Review: Warwick Voices Through Photos Exhibition
by Gail Buckland
The photography exhibition on view at Greenwood Lake Public Library until December 3rd, then at Albert Wisner Public Library in January and February, is the outgrowth of a new initiative from We the People Warwick. Nine participants, ranging from a high school freshman to senior citizens, were led by two trained leaders in a dialogue program called Essential Photovoice. The community members met weekly for two hours over a six-week period. The exhibition is the result of their dialogue and photographic investigations.
Each session had a photographic “prompt.” The exhibition is not organized around the weekly prompts and they don’t appear on the walls with the pictures. The “prompts” ranged from “A picture to help people understand something meaningful about you” to “A picture that would help people understand something about our community” to “What do you experience in our community that you see as helping it grow and flourish? What do you see that hinders flourishing”? to finally “What has been done or could be done to address what hinders our community’s flourishing…”
One can imagine sitting around a table discussing these topics. They are certainly important. What is remarkable is that each week, the participants had to give visual expression to these challenging questions. I would like to offer that We the People Warwick and Warwick Voices through Photos is one of the answers to the prompt, “What do you experience in our community that you see as helping it grow and flourish?”
Fifty photographs, well printed and mounted on foam board, are on exhibition. The photographers have a range of experience using cameras, and this, of course, results in pictures of varying quality and impact. What is consistent, however, are the thoughtful, deeply felt captions that go with each photo. They should be read alongside a deep look at the pictures, and if you feel so inclined, you can speculate which prompt resulted in a particular photograph. As well as excellent descriptive captions, I enjoyed the creativity of the photographers coming up with titles for their pictures.
Photographs present facts but also trigger emotion. The pictures I was most attracted to give the viewer more than visual information; their aesthetic qualities move, provoke, excite and challenge the viewer to go deeper and think harder.
Because the people participating in the workshop live in a beautiful part of the world, many pictures look to nature and the forces of nature as a salve and a savior. Two stand out because of their color palate, composition and painterly qualities. Solar Farms, by Christopher Webb, is so much more than a picture of solar panels. A curving path leads the eye to the solar panels cutting across the bottom third of the picture, rolling like gentle waves. The top two-thirds of the picture are clouds, magnificent and transcendent. Webb’s masterful use of soft focus gives the picture a contemplative power and great beauty. With subtlety, he addresses the existential threat of climate change.
Sunset at Greenwood Lake, by Craig Roberts, shows that, as Roberts states, “A lakeside autumnal sunset is a cornucopia of color and beauty.” The photograph opens up the imagination, and one thinks of the poems by Wordsworth and the magnificent 19th century landscapes of Jasper Francis Cropsey who painted scenes at Greenwood Lake. The composition feels perfect: red umbrella at the bottom left leading the eye to the gable roof and onward across the lake to the the hills, culminating in a brilliant sunset. The details, composition and limited range of colors make for a picture that triggers reverie.
Haunted History, by Freya Webb, is another wonderful photograph carefully composed, with a color palate very appropriate for the subject. It was taken at the Warwick Historical Society’s first Haunted History tour, where historians told stories of haunted history and tragedies that have occurred in Warwick. Freya, a student at Warwick High School says, “I find history exciting and think we can learn a lot about who we are as a community today from our past.”
All the photographers in the exhibition have more than one picture on display. I was very tempted to reproduce Freya’s other photograph, a picture of Warwick Valley High School. Haunted History is the better photograph, but I love how Freya writes about her photograph, showing the massive, columned entrance to the high school where students enter daily. Titled, Be True to Your School, referencing the Beach Boys song, Freya Webb writes, “I do believe the institution should be respected and that schools are not a place for culture wars, discrimination, and bullying. I don’t get why adults fight about the issue of education, because largely the students get along and love Warwick Schools. Good things happen here!” I love her sentiment.
This is a good place to pause and say how truly moving the photography exhibition is. Each participant had to find, in their hearts and through their eyes, meaningful places and people in Warwick. Places held more allure than people, but there is an eclectic group of male hikers on the Appalachian Trail by Craig Roberts and the town’s EMS workers are pictured by Kathleen Cavanaugh. My favorite “person” picture is by Maya Henderson, and it shows no faces, just a delicate child’s hands holding a ladybug and we see three different sets of feet, all wearing different shoes, in the background.
Sometimes cameras were pointed at things very familiar – the entrance to the school, a playing field, the local library, but taking the time to consider its importance in the individual’s life and in the community’s life, is invaluable. Paying attention should be synonymous with taking a photograph, and I think all the participants in Essential Photovoice understand that.
All the three public libraries are included in the exhibition with similar appreciative captions. My favorite is Kathleen Cavanaugh’s picture of the Florida Public Library, titled A Place for Lifelong Learning. It is a simple photograph and could be better composed (Cropping sometimes helps make a stronger image, or coming in closer), but I love the light on the red bricks and the flag at half-mast. The power of the picture is in the central area. The shadows of the bannisters, the steps leading to the entrance, the flag on the left, and the autumnal trees behind are, for me, the heart of the picture.
Art Georgalas’ Seven Generations photograph of Frederick Franck’s famous sculpture of the same name, is taken close enough and precisely enough to take the viewer seven generations into the future. It is a powerful work of art and Georgalas captures it with dignity and definition. Franck’s sculpture visualizes the Iroquois Law of Six Nations: “In all our deliberations we must be mindful of the impact of our decisions on the next seven generations.”
Jeanne Fleming’s Community is the Solution! reminds us that for many, life is a challenge with many unknowns. Her caption includes the words, “Suicide affects everyone connected to the person who dies.” Another way of thinking of future generations.
Ostensibly, Fleming photographed two signs addressing mental health issues and substance abuse, but for me, the meaning of the picture is that these two placards are in a wild and untamed field with no discernable path. When the path through life is not defined or clear, an individual can stumble. The strong sunlight on the grasses and the odd assortment of trees makes the poster reading “Sprout Hope” feel like another possible title for the photograph.
One of the most impressive pictures in the exhibition is Maya Henderson’s Just Jokes. Please don’t pass this still-life (full of life) by. Spend time with it. Three writing utensils, carefully placed, and a ruler on an angle cutting across the top right sit on a white board framing a handwritten diary. The composition draws the eye in and wham, the text tells it like it is. There was a racist remark, and Henderson’s words pour out. She asks why the slur, why not call her “the artsy one.” I will call her the artsy one. Of all the photographs in the show, Henderson has taken the greatest aesthetic risk. I could see this picture hanging in the Museum of Modern Art.
Good Morning, by Deborah Walker, brings me to the end of my review of a very worthwhile and fascinating exhibition organized by WE THE PEOPLE WARWICK. What could be better than ending with cute farm animals, reminding us that we share Warwick with many other creatures and that a healthy and whole community is a complex web that needs nurturing and attention.
Note: The exhibition occupies two rooms of the Greenwood Lake Public Library. Calling ahead to be sure the rooms are not in use during your visit is suggested.
Gail Buckland is a photography curator, author of numerous books on photography and a professor of the history of photography. She lives in Warwick.
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