Pictures in the Half-Light

NOVEMBER 18 – DECEMBER 9, 2023

Most of the photography that we view is very literal in its presentation – the images we see are set in front of us as if they are straightforward data. However, some photographers are more interested in the expressive potential of the medium. Barbara Cole, Michael Massaia and Joyce Tenneson have found unique ways to create photographs that are less about showing their subjects in a merely denotative manner, and more about concentrating on the mood, spirit and tonal range of their artwork. The images in front of a photographer’s lens can be captured and presented in a myriad of ways. The traditional tools that photographers have had to work with are focus, depth of field, palette (whether black and white or color,) scale and composition. In general art terms, Expressionism is referred to when an artist chooses to present the world in a subjective manner. He or she allows their sensibilities to reshape and reimagine the subject matter for emotional effect. The artworks have the ability to convey a specific mood and have a visceral effect. Cole, Massaia and Tenneson are practitioners of this experiential form of photography – their images have latent emotional effects.

Most of the photography that we view is very literal in its presentation – the images we see are set in front of us as if they are straightforward data. However, some photographers are more interested in the expressive potential of the medium. Barbara Cole, Michael Massaia and Joyce Tenneson have found unique ways to create photographs that are less about showing their subjects in a merely denotative manner, and more about concentrating on the mood, spirit and tonal range of their artwork. The images in front of a photographer’s lens can be captured and presented in a myriad of ways. The traditional tools that photographers have had to work with are focus, depth of field, palette (whether black and white or color,) scale and composition. In general art terms, Expressionism is referred to when an artist chooses to present the world in a subjective manner. He or she allows their sensibilities to reshape and reimagine the subject matter for emotional effect. The artworks have the ability to convey a specific mood and have a visceral effect. Cole, Massaia and Tenneson are practitioners of this experiential form of photography- their images have latent emotional effects.

Barbara Cole’s two distinct bodies of work. “Between Worlds” and “Shadow Dancing” are unique in her working styles. “Between Worlds” is shot wholly with the photographer, camera, and models underwater. The models’ movements are often choreographed into an arabesque that is slowed down and distorted by the water as well as the refraction of light that penetrates under the surface of the water line. Recently, her dancers are set against backdrops of faraway magisterial palaces and formal halls. Through a disjunction of both time and place, the photographs create their own spaces. A half-light that penetrates the water veils the work in a romantic, saturated palette. Barbara Cole has great respect for the classic foundations of photography. Her “Shadow Dancing” images are composite works of art in which two prints of the same subject are laid atop one another. The model is first photographed, often posed against a stark backdrop, in soft light. This initial image is printed on a tin type with a wet collodion technique in which Cole has to cut, sensitize and develop a black and white image, all before the emulsion dries. After taking her first exposure, she puts color film into her medium format camera and creates a second image. This image is printed in partial opacity onto plexiglass. The two images are then joined together in a black frame that acts as a metaphor for the camera itself. Through this process of creating a space between the two surfaces, time is frozen and the pictures create an anachronism in which the old and the new are evocatively joined.

Michael Massaia has always focused on environments in New York and New Jersey – in the small hours of the morning – a time of indeterminate light. He reminds the viewer of the legendary photographer, Eugène Atget – who hauled around a large camera with glass plates to memorialize pre-dawn Paris as if it were a stage waiting to come to life with the drama of the day’s activity. There is magical poetry in Massaia’s photographs. He notes that, at the time he photographs, there are no real blacks or whites – there are only the midtones of a landscape waiting for clearer illumination. In his darkroom, Massaia’s true artistry is revealed through a dynamic modulation of tones from the whites of the incandescent park and streetlights to the velvety blacks of the impenetrable sky, dark windows and empty spaces. Through the use of platinum, silver, palladium and various chemical toners, he metaphorically (as well as chemically) draws with light and brings an expressive mood to his photographs. They are redolent with emotion, longing, and a yearning for the tranquility of a world that is void of human activity. Of the 3 photographers included in this exhibition, his pictures are the purest in their exploration of a world captured in the half light. A single print can take up to 10 hours of repeated work in which there are multiple treatments and exposures to the print. His photographs are carefully constructed rather than merely taken. He has stated that when he looks through the glass of the camera -he sees not merely what is in his viewfinder – but knows what his final picture should look like. His journey, as a photographer, is to take the artwork through the many steps that it often takes to become the end picture that he imagines as he initially views his subject matter.

Joyce Tenneson considers her portraits to be illuminations. Rather than following the conventional idea that light is something that one shines onto an object, she looks for the light to come from within her subjects. She has long understood that the expressive power of a photograph is not exclusively visual, but a product of trying to capture the essence or uniqueness of a person, flower, shell, or any object. Since the beginning of her image making, her desire was not to be a neutral observer of a person, but to make a connection with her subject. Throughout her various projects, her subjective approach pushes her to look beyond the obvious to try to see a something or someone with her heart and spirit, and to let this insight be reflected in her pictures. For Tenneson’s “Wise Women” series, she photographed successful women who were, age-wise, in the last third of their lives. Her pictures communicate a wisdom, heart and brightness emanating from within her sitters. When she created her famous, large-format Polaroids, her focus ranged from the famous to the more anonymous sitters. Through her warmth and embracing attitude, she challenged the cold, and often straight forward clinical properties of the camera. She shifts her focus from people to nature in showing the life cycle of plants and trees. Alluding to romanticism in art, nature produces an amazing array wonders and treasures. Nature has a nobility – its visage is shaped by time, light, and environment. Her pictures often have a strong subjective and emotional impact as they visually celebrate the world in which we live. Often, she uses a macro lens to reveal the everyday – but in a new and rich way. She invites us to connect with the world, both human and natural, rather than just view it.

Pictures in the Half-Light is an exhibition that champions the work of three photographers who understand both the subtleties and the expansive powers of photography. Each photographer shapes and makes their pictures from a subjective point of view. They all want to share aspects of their worlds that enhance the visual with emotions, memories, and desires. Through the softness of minimal light, all three bodies of work show private and personal worlds. Through the medium of photography, they share their joys, artistic visions and the possibilities of worlds that are re-imagined. From its inception, photographs have been compared to dreams; rather than presenting narratives, a photograph shows a moment in time. Life’s continuum is arrested and we are shown an instant. Upon careful reflection and observation, the instant can be brought to life in the viewers eyes and a world, real or imagined, can present us with riches to behold.