At the Panopticon Gallery in Kenmore Square, Boston, there was a Harold Feinstein retrospective
that took up most of the main gallery.
It was a treat to see so many of his images together and as actual 16” X
20” prints as opposed to reproductions scaled down in a book. The way Feinstein was able to capture
people so comfortably candid is amazing to me. In some of the photographs the subjects were willingly aware
of being photographed, while others captured completely unaware people engage
in the kinds of common activities we tend to forget, but with which we can’t
help but relate. Feinstein’s
framing of his images are what really makes his photos stick in the minds of
the viewer. One photograph shot at
the beach shows two portly aging men in bathing suits, turned slightly away
from the camera, but still in enough profile to see there round bellies bulge
above their bathing suits. They
seem intent on discussing with each other something that demands their
interest, while in the background, framed between their bellies, runs a young
girl on the beach, presumably someone that one of these gentlemen is charged
with watching. The photo is so
unflattering, but so true, and comical in the lay script that runs through the
viewer’s head. Another amazingly
framed image shows a Korean war service man reposing with his feet propped up,
smoking a cigarette, and looking at the camera. The camera angle stats at the bottom of his propped up shoes
and looks down at the resting service man. He fills the entire frame, and this angle foreshortens the
rest of his body in a way that makes one think of being curled up in a nest. And another image I really love is of a
dark eyed dirty-faced gypsy girl who stares openly at the camera. This girl’s head fills the right half
of the image, while the left side is filled with a blurred and spinning
merry-go-round that is behind the girl.
Also at the gallery was work by Stephen Sheffeild. Most of his images were 16” X 20”
silver gelatin prints, but there were also some larger images constructed with
a series of individual prints tiled together to form the larger image and then
coated with resin. Most of these
larger images I felt like the images themselves were great, but the execution
was still in need of perfecting the process. His smaller works were all beautifully exposed and printed,
and his metaphoric subject matter I found beautifully haunting. Most of his images he used himself as a
model, and was always suit-glad, and face obscured by cigarette smoke, shadow,
or some other means. I used one of
his photographs for my artist comparison paper.
The third artist represented was Alipio Hernandez. There were just about a half dozen of
his pieces, but they were very interesting. Black and white negatives were silver gelatin printed, cut up,
and pieces toned in different color toners. Then the images were stitched back together with thick black
zigzag stitching. All of the
images were portraits of people, and I thought the most successful of these
images were the ones that focused on creating a single image of a person with
different shapes and colors within the face, like the different parts of an
individual’s personality, as opposed to the images that repeated a person’s
likeness over and over in multiple colors. I also preferred when the color shifts between sections were
subtler, for the jarring color shifts didn’t seem to meld as well with the
subject of portraiture for me. I
felt overall his work was very intriguing, and an excellent idea, but I also
felt sometimes he let his idea of process and his excitement with it sometimes
get in the way of creating a successful image. But I am very curious where this path will lead him because
I think he’s on his way to somewhere exciting.
