Charlotte County Florida Weekly

Through the Lens

The eighth annual Camera USA exhibit offers winning photos from across the country



 

 

A MYSTERIOUS GLOWING CUBE OF light in a night desert. A white-haired couple ecstatically dancing, caught mid-whirl, hair flying.

A motel on Route 66 glowing neon green.

These are just some of the images that will be on exhibit in this year’s Camera USA exhibition at the von Liebig Arts Center in Naples June 4-Aug. 3.

It’s the eighth year for this annual juried photo competition, held by the Naples Art Association and open to photographers residing in the U.S. The photograph entered must have been taken in the U.S. after Jan. 1, 2014.

The winning photograph will be announced at the opening reception held from 5:30-7:30 p.m. Friday, June 1. Suggested donation for the event is $10. The winner receives a $5,000 award. Five honorary mention awards of $100 will also be given.

The three jurors who determined what images would be exhibited and which of those will receive awards are Christopher Jones, associate curator of photography at the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art; Mark Sloan, director and chief curator of the Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art at the College of Charleston, S.C., since 1994; and Paula Tognarelli, executive director and curator of the Griffin Museum of Photography in Winchester, Mass.

“FILM NOIR” BY NICHOLAS FEDAK II

“FILM NOIR” BY NICHOLAS FEDAK II

According to von Liebig curator Jack O’Brien, more than 200 photographers from all over the country entered the competition.

“This was our best turnout we’ve had,” he says.

Photographs came from as far west as California (seven entries) and Washington state (four entries) to as far east as New York City (eight entries). In the end, the jurors picked 75 different images for exhibition.

Florida has a good representation, with 21 images.

That includes a quirky color photo, “Mermaid’s Dream” by Marco Islander Mila Bridger, formerly of Fort Myers. Her photo shows a pair of legs in red-and-white striped stockings emerging from an aqua pool. The red-and-white legs against the blue of the water and the white of the edge of the pool give it an off-beat patriotic feel. Her artist’s statement is one sentence: “I am a photographer who manufactures fantasy.”

“CELEBRATING LIFE” BY CONSTANCE BRINKLEY

“CELEBRATING LIFE” BY CONSTANCE BRINKLEY

“Margarita Claro,” by Lisette Morales of Naples, is a portrait of a resident of East Naples. Margarita Claro is a community organizer and a Frida Kahlo researcher. The photographer asked Ms. Claro, who is of Mexican descent, if she could photograph her in her native clothing, and she agreed. She shot the image in her living room, with light coming from the window.

“This year we had a wonderful turnout of photographers who are concentrating on the human figure,” Mr. O’Brien says. “And that would be a portrait, or it could be the whole figure and the environment, but the main focus of the photograph is on the human figure.”

Three different photographers entered photographs of boxers.

“The Boxer” is a self-portrait by Austin, Texas, photographer Ben Tanzer.

“The idea was to go back to the 1920s,” says Mr. O’Brien. “He does (self-portraits) like Cindy Sherman, though she shoots images of herself as if she were in films.”

“CUBE #1” BY TOM WHEELER

“CUBE #1” BY TOM WHEELER

“Celebrating Life,” another striking image, this one by Seattle photographer Constance Brinkley, is a black-and-white photo of an older couple exuberantly dancing. She has caught the duo in “a decisive moment,” says Mr. O’Brien, quoting the photographer Henri Cartier Bresson: “Your eye must see a composition or an expression that life itself offers you, and you must know with intuition when to click the camera. That is a moment the photographer is creative. Oop! The moment! Once you miss it, it is gone forever.”

Ms. Brinkley has done this in capturing “that exact moment,” he says. “In a second, one of them may have turned away. She captures that very decisive moment.”

And some photographers have done some interesting things with light.

Brooklyn photographer George Underwood’s

“MARCELLA” BY CHRISTOPHER PRIEBE

“MARCELLA” BY CHRISTOPHER PRIEBE

“Cat — Joshua Tree Park” shows a Siamese cat on a kitchen counter, looking out the window. The compelling image is almost monochromatic, and infused with soft light. It’s Mondrian-like in its various rectangles and right angles, creating by window frames, kitchen drawers and the dark rectangle of an open microwave atop the white refrigerator.

Tom Wheeler, of Palos Verdes, Calif., created an image of a glowing Lucite cube in the desert — “Cube #1.”

“He’s allowing the glowing light to fill the shot with light,” Mr. O’Brien explains. “It’s a long exposure in the dark. It’s minimal and compelling. You can see the sand and the stars, all that texture in those mountains, and there’s a bit of a sunset.

“It’s simple, but simplicity is not simple.

“I’m so excited about the exhibition and the wonderful turnout we had and the amazing work the photographers created,” he says. “They can only enter one photograph. They’re offering up what they think is their best work, and it’s just amazing to see.” ¦

“SUPER SCRUBBER” BY ERIC JOHNSON

“SUPER SCRUBBER” BY ERIC JOHNSON

 

 

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