Thursday night, I went to the opening reception of the Weegee: Naked City exhibition at the Steven Kasher gallery. I was first introduced to Weegee in one of the photography classes that I took at Duke. His gritty crime scene photos intrigued me. I couldn’t believe his relationship with the NYPD – a photojournalist with a permit for a police-band radio. Of course, there were the photographs of men in drag, dead bodies, and those arrested. His manipulation of mug shots are cool, for lack of a better word, they resemble kaleidoscopic images. I should figure out how to do that in the darkroom.
I had seen most of the crime and jailhouse photographs before but there were some collections I hadn’t seen, such as photos taken at a circus. My favorite picture from the entire exhibit is of the back of an elephant. It’s just butt, tail, and hind legs but I really liked it. The texture of the elephant skin, the tonality, the jet-black background that made the elephant stand out. There was such a quiet elegance to this photograph, which you wouldn’t assume for the backside of an animal.
It was nice to walk around the gallery solo. I didn’t have anyone slowing me down, and I was able to be in and out. At times, I felt a little awkward typing into my cell phone, as if I wasn’t enjoying being there. That wasn’t the case, I was just writing notes about the exhibit so that I had some information for my blog posts. Seeing others talk about the photographs with their friends, made me miss critiquing photos with my photography class. All the comments that I had about the use of lighting and shadows, and other photographic techniques I had to keep to myself. Perhaps, I should think about inviting people out to my photographic excursions…
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