From the shadowy corner of a nondescript bedroom to the rocky terrain of Western Australia, "Through the Lens" is a striking portrait of the 21st-century landscape. Oversized photographs by Lorna Bieber, Dimitra Lazaridou, Yannick Demmerle and Wim Wenders line the chalk white walls of the C. Grimaldis Gallery in Mount Vernon. The juxtaposition of texture and tone is jarring at first. The same goes for the absence of a curator's touch. The arrangement is attractive but lacks reason and rhyme at first. The viewer must work in order to understand the photographs as parts of a whole. Through the Lens is a challenge, but one that engages its viewer with its subtlety and its style.
Isolated interiors are the subject of the photographs by New Yorker Lorna Bieber. She uses a palette of black, white and gray in her series of rooms for work and play. Straight lines form boundaries that frame a world in which "Where?" and "When?" are irrelevant. Consider "Bed/Curtain" (1997), a vertical photograph of a bed next to a corner of a room. Bieber focuses on the shadows that lurk between the bed and the curtain-covered wall. As a result, she entraps the viewer by reducing the space. She also treats the photograph so that a blurry overlay distorts the sharp edges that give the room definition. It is a desolate sight despite (or perhaps because of) its nondescript quality.
Greek photographer Dimitra Lazaridou compares and contrasts the colorful and the peaceful with the dull and the violent. Hers is a world of hidden corners painted in every color of the rainbow. Quirky titles draw the viewer into the spacious quiet, a respite from the crowded noise of life as we know it. "Dominion Do Not Cross" (2003) shows one such corner of the world. Gradations of light widen the space. The clear sun in the foreground and the pine green shadow in the background contain it within the confines of Lazaridou's lens. Crisp grass and delicate shrubbery are a contrast to concrete walls and steel bars. The composition is deliberate. They are parts of a whole, a picture of rural paradise in urban hell, framed in sun and shadow.
The photographs of Frenchman Yannick Demmerle move the exhibit away from the city. His series "Les Nuits Etranges" depicts a forest through the eyes of a storyteller. According to Demmerle, "... sometimes I got lost, but I was never afraid - on the contrary, I was comfortably hidden, alone, simply alone ..." His interest lies not in the forest itself but rather in the stories within the forest. Shades of gray, applied with an imprecise hand, add breadth and depth. Consider "Untitled #12" (2004). The photograph shows nothing more than a bunch of trees. However, Demmerle's interest lies in the space between them. He adds nuance with his focus and distorts the spatial arrangement. The viewer asks, "Where do the trees exist in relation to each other?" As a result, he changes the character of the space.
A pair of photographs by German film director Wim Wenders is the highlight of the exhibit. An odd marriage of detail and scope characterize "Wall in Paris, Texas" (2001) and "The Bungle Bungles, Western Australia" (1988). The former shows the titular wall, a vast expanse of pale concrete accompanied by a sidewalk and a street. The light is pure, almost harshly so, but it allows Wenders to capture the texture of his subject. The latter shows a series of rock formations that sprawl over a vast expanse of desert. He doesn't fuss with the technical elements of the photograph. The same pure - almost harshly so - light throws the irregularity of the arrangement into harsh relief. The nooks and the crannies that add character to a space pull the viewer into a scene that is overwhelming. "The Bungle Bungles" is the first photograph in the exhibit and sets a high bar that the other photographs in the exhibit thankfully meet.
The title of the exhibit is misleading. Through the Lens is a basic description for photographs that are anything but. The question that comes to mind reads like a joke: "What do an American, a Greek, a Frenchman and a German have in common?" A study of their photographs reveals a shared interest in space. Its size and its scope. How certain kinds of space fit (or don't fit) within the frame of the world. Perhaps a better title would be "Enclosed Places, Exposed Spaces." If not better, less basic, at least.
Through the Lens runs at the C. Grimaldis Gallery at 523 N. Charles St. until Feb. 26.
