Dogs have their day at Lincoln Street Center, Rockland
Dog lovers are in for a treat on Saturday, October 4th between 3pm and 5pm when a photography show opens at Lincoln Street Center, Rockland, in the Jean B. Chalmers Art Gallery. The exhibit, titled Point of View, will feature nine photographers, each with a unique perspective on life and photography.
Ben and Jezebel
© David Brooks Stess, courtesy VoxPhotographs.
Of special interest to the readers of Downeast Dog News is the work of David Brooks Stess, one of five Maine photographers featured in the August 2008 edition of Maine Home Design. As David reminisces in that article: "On my first visit to Maine I stumbled onto the wild blueberry harvest. I had been looking for a project I could weave into my life and photograph from the inside out--participating, not just observing. In 1989 I signed up for the harvest and have been working and photographing it ever since."
In the process of working alongside the migrant workers in Maine's blueberry barrens for 20 years, David not only documented their lives, but the lives of their dogs. Upon his return to his other home in New York City, he also documented New Yorkers and their dogs. His photos are intriguing, thought provoking, tough, tender and more.
The photo used on the postcards and posters advertising the show, and reproduced here, is titled Ben and Jezebel, and depicts the bond between a man and his best friend. Stess, who excels at capturing ironic and unforgettable moments, those unpredictable juxtapositions of people, objects and often pets, will have a dozen or more photos in the show. One photo, taken from the vantage of a moving car, looks down at a dog running alongside the car, almost an idealized abstraction of a devoted dog determined to keep up with his owner. Another shows three supposedly sweet little Chihuahuas, looking more like vampires, as they try to attack whomever is on the other side of a picket fence. Nobody but Stess could have snapped that magic moment when a women with an outrageous blond bouffant hairdo walking along a busy street, passes by a darling dog with an identical do, who looks at her double out of a car window. Many of the photos show dogs at their most comfortable selves hanging with their owners—nothing special, just being together. For the most part the country dogs roam loose while the city dogs and their owners are tethered by leashes.
Other participants in the show include Nancy Benner of Rockland, Davidson Graves of Appleton, Dorie Klein and Norbert Leser of Camden, Andrew Reichline of Tenants Harbor and Robert Solywoda of New York. Solywoda, also from New York, has explored and photographed Maine on a McNamara Foundation artist’s fellowship.
Benner and Davis are painters who reference photography in their work. Graves and Stess create traditional black and white silver gelatin prints. Klein often bypasses the camera entirely and uses her computer scanner as her lens. Leser, LeRoy and Reichline all are color photographers. Leser embraces digital technology, while the other two remain wedded to film. Solywoda literally expands the photographic medium into new dimensions.
The show runs through the 30th of October. Gallery hours are 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Monday through Friday and 1 to 4 on the remaining Saturdays in October. The Chalmers gallery is located on the second floor of Lincoln Street Center. Work will also be displayed in the lower level exhibition space.
Contact information:
Point of View photography show co-organizers:
Catherine LeRoy, caleroy@verizon.net (207-594-4889)
Albie Davis, albiedavis@aol.com (207-354-7114 or cell 207-691-3087)
Angela Anderson Pomerleau, info@lincolnstreetcenter.org (594-6490)
