views of stillness press release

1405 Paseo de Peralta, Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501 [email protected]

W W W . O B S C U R A G A L L E R Y. N E T

For Immediate Release - September 12, 2018

Obscura Gallery Presents

THE EXHIBITION

Obscura Gallery proudly presents a three-person photographic exhibition, Views of Stillness, with Michael Massaia, Yamamoto Masao, and Kate Joyce. The exhibition features three photographers who each portray a sense of balance and harmony in their work that results in tranquility to their imagery. Michael Massaia and Yamamoto Masao both search for scenes absent of crowds which creates a solitary intimacy and reflection within their imagery. Michael Massaia, from New Jersey, seeks the dichotomy of landscapes in urban areas that are void of people within the quiet hours of late night and early morning. Yamamoto Masao from Japan, practices the art of “Shizuka” or “breathing quietly in nature,” in order to capture the ‘presence of treasures’ that he seeks with his camera. Santa Fean Kate Joyce’s work, ‘Ten-Diptychs’ was inspired by the digital loss of a photographic series that, when once restored, formed accidental imagery that allowed her to overcome and pacify her expectations, resulting in a harmonious balance of self and image. The exhibition opens with a reception on Friday, November 16, 2018 from 5-7pm at Obscura Gallery, 1405 Paseo de Peralta, Santa Fe, New Mexico. The exhibition is on view through January 5, 2019.



THE ARTISTS

MICHAEL MASSAIA

MICHAEL MASSAIA, Central Park, Gapstow Bridge, 2009, 22x28”, gelatin silver print, edition of 20.

Michael Massaia creates exquisite large-scale black-and-white gelatin silver prints of New York City’s Central Park in moments of quietude, resulting in the series, Deep in a Dream. An insomniac, Massaia began taking photographs with his large format camera on long, nighttime walks around his native New Jersey and became fascinated by the ghostly quality of metropolitan spaces devoid of people. “Capturing the park between the hours of 2am and 6am was my attempt to capture the city in its most haunting, desolate, and inviting moments,” Massaia says. The large-scale prints allow the viewer to step into the quiet scenes allowing the viewer to feel as though they are in the landscape itself.



MICHAEL MASSAIA, Central Park, Path & San Remo, 2016, 22x28”, gelatin silver print, edition of 20.



MICHAEL MASSAIA, Half Moon, Central Park, 2009, 40x30”, gelatin silver print, edition of 10.

I would commonly take long walks at night, and the park always seemed to be calling me in. I set out to document the park at its most vacant, isolating, and at times, haunting moments. The park appears to go through a period of metamorphosis during those late night/early morning hours, and I was determined to capture it. All of the images are captured using 8×10, 5×7, 4×5 view cameras, slow black and white film developed in a variety of staining developers, and the final prints are split toned gelatin silver prints. – Michael Massaia



MICHAEL MASSAIA, Central Park, Playmates Arch, Summer Solstice, 2016, 22x28”, gelatin silver print, edition of 20. Born in New Jersey, 1978, Michael Massaia is a self-taught master of the traditional gelatin silver printing process. The photographer and printmaker has spent the past fourteen years documenting areas and objects that never extend too far from his front door. Isolation, disconnection, and an attempt to put a spotlight on the ordinary are the constant in all of his work. He demonstrates a deep understanding of traditional photographic aesthetic and process, as he focuses primarily on large format, black and white film, using a variety of highly modified proprietary analog and digital printing techniques. Michael works alone and is the sole craftsman from the instant the negative is exposed to the moment the final print is made.

TO VIEW MORE OF MICHAEL MASSAIA’S WORK PLEASE VISIT OUR WEBSITE: https://www.obscuragallery.net/artwork/artists/michael-massaia/



YAMAMOTO MASAO

YAMAMOTO MASAO, 1675, from Kawa=Flow, 2016, 7 3/8 x 9 3/8”, gelatin silver print, edition of 20. Japanese photographer, Yamamoto Masao is best known for his small, hand-worked gelatin silver prints, which encourage the viewer to engage with photography as a tactile experience. In his delicate black and white photographs, Yamamoto Masao tries to capture the harmonious details of life most of us miss, that through their evocation of antiquity, encourage reflection on memory and the passage of time. In describing his quietly beautiful work including depopulated Japanese nature scenes, Yamamoto explains that he feels “the presence of many ‘treasures’ breathing quietly in nature,” which he tries to capture “with both my eyes and my camera.” He calls this presence “Shizuka,” meaning cleansed, pure, clear, and untainted. Nude women elegantly floating amidst black backdrops are another frequent subject.



The sensual surfaces of his photographs, which he distresses and delicately tones and colors, contrast with the ephemeral moments he explores in his imagery, creating nuanced photographic objects. Yamamoto’s photographs are often compared to Japanese Haiku - short poems that derive their power from simple, direct images drawn from nature. Each image is part of a larger series of photographs such as A Box of Ku, Nakazora and Kawa=Flow.

YAMAMOTO MASAO, 1646, from Kawa=Flow, 2016, 9 1/2 x 6 3/8”, gelatin silver print, edition of 20.

Yamamoto was born in 1957 in Gamagori city, Aichi Prefecture, near the center of Honshu, the main island of Japan. He studied painting before taking up photography full time in 1993. He has published a dozen books, most recently Tori (Radius Books, 2016) and Poems of Santoka (Galerie Vevais, 2016). Other publications include: Small things in silence, (Editorial RM, 2014); KAWA=Flow (Kochuten Books, 2011); YAMAMOTO MASAO (21st Editions, 2011); Fujisan, (Nazraeli Press, 2008); é (Nazraeli Press, 2005); Omizuao (Nazraeli Press, 2003); Santoka, (Harunatsuakifuyu Sousho, Japan, 2003); The Path of Green Leaves, (Nazraeli Press, 2002) and A Box of Ku (Nazraeli Press, 1998). Yamamoto’s work has been exhibited at galleries and museums in the United States, Europe, Japan, Russia and Brazil. Yamamoto Masao’s photographs are included in the permanent collections of the Princeton University Art Museum; Harvard University Art Museums; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Philadelphia Museum of Art; International Center of Photography, New York; Victoria and Albert Museum, London; Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Paris; Center for Creative Photography, Tucson; the Sir Elton John Collection; the J.P. Morgan Chase Art Collection; and many other private, corporate and public collections. Yamamoto lives in Yatsugatake Nanroku, Yamanashi Prefecture, Japan where he enjoys creating his work while being close to nature.



YAMAMOTO MASAO, 1666, from Kawa=Flow, n. d., 13 1/8 x 9.5”, gelatin silver print, edition of 20



YAMAMOTO MASAO, 1514, from Kawa=Flow, n.d., 7 3/4 x 5 3/16”, gelatin silver print, edition of 20.

TO VIEW MORE OF YAMAMOTO MASAO’S WORK PLEASE VISIT OUR WEBSITE: https://www.obscuragallery.net/artwork/inventory/21st-century-photographers/yamamoto-

masao/select-works/



KATE JOYCE

KATE JOYCE, Left Ring & T3421x5301-00326.tif, 2007, 5 x 7”, archival pigment ink print and mixed media, edition of 1. Kate Joyce’s images from the “Ten-Diptychs” series were inspired by the failing of her hard drive which contained thousands of her image files. She was able to recover most of her image files, but a handful came back with the data being dramatically scrambled, resulting in the original subjects in the photographs being rendered into a surreal tapestry of digital glitch. There is a sense of patience and acceptance that comes with an artist surrendering to such happenstance. In this case, the artist found the beauty within the glitches and created a successful artistry of accident. By pairing each small image with one of the artist’s own fingerprints, the result is a successful serene landscape of a harmonized, balanced diptych.



KATE JOYCE, Left Thumb & T3075x4950-04197.tif, 2007, 5 x 7”, archival pigment ink print and mixed media, edition of 1.

As a child, before becoming a photographer, I aspired to be a detective. The idea of taking and relying on fingerprints fascinated me. The fingerprint is perhaps the quintessential icon of identity. It is a unique mark that humans leave behind. It is a mark whose structure follows the mathematics of the Fibonacci sequence. It can incriminate or validate based on its arches, loops or whorls. It is a mark inextricable from the individual, yet has little to do with their personality or story… After selecting and printing a group of the [ten]most dynamically corrupted files I paired them with a fingerprint from each of my 10 fingers.



KATE JOYCE, Right Pointer & T5490x3655-03657.tif, 2007, 7 x 5”, archival pigment ink print and mixed media, edition of 1.

Kate Joyce is a photographer from Santa Fe, New Mexico who has pursued the visual image for over 25 years. Recently in May 2018, Kate opened, We Are Time Is, at the Santa Fe Institute, an exhibition of color photographs on the subject of embodiment and passing of time. She is currently working on a forthcoming book titled Big Ears Knoxville (Spring 2019), a five-year collection of photographs about a music festival and the town where the festival takes place, with essays by musicians Rachel Grimes and Joe Henry, published by Hat and Beard Press, Los Angeles. Kate studied photojournalism and sociology at San Francisco State University; Spanish in Guatemala and Chile; and documentary photography at the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University. Kate received a Lewis Hine Documentary Initiative Fellowship (2003-2004) during which she worked in Bloemfontein, South Africa. Between 2006-2009 she worked for the renowned architectural photography studio, Hedrich Blessing, based in Chicago, IL, at that time becoming their first female photographer in their 80-year history. In 2010 she founded Kate Joyce Studios to manage her freelance commercial architectural photography commissions. Joyce’s photographic works are included in the collections of The Museum of New Mexico; The Palace of the Governors; North Carolina Museum of Art; Duke University, Perkins Library Special Collections & Rare Book Archive; The Cassilhaus Collection; and the JPMorgan Chase Art Collection.



KATE JOYCE, Right Pinky & T5472x3624-02770.tif, 2007, 7 x 5”, archival pigment ink print and mixed media, edition of 1.

TO VIEW MORE OF KATE JOYCE’S WORK PLEASE VISIT OUR WEBSITE:

https://www.obscuragallery.net/artwork/inventory/21st-century-photographers/kate-joyce/ten-diptychs/



THE GALLERY LOCATION AND HOURS

Obscura Gallery is located in the Santa Fe downtown historic district two blocks east of the revitalized Downtown Railyard district. Gallery hours are Tuesday – Saturday, 11-5pm and by appointment. Parking is limited. Additional parking is available Monday – Friday from 8:00am – 9:00pm at the State Capitol Parking Facility municipal garage located at 485 Galisteo Street. There is also metered parking always available on Galisteo street next to the Parking Facility.

For more information, contact Jennifer Schlesinger at: [email protected]

505-577-6708

views of stillness press release

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