CONTEMPLATING THE DECADES…
Having photographed haphazardly since 1957 and more purposefully since 1980, I've pondered from time to time the idea of a retrospective – with a mingling of excitement and apprehension. In my mind's eye I welcomed the personal challenge of revisiting my images with a fresh point of view, organizing them into coherent groupings, and selecting those photographs I felt best represented my particular aims. At the same time, however, the very idea of attempting to evaluate the entire array of photos and choosing a limited number was daunting and, I suspected, a task best left to others of greater detachment.
When the invitation came to develop this exhibition, my immediate reaction was to wonder whether I could indeed meet the challenge. But after absorbing the idea over time and with immersion in the nitty-gritty details of constructing a survey show, I found myself pushing steadily ahead. Not that the selection process came easily; it most certainly didn't, as I had anticipated. But despite my second-guessing and grieving for individual photos and entire projects that didn't make the cut, the retrospective has come to fruition in a very exciting way, exactly ten years to the month after another personal milestone, my 100th solo show, "Familiar Places," exhibited at the Tucson Museum of Art.
My thanks to Terry Etherton and his capable staff for this opportunity to overview almost 30 years of manipulating silver grains and now color pixels, and to display some examples in a splendid art space, one in which I've spent many thoughtful, tranquil hours enjoying the work of artists in whose good company I now find myself. It's indeed a pleasure, and an honor.
The Photographic Threads…
As individual human beings we're gifted with an enormously complex multiplicity of interests, personality traits, and ways of viewing the world. While many photographers have specialized in one particular type of subject matter and have done so admirably, my own preference has been to cast about and investigate different aspects of the human condition and the world around us. This eclectic approach has pulled me in a number of directions: social history and sense of place; satire; universal themes of mortality, impermanence and the brevity (and by implication, the value) of life; candid, spontaneous environmental portraits of people alone with their thoughts, even in a crowd; the ongoing theater of street life from the poignant to the comedic; and the grandeur of ancient monumental structures and the connectedness of nearby contemporary life. These diverse threads of interest are all represented in my selections for this exhibit.
My photographic inclinations dwell south of the cerebral region and more toward the visceral, evocative, and accessible. I aim to portray my subjects with clarity and directness, while recognizing that viewers will bring their own unique perceptions to the same image. My goals have always been to provoke fairly immediate "gut" reactions throughout the range of emotions, and hopefully, to stir some degree of introspection about the meaning of the images. It's always fascinating to hear the varying interpretations of my work, as influenced by the life experience and sensibilities brought by the viewer to the photographs.
From the standpoint of style, heightened realism is how I describe most of my work. I remain close to actuality as I find it, and seek dramatic impact through the subject matter itself, compositional elements and, very importantly, printing technique. Many of the images included here incorporate my preference for full-range tonality, rich and moody printing, faintly luminous shadows, expansive foregrounds, strong diagonals, and the isolation of the central subject set deeply within the frame. Likewise, my more recent digital imagery emphasizes similar printing techniques and a richly saturated palette of color. I'm currently applying this approach to a series of abstractions and a set of off-beat street photographs, as well as to the ongoing "Vanitas" series.
While some projects required planning ahead for a certain quality and positioning of light, most of my shooting is more in the "grab and run" mode, i.e., I don't generally sit and wait hours for perfect light. And, as you'll no doubt quickly discern, the more conventional notions of beauty have not been of high priority in my photographic vision. I've lived in Tucson since 1980, and have never seriously photographed a sunset, sunrise, flower or picture postcard saguaro.
In addition to my earlier black-and-white photographs, I've included more recent color work done since I surrendered my film cameras and chemical darkroom in mid-2004 and transitioned from silver to digital color in what one traditionalist friend described as "going over to the dark side." Be that as it may, the whole process from the start has been one long and exciting expedition, and I anticipate many more engaging twists and surprise detours along the photographic road, dark side or not. When asked what artistic phase I occupy, I like to respond, with tongue planted firmly in both cheeks, that I'm much too old to be "emerging," well beyond "mid-career," but not nearly ready to expire. And so, I hope to put a lot more work before you in the years to come.
Thank you for reading… and seeing.
Cy Lehrer
