As I said I might last week, I went to the fine art photo gallery opening of Chris Anthony’s new series, “Venice.” I wasn’t familiar with his work other than what I’d seen on his website, but what I saw on his site was enough to get my rump-a-dump outta my house and brave the LA traffic on the 405! To be more specific I wanted to go because some of the symbols he uses in his work and some of his aesthetics seemed similar to my own so I thought I would like his work. In fact, I wanted to see it so bad that I invited a close friend to go with me so I couldn’t decide to poop out at the last minute with some lame excuse and not go. I also asked this friend to go because he’s a rad photog who I thought would like the show.

Anywho… We went to the show which was just a few miles from Venice beach over in Culver City, home to Sony Studios (which used to be Colombia Studios). Oh, right. Anywho… There was a really good size turn out of LA hipsters with plenty of tats, cool hats, coo-coo hairdoos, and $400 shoes. It was a WAY larger turn out than I had at my opening, but who’s counting – 87, 88, 89…

Everyone there seemed nice, but I did find it a bit odd that there were several very large, intimidating, well dressed security/bouncers there with walkie-talkie earpieces. Art mafia secret service? Who knows. There were a couple celebs there, but I don’t think they were mongo worthy. But who am I to judge? Let’s get to what matters. Me judging.

I’ll admit it, I’m an anti-photoshop comping snob. Oh, I’ll use the old PS to comp if I have no other choice, like if not comping would put the model in eminent danger, or would make the budget for the image so astronomical that I wouldn’t be able to shoot it anyway. Otherwise, I’m an in-camera shooter. I like the challenge and I feel like it brings something to the image, something live that you just can’t get otherwise. I’m like 99% sure most if not all of the images in this show were photoshopped. If they weren’t they looked like it to me. Either way, it left a stale taste in my mouth that all the free flowing Cristal in the room couldn’t snuff out.

A description of the show: You can see a few of the images on Chris’s website and that gives you the general idea. Desaturated clouds and ocean with a selectively saturated model in the water. That covers over 90% of the show I’d say. I don’t mind the idea of every image in a show being so incredibly similar to each other. In fact, I think repetition can help craft a very powerful story / message / emotion. In this case, however, there was no meaning that I could compute. Hey, no problem, not everyone has the “deeper meaning” bug like I do. Maybe he’s using repetition just for design purposes. Okay, then why were there a few random stragglers? A colored sky here, a cloudless sky there. Not enough that it made the disharmony meaningful either at least to me. Oh well.

The technique. Wonderful. Shot on on a 4×5 film camera the enlargements looked beautiful and creamy. The staging and wardrobe of the models was also very nice to look at. And the photoshop work, for what it was, was done very well, too. But many of you know me well enough by now; all the technique in the world don’t mean whosibubbble to me if the work doesn’t connect with me on an emotional or at least mental level.

Don’t get me wrong, several of the images independently could posses mounds of meaning or hold cabinets full of connections. But I think I would be imposing those meanings onto them. Seen as a series I wracked my brain-hole, but couldn’t come up with what, if anything the artist was actually trying to say. Perhaps I just didn’t look hard enough.

If you like cool looking images, I think you’ll like the work quite a bit. And it did make me want to go out and shoot more (I’ve been woefully slacking in that area lately). I just feel like it was a great opportunity wasted where he could have said something powerful. Perhaps he did, but it was sent as a text message and my phone was turned off. Reading this back I think maybe I sound kind of like a dick. I don’t mean to be. I do think people should go see the show and I think they will like it. I did like it. I think it’s because I liked it so much that I just wish it went that extra step.

Tomorrow (04-04-09) I’m going to see if I can get my butt out of the house two weekends in a row and go check out the Night Landscapes show in Santa Monica. I’ve done a few night landscapes myself and seeing this show may just get me back at it again.

Nice!

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