Blink of an Eye

This body of work investigates the moments and places that one takes for granted, assumes will always be around... and then, in the blink of an eye, can disappear. The events surrounding both 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina brought this project into a deeper personal focus for me due to my long-standing connection with both of these unique cities. This sense of apparent sudden loss can be applied to physical objects, such as buildings or cities, and even to concepts like summertime, mortality and youth. I am attracted to quiet moments, childhood icons, off-seasons and isolation, even in the midst of activity. By using the softer, gauzier perspective of cheap plastic cameras these images contain a bit of that sense of nostalgia and sentimentality. But by occasionally using double exposures and image sequences arranged out of order I also want to cause a sense of discomfort and disruption.

This work was first exhibited at the Big Top Gallery in New Orleans, LA for the show “Tales of the Midway”.

Blink of an Eye was part of an exhibition I curated for the Salomon Arts Gallery in the Tribeca neighborhood of New York City in the fall of 2010. Click here to watch a video of the installation.

"Delugians" exhibit at Salomon Arts showcases the work of lens-based artists whose work was influenced by the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

Graphic images of a landscape of destruction…New Orleanians have seen enough of them. As the 5th anniversary of the Hurricanes and flooding that devastated New Orleans and the Gulf coast approaches, many of these images will, no doubt, resurface. The collection of art in "Delugians" focuses on a different aspect of the aftermath, how the emotional, social, and psychological effects of this catastrophe manifest themselves in the work of 4 lens-based artists. Curator, Bryce Lankard, has worked closely with many artists, particularly photographers, in the New Orleans post-Katrina environment, most notably through the foundation of the New Orleans Photo Alliance, a non-profit photographic arts organization that began shortly after the natural and man-made disaster.

Artists:

Jennifer Shaw

Hurricane Story is a graphic novel told in photographs. A first person narrative illustrated with toys, Hurricane Story depicts the strange true tale of Shaw's evacuation adventures, including the dramatic birth of a son on the day Katrina made landfall. Shaw's toy camera, black and white images have always had a dreamlike quality, but these vibrant color images are a notable departure from the idealized world of her earlier work.

David Halliday

Whether it is landscapes, still lifes or portraits, David Halliday is well known for a luscious, meticulous approach for revealing the beauty in the mundane. New Orleanians have long been the subject of his portraits. In pre-Katrina days those subjects often reflected the whimsy and eccentricity of the city, while his portraits post-Katrina, of volunteers at Common Ground, a lower 9th ward organization, show an altogether new side of life in New Orleans, and reveal a somberness that reflects the burden of their struggle.

Bryce Lankard

Having experienced the trauma of 9/11 as a New Yorker, Bryce Lankard found in the Katrina disaster that unfolded in his beloved city of New Orleans, another event that tore at the fabric of his world. Witnessing first-hand the physical and psychological toll that both events exacted, and yet saturated by images of destruction, Bryce set out to create images that capture the idea of loss in another way. "Blink of an Eye" is a series of images and faux panoramas that use the iconography of childhood and summertime, both fleeting, temporal periods, quickly gone, to suggest how quickly things, taken for granted, can dissappear.

Kyle Bravo

Primarily a printmaker, Kyle Bravo, has used photography liberally in two series of "conglomerations". In "Obituary Conglomerations" Kyle has sampled from the Obituary section of the Times-Picayune to create collective portraits of the dead of New Orleans. His own photographs of architectural elements of wrecked homes of the lower 9th ward are collaged into graphic icons in "House Conglomerations." The subjects of both series, when removed from their context, serve as signposts of the post-traumatic stress, depression, destruction and spiritual and emotional brokenness that plague many in New Orleans.

Salomon Arts hosted the benefit exhibition "Land of Dreams" by Bryce Lankard in 2006. Proceeds from the show aided in the creation of the New Orleans Photo Alliance, a non-profit photographic arts organization founded after Hurricane Katrina.

Salomon Art Gallery,Tribeca NYC 2010