Joseph Bellows is currently showing what he calls an “End of the Summer” exhibit. It mainly focuses on a set of photographs by Charles Grogg called “Reconstructions,” and a few prints by Dana Montlack, but there is also work by other photographers, including one called “Oceano Dunes” by Ansel Adams. This show highlights some of the transformations a photographer can make by working with the development process chiefly, the paper and the chemical solutions. Charles Grogg takes pictures of plants outside of their natural context. He blows them up and prints them on fine Japanese handmade paper in nine sections, then sews them together with cotton string. He then mounts them on more of the luxurious Japanese gampi paper. The result is like a hand-crafted product, which emphasizes the architectural beauty of the plant. Grogg develops his prints in a platinum/palladium solution rather than the standard silver solution, which gives them more of a subtle appearance, showcasing the plant’s “delicacy, grace and inherent sensual details.” Regarding the stitching of the sections of the photograph together, Boggs cryptically says “it has to do with growth and restriction,” and he “hopes to point to some private internal conflicts that look nevertheless like common experience; which is the only reason for making pictures in the first place.” Montlack works with color. She takes photographs of tiny, sometimes microscopic, objects then blows them up and puts them together in unusual ways. One of her photographs juxtaposed some tiny seeds with a shark egg. She also has a print of jellyfish and another of bubbles next to some spiny creatures. Montlack says she tries to interpret the mysteries of nature and show the interconnectedness of all things in her work. Other artists in the show include Han Nguyen, Laura Letinsky, John Priola, Chip Hooper, Laure Albin-Guillot, Rocky Schenk, Joni Sternbach, Beth Dow, Edward Weston, Ansel Adams, Carol Panaro-Smith, James Hajicek, Alvin Booth, and Susan Seubert. Some of the finer photographs of these other artists include: a signed Ansel Adams study of light and shadow on the beach dunes of Oceano, two plant photographs, actually made by exposing real plants on photographic paper by Carol Panaro–Smith and James Hajicek, and a wonderful ghostly, misty nude woman by Alvin Booth. Bellows says the way to learn to look at a photograph is to “Just look. Come back and look again. Read a little. Compare. It’s is very different to see an original photograph versus a reprint in a magazine or a book.” Going to the Bellows Gallery is a must do. At Bellows, you always learn something. It is an education in looking at and understanding the art of photography. Each show is different and unique and not to be missed. The current show will run until Sept. 30. For further information see www.josephbellows.com or call (858) 456-5620.
