What makes the current “Images” exhibit at Falls Church Arts Gallery very distinct from previous exhibitions is that the works displayed are all photographs. Indeed, sixty pieces from forty-seven photographers are on view. Despite the photography medium they hold in common, there is tremendous variety within the exhibition.
When we first imagine the Italian city of Venice, masks may not be what come to mind, for this “most improbable of cities,” as Thomas Mann called it, is famous for being situated on water. Yet photographer Chuck Dervarics points out in “Venetian Mask” that Venice might just as well be called “the city of masks.” In his photograph, Mr. Dervarics, the father, captured his daughter continuing Venice’s venerable carnival mask tradition by donning one herself in a photo awash in vibrant pastel colors.
Closer to home than Tuscany, Daniel Horowitz’s “Snowy Evening” photo of Old Town Alexandria offers us an image strongly resembling a black-and-white film negative. Light appears as dark and dark as light, but upon closer inspection, we see this is not a printed-out negative. It resembles rather an infrared image in which an extreme level of sharpness, detail, clarity, and ghostly lightness are present in unexpected places. Being an evening with a dreamy, light sprinkling of snow over the ground, this unique aesthetic perfectly suits its romantic content.
There are moments throughout the exhibition relating to the celebration of life and the inevitability of death. A salient example is Eileen O’Brien’s “Ponderous,” depicting a very young girl and a skeleton both “pondering” each other, as it were, side-by-side. The Matthias Claudius poem “Der Tod und das Mädchen” (Death and the Maiden), set to the immortal music of Schubert, comes immediately to mind. Dave Myles’ photographic contributions are also of a memento mori frame of mind, specifically “Lost Love” and its image of a skull and a young woman who, according to the exhibition card, “received a letter telling her about the loss of her lover. Distraught, she took her own life.”
Also by Dave Myles, “Ophelia” depicts Hamlet’s love interest in water in a sleep-like state of death. The photograph is in tribute to John William Waterhouse and his Pre-Raphaelite paintings. In Mr. Myles’ photograph, Ophelia is holding white oxeye flowers which could symbolize Ophelia’s purity and her patience as she waits in vain for Hamlet’s unrequited love. Ophelia in the picture is surrounded by green abundant nature, perhaps representing Ophelia’s immortality, for she has been immortalized in Shakespeare’s ever-popular play “Hamlet” as well as in Pre-Raphaelite paintings.
Other photographs in the exhibition are reminiscent of paintings, such as Joanne Burke’s “Facts on File,” which resembles a still life painting. Kathleen Conklin’s “Westminster from the Eye,” Westminster Bridge and the Tower of London under the photographic lens remind us not of paintings, but of poetry, as in Wordsworth’s lines standing at Westminster Bridge: “Dull would he be of soul who could pass by/ A sight so touching in its majesty… Earth has not anything to show more fair” than London in mist and morning. With a green tinge, stark ripples upon the River Thames, and the foggy haze above Big Ben, the picture transports us, looking downwards in an unusual view invigorating what might otherwise might be a common view in a dull morning haze.
Also British-themed is Susan Sanders’ black-and-white “Queen and Gentleman,” in which an elegantly dressed man stands before Queen Elizabeth II! Or does he? When we look closer, as our eyes travel towards the bottom of the image, we notice that the man in fact stands before a hyper-realistic painting of the Queen, and not, in fact, before the Queen herself. Perhaps the visitor to the National Portrait Gallery where this photograph was taken ruminates on the legacy of the late Queen and her meaning for her people and for history.
These are but a few of the photographs represented in “Images.” For a full appreciation of the breadth of subjects which receive unusual treatment under the lens of many talented photographers, the reader is encouraged to visit this special Falls Church Arts Gallery presentation of “Images,” on display through April 14.
