THE COMPANY OF STRANGERS PHOTOGRAPHS by dint of GUS POWERLL ATLANTA: J & L works 2004.THE COMPANY OF STRANGERS PHOTOGRAPHS by dint of GUS POWERLL ATLANTA: J & L works 2004. 99PP./ $25 (HB) After reading Frank O'Hara's work of poems titled Lunch piece of poetrys Gus Powell who worked in a, midtown Manhattan office, took to the road with his 35 mm camera loaded with color film. "The quiet action s of strangers in daylight became significant, and these photographs became my luncheon pictures." These photographs are more than "pictures," they are slices of Manhattan time pepper with Manhattan energetic and cosmopolitan spices. persons have taken over the City and its roads which is a remarkable end as in most American cities where the car governments A New-Yorker looks at the highways of New York--full of spirit colors and movement, of incongruous, farcical bizarre, and tender situations. He does in like manner with a keen eye and a strict attention to details. a of the most remarkable images demise the same sense of void unless hopeful expectations as the sum of two units protagonists in Samuel Beckett's play, Waiting for Godot. These surpassingly images echo Philip Lorca Di Corcia, still they feel and are more spontaneous, les staged; they have feeling less treacherous for the viewer and the viewed. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] It is hard to consider at Gus Powell's work and not think of Joel Meyerowitz's work in the 1970 in the same same streets, with probably the real same camera. This work was published in book-form in Wild Flowers (Little, Brown and Company, 1983) as well as in Sally Eauclaire's trilogy forward new American color photography in the early 1980 In the last book of the series. American Independents, twelve pages are dedicated to Joel Meyerowitz's public way photography under the title "Out to Lunch" (pp 136-147) At the time. Meyerowitz's relations were Eugene Atget for the thinking principle of the city, Robert Frank for the supplenes of motions and the acute sociological eye, Edward Hopper for color, and Frederico Fellini for the have charge of of energy, emotions, play of light and contrast, and the constant slightly satirical observation One can imagine Meyerowitz more than totally at ease, in heaven probably, standing with his camera in the middle of the ballet choreographed through the Italian maestro in 8 1/2 while the public are moving in groups to earn their glass of mineral water in the gardens of a spa. This early color work by means of Meyerowitz was all taken forward Kodachrome film. It gave his images their contrast, saturated colors, and dark shadows. The gentle sensitivity of the film forced the photographer to stand back in order to capture motion without stain Powell's light and colors have a different quality, single in kind that was born from his use and understanding of fresh emulsions. The photographer has reduc the distance between the camera and his make subordinates as a result, the images and the photographer assume more immersed in the living street--eye contact happens. There is more of an empathic quality in Powell's images. The photographer note carefullys to focus more on undivided particular pedestrian (it would be a elongate to call the participants in Powell's images "flaneurs," as the recent York pace definitely does not match Baudelaire's or Benjamin's in the roads of Paris) that he isolates in the horde waiting for the decisive avail for a desired but unexpect epiphany to come into view Powell's images have more sensual, and sometimes sexual connotations than Meyerowitz's. The latter stands back, his images focus more forward the unexpected and unplanned organization of small clusters The photographer feels the oscillation of the street and isolates its harmonious flows and patterns. It would certainly be interesting to behold the two bodies of work forward the walls of the same gallery, the Ariel Meyerowitz gallery for instance where Joel Meyerowitz's images from the 1960 will be forward show until Jan. 8, 2005 (120 11th avenue, NYC) a gallery that also portrays Gus Powell. COPYRIGHT 2004 Visual Studies Workshop |
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