by Angela Babb Timmons
Sometimes a moment just grips you. It lures you in and seduces you and makes your head feel all warm and dizzy like a good buzz from a strong martini. You feel alive, excited, tingly, almost giddy. Unexpected laughter slips from your lips, or a tear streaks down your cheek; your heart races, you flush with color. You’re weightless. You could float away and drift like a delicate feather. It’s intoxicating. Scary. Like falling in love, or locking eyes with a stranger, or feeling the zing of sugar when it first hits your tongue. It jolts you awake.
Sometimes a moment just grips you. It lures you in and seduces you and makes your head feel all warm and dizzy like a good buzz from a strong martini. You feel alive, excited, tingly, almost giddy. Unexpected laughter slips from your lips, or a tear streaks down your cheek; your heart races, you flush with color. You’re weightless. You could float away and drift like a delicate feather. It’s intoxicating. Scary. Like falling in love, or locking eyes with a stranger, or feeling the zing of sugar when it first hits your tongue. It jolts you awake.
And with a burst of light and snap of the shutter, the moment is gone. Click goes the camera. And it vanishes. Yet captured forever. No words. No sound. Just raw emotion.
That’s what a photograph does to me. It latches onto my heart, pokes and prods and nudges, until I ache to know the rest of the story. Why is that delicate paw wrapped in a gauzy bandage? What lurks in the corner of that empty room, cold and desolate, filled with nothing but a rusted cash register? What tragedy befell that beautiful man with blue eyes and charred skin? Like a voyeur spying through a tiny peephole, a photograph gives only a small sliver of the story, a tasty crumb, delicious and addictive, and makes you crave more.
The 2011 Art of Photography Show runs through Sunday, October 23rd at the Lyceum Theatre.
Angela -
ReplyDeleteKinsee Morlan from CityBeat "called out" the Art of Photography Show in a recent article asking, beyond the hefty entrance fee, "who really benefits from juried shows like this one?" Going on to state "juried exhibitions that aren’t held at established institutions, even those with a notable juror, look less impressive on a CV than a show at a museum or reputable gallery." Morlan also commented on the show's rather poor installation.
Did you see or have an opinion or thoughts about Morlan's comments or did you (as it seems) experience a whole different perspective?
Here's Morlan's article for reference: http://www.sdcitybeat.com/sandiego/article-9560-the-viewers-benefit-at-the-art-of-photography-show.html
Thanks!