are breathtaking
in their stillness. Whether it’s a bayou in the South,
a field of sunflowers in France, or an anonymous seascape
on which a tiny boat floats like a child’s toy, Gall’s
photographs capture isolated moments of eternity.
Erica Lennard’s photographs, whether taken in France,
England or Japan, often look like cut-outs or silhouettes,
so stark is the contrast of black-on-white. Serene and classical,
Lennard’s creations are meticulously composed; they
too, bespeak the hidden geometric designs of nature.
Rounding out the exhibition, Joel Meyerowitz’s Trees,
Morning Fog, shows the elegance of the Tuscan countryside
shrouded in a soft blanket of fog, adding an element of mystery
to this simple landscape, while Ralph Gibson’s Blue
Vine, Bourgogne suggests a story untold, but traceable
in the solitary vine climbing a country wall.
Each of these artists, with his or her camera eye, has shaped
the familiar forms of earth and sea and flower into something
elusive, something stranger and less familiar. An element
of surprise comes with viewing these photographs, a sudden
insight, perhaps, into how much ordinarily eludes us.
The Mishkin Gallery is located at 135 E. 22nd Street, New
York City. Gallery hours are Monday-Friday, Noon to 5 pm;
Thursday, Noon to 7 pm.
Zane Berzins
News Manager
