Awaken from Your Dream
Are you curious to see New York City’s Central Park at night? The romance, mystery and beauty of nature at night? The lush photographs of Michael Massaia awaken us from our dreams and seduce us with their gorgeous blacks, greys, milky white surfaces.
Deep in a Dream
Michael Massaia’s nocturnal studio becomes the park where from 4:00 – 6:00 he captures in half light the beauty that old growth trees, winding paths, leaves, and old lamp posts create. The body of Central Park photos is called, “Deep in a Dream.” Massaia is one of the most in demand contemporary photographers. He has been the subject of multiple fine art and photography magazine articles, featured on television interviews and has had many one man exhibitions at fine art galleries throughout the country. He works with a large format camera and spends dozens of hours printing out his pictures in a time consuming old world way with the precious metals of platinum and palladium.
While the World and the Park slumbers, Massaia is Hard at Work
Wherever the work is shows it enchants viewers with its dreamy, surreal beauty. While the world and the park slumbers Massaia is hard at work – like an alchemist conjuring up dream with light, dark and an old almost magical box. Just as photography in the 1860’s excited the world with its magical transformation of 3 dimensional life onto a 2 dimensional surface Massaia’s work leaves us with a sense of wonder and awe. As it turns out he often uses multiple exposure and instead of printing work in shades of grey paints the pictures with light through multiple exposures. He lights up walkways, brightens buildings and creates a shadow world of light that is sometimes soft and gentle and other times bright and brilliant.
Afterlife
After contemplating the joy of visually gazing on the park many of us have wonderful memories of amusement parks. Michael Massaia lept the fences of some of the most famous New Jersey amusement parks to survey the area – again with his wonderful large format camera, in the early hours of the morning. The rides are still, the food concessions are closed and only our spirits are left to roam in the half light. It is as if they have been frozen in time by their eerie and beautiful stillness. The architecture of the amusement parks and the beautiful signage are provide us with a playground where we can only imagine the whirling and energetic activities of the day, the cheering of voices, laughing of children and the simple joys of escaping into a world of thrills and pleasure. Michael’s camera captures the beautiful forms of the rides, signs and walkways of the park.
The pictures are themselves luxurious playgrounds of blacks, whites and greys. The tonal ranges in the oversize brilliantly printed pictures are superb. He again works his magic and brings these amusement parks to life. They have a similar dreamy quality – but the architecture is all man made as opposed to the natural forms of the trees in Central Park. Now, post Hurricane Sandy, we can only remember them and dream about them. The amusement parks were victim of the Hurricane and they will never open their gates again. They belong to a life time that ended in the fall of 2012. If photography is about preserving our histories, places and dreams Michael Massaia’s pictures excel at this task. They are memories of joy, beauty and Americana.
Be sure to visit his work on our sight and wake up your imagination. The pictures are normally printed in two or three sizes – all by Michael himself, and are small editions. You will be enchanted by the mystery, beauty and seductive power of Michael Massaia’s pictures. These are truly pictures to spend time with, enjoy and dream about.