CULTURE- ART FEATURE- Our lucky day(s): Look3’s wide-angle lens
When photographer Mary Motley Kalergis checked into a DC hotel a few years ago, she was shocked to find men laced and strapped into leather corsets, thongs, and boots strolling through the lobby. She’d accidentally landed in the middle of a “leather convention”– and she’d inadvertently found her next body of work (pun intended). Her surprisingly sweet black-and-white portraits of the nicest people on earth– who just happen to share a kinky fetish– are currently on show at Club 216 in the exhibition, “Leather Family: The Fellowship of Bondage, Dominance, and Sadomasochism.”
When photographer Mary Motley Kalergis checked into a DC hotel a few years ago, she was shocked to find men laced and strapped into leather corsets, thongs, and boots strolling through the lobby. She’d accidentally landed in the middle of a “leather convention”– and she’d inadvertently found her next body of work (pun intended). Her surprisingly sweet black-and-white portraits of the nicest people on earth– who just happen to share a kinky fetish– are currently on show at Club 216 in the exhibition, “Leather Family: The Fellowship of Bondage, Dominance, and Sadomasochism.”
That's the way serendipity works: unexpectedly, you end up in the right place at the right time. Charlottesvillians' current stroke of luck is to live where Look3: Festival of the Photograph– a first-of-its-kind event in North America– is unfolding. This month, the galleries— even the downtown streets— are treasure troves overflowing with jewels from some of the world’s best photographers.
Eugene Richards' "Thirteen Books" is one of the most powerful shows. Filling the hallways and main gallery of the McGuffey Art Center, it provides an immersive experience in the Brooklyn artist’s gut-wrenching black-and-white exposes of social issues ranging from poverty to international treatment of the mentally ill to the devastation of 9/11.
Meanwhile, at Second Street Gallery, "The Given: Studio Work" displays images from Sally Mann’s recent photographic explorations. The wet-plate prints and glass ambrotypes continue her trajectory away from direct representation toward an ever-fuller embrace of the evocative abstraction and chance poetry her processing introduces to still lifes and portraits.
Down the street at Les Yeux du Monde, "William Albert Allard: Five Decades" provides a dazzling overview of the photojournalist’s career. Allard’s riveting images not only demonstrate his virtuosity at framing the "decisive moment," they also reveal his Vermeer-like understanding of how light affects color.
At the Mudhouse, getting a coffee may mean getting lost in Nathan Baker’s "Occupations," a collection of fascinating digitally cloned images that explore the mastery involved in everyday jobs.
And the list goes on, including Bill Emory’s black-and-white images at the C&O Gallery, Steve McCurry’s colorful portraits at the Charlottesville Transit Center, Rebecca Norris Web’s zoo pictures at the Charlottesville Community Design Center, and Lynn Johnson’s hate-crime installation at the Free Speech Park.
Plus, walking between these exhibitions means encountering National Geographic photographer Michael "Nick" Nichols' spectacular wildlife photographs swinging from the trees on the Downtown Mall.
To have such first-rate photography right where we live– how lucky we are!
For more information on official and unofficial Festival of the Photograph exhibitions, visit look3.org. #