Photography is an intricate interplay of light and shadow, where shadows are not just an absence of light, but crucial counterparts adding depth and balance to our visual narrative. Their poetic and practical roles are etched deeply into the history of this art form.
In this new exhibition, SHADOWS by Vincent Caruso, we invite you to explore photography’s transformative potential through shadows, the ever-changing balance between light and dark.
Saturday July 22, 5-8
The chiaroscuro effect, popularized by renowned painters, has been adopted by photographers to encapsulate human emotion. Photographers such as Ansel Adams and Henri Cartier-Bresson have adeptly manipulated this interplay to exhibit nature’s beauty and seize ephemeral moments of humanity. Shadows also serve as reflections, adding dimension and character, as demonstrated in Diane Arbus’s striking portraits.
Street photography, often seen as capturing spontaneous moments, can also be a deliberate composition. Crisp shadows, produced by hard light sources like the sun, create geometric interplay when both the subject and light source are positioned before the camera. This alignment creates long shadows, extending towards the frame’s edges, drawing the viewer in. Shadows then articulate the subject’s form and the environment’s depth, even mimicking and distorting the subject’s contours, offering a sense of anonymity.
In this exhibition, we invite you to explore photography’s transformative potential through shadows. We encourage you to notice the “figure-ground relationship,” where a balanced shadow and positive-negative space interaction create an engaging visual effect.
You’re also urged to appreciate the curiosity gap that these images present. One primary image in this exhibition, with blurred figures crossing the frame, exemplifies this concept. The slow shutter speed and deliberate high-contrast exposure create a style that defines the photographer’s unique artistic identity.
As philosopher Hagi Kenaan suggests, photography brought a profound shift in our world view. It presents a paradox: the human eye deeply sensitive to nature versus a machine vision that aims to capture the fleeting instant. As you delve into this exhibition, we hope you appreciate the poetry shadows embody, the ever-changing balance between light and darkness, and the transformative potential of shadows in photography.
