On a recent outing to the RedLine Gallery, here in Denver CO, I found myself being pleasantly surprised with the vast amount of work that was featured there, each one evidence of talented local artists. RedLine is a non-profit art gallery that’s mission is to connect artists with the community. It allows artists to present their artwork to the public and even houses studios for artists to come work out of. They are currently serving as the main gallery for the Month of Photography here in Denver, with three unique exhibitions; Thought Objects, Discoveries, and Modern Alternative. There was a broad spectrum of subject matter and styles from artist to artist, varying from a photograph of a little city made of Jello, to a collage of old pornographic magazine covers. Among all the work featured there, two photographs really caught my eye and drew my attention in from across the room.
The first photograph was a black and white one by artist Tina Kazakhishvili called, Untitled. The subject in the photograph is a naked woman sitting with her back to the camera on a bed. She is leaning to her left, but it appears there is a large gust of wind that is sweeping her long dark hair up to the right, exposing her bare back. The hair in this photo is what demands the most attention and in my opinion makes the photograph as powerful as it is. It seems the photographer has caught that perfect moment; that moment that every photographer desires to capture, with the hair blowing gracefully out to the side. Even though the content in this photograph is rather simple, with just the single women in it, and with a plain white background, it expresses a great deal of secrecy through her body position, with her back to us and the flight of her hair. I find myself wanting to know what her face looks like and what caused this great gust of air to come sweeping through her hair.
The next piece was part of a series done by Judy Haberl, called Hidden Agendas Unutterable. There were four photographs that made up the series, but I will focus on one in particular, Purse 6. The subject of this color photograph is a close up of a translucent lady’s purse or “clutch” that has been placed against a white background. Inside this purse, it appears that liquid has been frozen and in the frozen liquid is a black hand grenade and a pearl necklace, which is slightly wrapped around the grenade. These objects within the purse are two complete opposites, which is what caught my attention and drew me to this piece. The grenade is very masculine and associated with war, explosions, and death and the pearl necklace is very feminine and is seen paired with beautiful dresses or other formal wear and associated with wealth, yet they are seen close together, concealed in a woman’s purse. This is extremely interesting to me and I find myself forming my own interpretation of who the owner of this purse is and the story behind why she is hiding a grenade in her purse.
The apparent differences between these two photographs are that the first is in black and white and that the second one is in color, and the subject in the first one is human and the subject in the second photograph is an object. The two are similar in the sense of mystery they portray. There is mystery in the first picture because the woman’s back is to the camera, hiding her face and making her anonymous to the viewer. The second one brings about a sense of mystery through the placement of contradictory objects inside a purse, making the viewer curious as to why these objects are together and who the unknown owner of them is. Both photographers did a good job at conveying this sense of mystery, for it is what attracted me to both their photographs and kept me intrigued and wanting to know while I was observing them.
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