I’m excited to announce a new series of work, presented as a solo exhibition at Kellar Mahaney Gallery. All the images are from one day in the Grand Tetons. I previously wrote about that day here. Here’s the info:
Andy Chen: Snow Day
Opening reception Feb 5, 5-9pm
exhibit continues through Mar 3
Kellar Mahaney Gallery, Zionsville, IN
SNOW DAY
Snow Day is a series of photographs taken among the Grand Tetons in Wyoming on an afternoon’s walk to Taggart Lake. We were nineteen days into a two-month wilderness road trip in October of 2009 and these photos capture the season’s very first snow.
In the months prior, we converted a Chevy cargo van into a camper, outfitting it with a pop-up top, bed, stove, bathroom, backpacking gear and guitar. I brought along my camera and my wife Hannah (who was five months pregnant then) brought along a sense of adventure.
There isn’t anything much better than fresh snow to pique my curiosity of transitions, mystery and wonder. We had hiked for several days before in wearing, drizzling rain. We went to bed in anticipation and we woke up to a frosted landscape. It was a snow day.
INvision Casserole 2010 is here, with a reception this Friday. I’ll be showing a few pieces from an ongoing project of portraits taken with my cell phone camera.
There’ll be new work from nine photographers. Come on out and join us. I’ll be bringing a breakfast casserole to add to the delicious offerings. We’ll eat with our mouths and eyes and warm each other’s hearts. How ’bout that!
Posted by Andy at 4:52 pm. Filed under: Announcements
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“Where the Fairies Are” is opening as a gallery show! It would be my pleasure to have you join me at Wug Laku’s Studio and Garage this Friday for the opening reception.
Where the Fairies Are
Opening reception Dec 4. 6-10pm
Wug Laku’s Studio and Garage
Circle Center Industrial Complex
1125 Brookside Ave C7, Indianapolis, IN
Exhibit continues through December 23 January 23, 2010
It’s been awhile since the last post. I don’t have an editor watching over my blog so that frees me to subject you to a rambling update.
The outdoor art festival season has finished for the year. There were a crazy few weeks, including a two week stretch where I participated in three art fairs and two gallery shows. Whew. Along the way, I was selected for a few awards, a nice surprise:
Best in Show – Penrod Arts Fair
Best of Show – Carmel International Arts Festival
Second Place – St. James Court Art Show 3rd St Section
With the art fairs waning, I got reacquainted with having free weekends. Let me tell you, it is so nice to have free weekends. Off to the woods we went. We had some nice overnights in the Hoosier National Forest and around Lake Michigan.
During one of the days at Lake Michigan, I took some casual shots that I didn’t think would amount to much. But after I got home, something unexpected about them stood out. Ideas come like that sometimes. When I’m not even serious, something different is revealed that could lead to a significant direction.
Up next: I’m participating in two holiday shows, one tomorrow and another next Friday. I wanted to offer something geared towards gift giving, so I’ve been making small prints framed to 8×10″. Until now, I haven’t ever shown my work so small. But, now seeing the completed work – they’re really fun. After years of making bigger and bigger prints, it’s nice to have something little and intimate. You can hold it in the palm of your hands.
Also, I’m teaching a Digital Fine Art Printing Workshop next weekend. There are still openings available. You can find the details about the holiday shows and the printing workshop at my events page.
And last, but not least: My project, Where the Fairies Are will be exhibited next month at Wug Laku’s Studio and Garage. Whoohoo! More details to come.
Posted by Andy at 10:23 am. Filed under: Announcements
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A Chance Meeting – from Where The Fairies Are
My project Where The Fairies Are is now on the gallery section of the website. View it here.
I’ve been exploring themes of enchantment for a few years now, so you may guess that I’m really quite excited to present a collection of this work.
These photographs portray natural settings as more than what we expect them to be. They are a hope of things mystical and mysterious. If fairies existed, where would they be? They would be on the edge of a world that is breaking into ours. They would be among the miraculous that we take as mundane.
There will be opportunities to see pieces from this collection in the next couple of months. I’ll keep you posted.
Gestures and Dreams – from Where the Fairies Are
I am a lazy photographer. People will view a dramatically lit image of mine and say, “Wow, how long did you have to wait for the light in that one?” I’d respond, “I don’t know. Maybe two minutes.” Even that may be an exaggeration. I pretty much don’t wait for the light. Sorry, all you patient nature photographers. My apologies especially to the wildlife guys. They wait all…day…long.
I didn’t use to be this way. The first year I took up photography as a hobby, I saw more sunrises than the rest of of my life combined. I would scout out a location before and then return in the dark just before dawn. I’d stand there eyes still bleary with sleep. I’d setup my camera and tripod, rub my hands to warm them and wait for the light to be just right.
Waiting for light goes something like: find and frame a subject, anticipate lighting and then wait until that light arrives. But not anymore. Why not? Let’s consider the act of looking and a story of a street musician.
During morning rush hour, an anonymous violinist set up in a Washington DC subway station. He played for 43 minutes as 1097 people passed by. Of those 1097, 7 people stopped for about a minute to listen. The musician was world renowned violinist Joshua Bell, playing on a 3.5 million dollar violin. He played music that only three days earlier was played to a packed theater of $100 seats. You can read the full story here.
Most everyone, 99.4% of the people, walked by without pausing. Joshua Bell is one of the best classical musicians in the world. He was playing some of the finest pieces ever composed. What happened? The people in the subway station were on their way to somewhere else. They were distracted by a predetermined destination. They were waiting for the light and they missed Joshua Bell.
Guess what, there is always something interesting happening. Have you heard of the movie, Microcosmos? It’s a gorgeous documentary showing insect life. Who knew there was so much wonder in grassy bits around me? I rarely think of it. In fact I miss out all the time.
With my typical subject matter, there is so much interesting around me that something nearby already has the “perfect” light, waiting for me to notice. If I’m in a state of mind to appreciate what’s around me, then I just need to look. There’s so much unplanned goodness that I have too much to photograph before I’m in a situation where I feel the need to plan for lighting.
Moss – from the series Where the Fairies Are
A photograph captures a moment in time. It would seem to follow that a photographer would want to create images that depict a special moment, where the viewer can savor the nuances of that slice of time. Photojournalists are inspired by the “decisive moments” captured by Henri Cariter-Bresson. Landscape photographers retell the story of Ansel Adams capturing quickly passing light for his most popular image, Moonrise, Hernandes. Think of the artist waiting for just the right expression in a face, or seeking that magic sunrise hour on the side of a mountain.
There’s a problem with this approach. The camera may be capturing a fleeting arrangement of light, but I don’t want to draw your attention to a specific moment. I want the story. I want your mind to fill in what happened the days, months or years that could have led up to the image. And, when your eyes turn away I want you to know that the story continues.
We know this already, don’t we? For the climax to be effective, we need the context of what happened before and how events may resolve after. Well, what if I don’t want my photograph to even show the climax? What if I just want to give you a sense of the journey?
Step into the journey. The moments will come. I don’t need to show a special moment to you, because they’re there all along.
I’ve been putting together a body of work exploring the notion of fairies. Not so much what they are, but why we may need them and what would it be like if we had it in mind to actually look. A couple of years ago, I wrote about the process of re-enchantment. I’ll be posting some more entries on the topic and new images from this series. For now, let us let the story begin…
Where the Fairies Are
There is a wonder in the world around us, a wonder that has been neglected and obscured. In the bustle of our lives, we have let that sense of wonder decay. We have become strangers with the notion of enchantment. To discover something enchanting is to take in, in a way that changes the very representation of the thing.
These photographs portray natural settings as more than what we expect them to be. They are a hope of things mystical and mysterious. If fairies existed, where would they be? They would be on the edge of a world that is breaking into ours. They would be among the miraculous that we take as mundane.
Perhaps by imagining, we can bring into existence what is already there, waiting for us to become re-enchanted.
“Earth’s crammed with heaven,
And every common bush afire with God,
But only he who sees takes off his shoes;
The rest sit round it and pluck blackberries”
- Elizabeth Barrett Browning
