Ann Sherman, Oklahoma City, Wyoming 28, Pinhole photography, 12.5”x18.5”
Joshua Meier, Claremore, Perhaps This Time, Silver gelatin photograph, 9”x11.5”
MAINSITE’s Focus on Photography by romy owens
Joshua Meier is interested in the relationship between identity and action. “My goal is to distill down the absurdness of our endeavors so we can see ourselves more honestly,” explains Meier. Along with fellow artists Ann Sherman and Esteban Pulido, Meier will be part of the exhibition of photography works at MAINSITE Contemporary Art in Norman through September 4. Meier’s photography is old school, large format camera, printed in the darkroom, using materials and chemistry that allows for unpredictability. He calls it controlled chaos. The series he’s exhibiting at MAINSITE is from a body of work called The Parables. His photography encompasses a focused range of ideas including ritual, labor and futility. Every aspect of each photograph from the construction to the staging is born from Meier’s imagination. The images are beautifully captured, evoking a tone one might describe as lovely. Also working in an old school technique, but with a very different aesthetic is Ann Sherman, who uses pinhole cameras to capture her images. “My use of pinholes came about with the digital revolution in photography,” said Sherman. “I believe it was my way of resisting.” In the MAINSITE exhibit, Sherman’s photos are small landscape and soldier images. She travels with her lead soldiers wherever she goes. At the time of print, Sherman’s son should be arriving home after his second tour in Iraq. “I didn’t allow toy guns in the house when my kids were growing up,” explains Sherman. “In a prime example of the humor of the universe, my son is now a paratrooper in the 82nd Airborne.” Since her son began military service, Sherman has extensively photographed toy soldiers. Sometimes she places the figures in an existing landscape and sometimes she creates the landscape for them. The resulting photographs are poignant and contemplative as small lead toy soldiers depict realities most people only imagine, if they have not served in combat.
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In People Where They Live, the third photographer in the MAINSITE summer trio, Esteban Pulido, explores the relationship between people and their homes. The contrast between the imagined worlds in Meier’s photographs and Sherman’s photographs and the honesty in Pulido’s photographs is remarkable and an entirely necessary addition. Pulido’s photographs provide viewers with an opportunity to write their own narrative regarding the relationship between the physical appearance of a person and the appearance of his/her home. While Pulido has and does use a view camera to make photographs, for this series he used a digital SLR. “I had been trying to find a way to remove aspects of a photograph that too strongly reflected the presence of the photographer,” said Pulido. “This also let me create an aesthetic that gave the viewer an opportunity to come to their own conclusions about the people in the photographs and about the images themselves.” The combination of the three photographers seems effortless, as each is able to unfold a unique vision while depicting photographs focused on the experience of relationship - either with work, home or family. This exhibit is the inaugural exhibition promoting an upcoming national photography competition designed by MAINSITE to encourage the medium of photography as a fine art form. Plans include an annual juried competition beginning in August 2011. The competition would be open to any photographer not enrolled in school, and will result in five photographers selected to exhibit together at MAINSITE. More information regarding the national competition will be available next year. Visit www.mainsite-art.com. n romy owens spends most of her time taking photos and sewing them together. She can be reached via mental telepathy or at romyowens.com.