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Visual Arts

Drama, landscape, light

Photography show at DAC inaugurates series

When you walk into the Durango Arts Center, one of Joaquin Salazar’s panoramic photographs all but forces you to stop and be silent. “Patina’s Castle” is a powerful black-and-white image that is almost blindingly operatic.

Salazar traffics in visual extremes. In his large, matte-paper print, the photographer, in full sun, captured a canyon wall rising ominously out of sharply defined rocks. Above, white clouds flare out against an almost black sky. Salazar seems to have been stunned by the grandeur before him.

“I remember exactly where I was,” he said in an interview last week. “Cottonwood Wash in southeast Utah. It was 3:15 on a Tuesday afternoon in March 2013.”

Often shooting in the hot light of midday, Salazar doesn’t follow the dawn-or-dusk conventions of standard manuals. He shoots scenes that move him and simultaneously envisions the print that will emerge from his darkroom.

“I remember liking the flow of the composition, from earth to sky,” he said. “And when I worked with the image, I pushed all the contrasts – the textures of the stone. I dug into the darks.”

Combining awe with a sense of dread, “Patina’s Castle” continues the legacy of Romanticism. There’s a whiff of dread in the air, to borrow a phrase from the British art historian Simon Schama. Better yet, Salazar sees Southwestern canyons, Taos Pueblo and even his rare detour into color, “The Bosque #1,” from an Old Testament point of view – Nature’s grandeur as massive, austere and spellbinding.

“Exhibit 970: Generations” opened Friday. The photography show’s title defines geographical area and age range, from 26 to 73. Participants include Tim Hamza, Kathy Myrick, Paul Pennington, Alex Pullen, Branson Reynolds, Howard Rachlin, Ron Ritz and Salazar. Moab’s Bret Edge has also been included. His striking metal landscape prints cover one wall and offer fresh interpretations of familiar Southwestern scenes from Delicate Arch to Monument Valley.

From its invention in 1839, photography – making images with light – has gone through many iterations. Today, smartphone technology has turned photography into a universal, folk-art medium. But just because photographs are everywhere, it doesn’t mean high standards have disappeared. That’s part of what Salazar wants to demonstrate.

Take the classic work practiced by Ritz, a local doctor who goes on humanitarian medical missions and carries his Hasselblad camera and rolls of old-fashioned film with him. You’ll see 11 of his exquisite black-and-white prints, mostly of people he has encountered around the world.

Myrick’s expertise lies in color. Her sweeping landscapes are perhaps better known than her intense enlargements of flowers. She has a wall of close-ups that display her technical acuity, compositional variety and sheer delight.

Rachlin’s traditional landscape images include six wide-angle views of iconic Western scenes plus two other works of rocks and waterfalls. All are sharply envisioned and straight-forwardly framed. Rachlin is the founder, president and driving force behind Durango’s photography club.

Reynolds (no relation) has had a long and highly successful commercial career. You may be surprised to see two soft-focus impressionistic images that lie at the border between photography and oil painting.

Hamza’s quiet eye may be the most poetic in the exhibit. Three muted color prints and a quartet of small, abstract black-and-white nature photographs suggest a minimalist at work. Set in a still, silent corner for contemplation, Hamza’s imagery provides a counterpoint to the bigger, bolder images that tend to dominate the show.

Pullen is the youngster of the group. His visual appetite for variety is evident in both subject matter and process. A world traveler, Pullen presents several portraits including one nontraditional portrait. “Gypsy Triptych” shows only a head, hands and feet but suggests a complete man. One photo collage looks like an experiment and is the only one of its kind in the show.

Pennington’s six small color prints are boldly presented with large mats and black frames. Look closely and you’ll discover Pennington’s signature sense of humor.

Credit Kristen McKinnon for a clear and dramatic installation. She’s wisely grouped images for each photographer and positioned the three large Salazar prints as a gateway. Kudos to DAC for showcasing high quality photography and hopefully making this an annual event.

jreynolds@durangoherald.com. Judith Reynolds is a Durango writer, art historian and arts journalist.

If you go

“Exhibit 970: Generations” is on display now in the Barbara Conrad Gallery located in the Durango Arts Center, 802 East Second Ave. The show will be up until Sept. 13, and two presentations, on Aug. 28 and Sept. 4, will coincide with it. Visit www.durangoarts.org for more information.



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