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The Galleries:  "The exuberant beauty of Brian Oglesbee's Toward Metamorphosis springs from its fascinated joy in creation. Its photos flow with energy as abundantly as with water. The universe and the images themselves are born together; the workings of imagination and its outcomes appear simultaneously. Human figures create the world and come into being at the same time; they are goddesses and gods, and the spawn of gods and goddesses; they are feminine and androgynous; they are at once themselves in particular and all humanity collectively. Toward Metamorphosis fuses its archetypal images with those of everyone who dreams. True to the special capabilities of photography, Oglesbee's camera meticulously records all that exists before it and makes visible the All in which it exists..." from the essay by Lesley Brill.
 As a symbol water is very potent. If for no other reason than that it is the one thing we know is absolutely necessary for the very existence of life. Working with water as a subject presents certain challenges photogenically and since the pictures were all made in the studio, mechanically too. Optically dynamic, water is transparent, reflective and refractive. It "mirrors" and "lenses." In a sense we don't actually "see" water. We see what water does to what is in it or under it or reflected by it. A challenge for me was to analyze the "optics" of water and learn to control and appreciate them in order to create the image I had in mind, whether it was to mimic nature convicingly or create an entirely other-worldly effect.
 Images from the Water Series are full of very fine detail. In order to approximate what can be seen in an actual print this gallery allows you to "click" through to more and more detail.
 Water-Colors, new work-in-progress exploring the optical dynamics of water combined with strong elements of color, motion and pattern.
 "Large-format photography has the unique characteristic of being able to present a viewer with the most elaborate visual evidence. Careful control of the elements of a picture, though entirely fabricated, can allow tensions, contradictions, even incredible conditions to exist coincidentally. To affect perception so convincingly as to be able to create "realities," impossible though they may be is one of the great powers of photography as a medium..." from the artist's statement. |
All photographs are Copyright © 2007, Brian Oglesbee.
Use of any materials appearing on this site, for commercial or personal reasons, is strictly prohibited without prior written consent from Brian Oglesbee.
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