Lines
EXHIBIT Closed on March 22nd 2015
Juror: Rebecca Senf
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Lines are powerful compositional elements that control the way eyes move through a photograph.
Lines add impact to an image, place emphasis to a particular area of the composition, or tell a story or to draw a connection between different elements in a photograph. Lines can be straight, curved, broken or jagged. They can bisect one another, cross or overlap and be the driving force behind interpreting perspective.
In the Renaissance, painters needed to be able to translate the three-dimensional world around them onto the two-dimensional surface of a painting, called the "picture plane." The solution was "linear perspective"; the idea that converging lines meet at a single vanishing point and all shapes get smaller in all directions with increasing distance from the eye. Photographers can take this artistic function for granted, or they can harness perspective in unique and creative ways to focus or push the eye around the image.
Lines of some sort can be found in all photographs, formed by natural or artificial elements. Naturally occurring lines can be rivers, shorelines, waves, sand dunes, and rows of trees while roads, fences, bridges, street lights and skyscrapers are examples of architectural or linear constuctions. The effect that lines have on an image varies depending upon the orientation and direction. Horizontal lines convey a sense of width, stability, calm, lazy, security, relaxation, constancy and timelessness. Whereas vertical lines convey a sense of strength, height, integrity, solidity, dominance, power, peace and tranquility, substance or permanence. Darkroom Gallery is calling for images that utilize lines in innovative and dynamic ways, how are your photographs enhanced or translated by line?Exhibit Calendar (Subject to Change) Exhibit Opens: 26 February 15 Artists' Reception: 22 March 15 16:30 Exhibit Closes: 22 March 15 Lines
Exhibit Catalog now available at PrestoPhoto
Juror's Statement: A juror’s job is always a struggle. To review a group of images, united by a theme, and select a small group for exhibition is a challenge. Unavoidably, many good pictures – well seen and provocative – are left out. It was interesting to see how photographers responded to the call for pictures about lines. Images of both manmade and natural lines appeared. Buildings, horizon lines, contrails, trees, railroad tracks, beams of light. I found myself drawn to photographs that were intriguing – in which the arrangement of space was obfuscated and unclear. Those visual puzzles attracted me. On the other hand, some of the most minimal and straightforward pictures, of power lines or jellyfish tentacles, struck me as wonderfully beautiful. Although I look for innovation and new approaches, I am also engaged by a straight photograph that is well made. We don’t see it often in photography, but I always appreciate photographers who incorporate humor or playfulness in their work. In creating this selection I strove to bring together a diverse approach to the concept of lines, pictures that surprise and delight and are just great images, and I hope you enjoy Lines as much as I have. Rebecca Senf |
Wire Sketches 16 Juror's Choice ![]()
| Last Visit Honorable Mention ![]()
| beach day Honorable Mention ![]()
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Chinese Willows Honorable Mention ![]()
| Maple Leaf People's Choice
| Squiggles![]()
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Form![]()
| Rows![]()
| Plant Bowen 2![]()
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Chester![]()
| the sea - reflection I![]()
| Parking Lot Colors and Lines![]()
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Art & Architecture, NYC![]()
| Green Bean![]()
| Blinded![]()
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Ice Formation, Morgan Run Creek![]()
| Stiff Upper Lip![]()
| Untitled![]()
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Apologies to Jackson Pollack![]()
| Frost![]()
| Final Curtain![]()
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Election Day Across the Universe![]()
| Memorial![]()
| Lines #7
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"Density in Downtown Austin,"![]()
| Next Stop: The Crusher![]()
| Untitled![]()
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StrangeAngels 0023![]()
| the kids are doing okay - letter to Lucasville prison![]()
| Field Museum Chicago - Ceiling![]()
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The Heart![]()
| West Chester #9![]()
| This Too Will Pass![]()
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Onto the Abyss![]()
| Split Screen![]()
| Penguin Plunge ![]()
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Lines and Shadows![]()
| Promenade![]()
| Dark composition![]()
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The Urban Lines of Toronto ![]()
| Geometry![]()
| Moon Fog![]()
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Therapeutic View![]()
| Somerville, MA 2014![]()
| Line & Form #06![]()
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Heart Of The Sun![]()
| Sailboat lifeline at dawn![]()
| july![]()
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Night Stories![]()
| Commuter![]()
| Coney Island![]()
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Untitled #2 from the Focused Chaos series![]()
| AbstrActure 03![]()
| The Musk Ox![]()
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Balance![]()
| Listen
| The Flow
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National Centre for the Performing Arts, Beijing![]()
| Waiting![]()
| Onward![]()
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Ward's, 2014![]()
| Night Flight 10, from the series Airplanes![]()
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- All selected entries are exhibited in our gallery and included in a full color exhibit catalog.
- Juror's Choice receives a 30x48" vinyl exhibit banner featuring their image, free entry into a future exhibition, and a free exhibition catalog.
- Honorable Mentions receive free exhibition catalogs and free entry in a future exhibition.
- People's Choice gains free entry into a future exhibit.
- We offer free matting and framing of accepted entries for the duration of each of our exhibition, subject to standard sizes. Photographers set their own prices if they wish to sell their work and retain all rights to their photographs.
Juror:Rebecca Senf Dr. Rebecca Senf is the Norton Family Curator of Photography, a joint appointment at the Center for Creative Photography and the Phoenix Art Museum. She curates three exhibitions a year for the Doris and John Norton Gallery for the Center for Creative Photography in Phoenix and her past exhibitions include Debating Modern Photography: the Triumph of Group f/64; Richard Avedon: Photographer of Influence; Human Nature: the Photographs of Barbara Bosworth; Edward Weston: Mexico; Odyssey: the Photographs of Linda Connor; Charting the Canyon: Photographs by Mark Klett and Byron Wolfe; Face to Face: 150 Years of Photographic Portraiture; Exposing Time: Capturing Change Through Photography and the Steele Gallery exhibition, Ansel Adams: Discoveries of January to June, 2010. Senf grew up in Tucson and went to undergraduate school at the University of Arizona, studying the History of Photography. She spent ten years in Boston, Massachusetts where she earned a Ph.D. in Art History at Boston University. In Boston she worked on the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston’s major exhibition Ansel Adams from The Lane Collection, for which she also co-authored the exhibition catalogue. In October of 2012 her book Reconstructing the View: The Grand Canyon Photographs of Mark Klett and Byron Wolfe was released by University of California Press. Recent projects include exhibitions on the photographic book and in the next few months she will open two exhibitions focused on platinum photography.
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