An exhibit featuring recent graduates from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette is set to open June 14 at Galerie Lafayette. The opening reception is from 5 to 8 p.m. and the exhibit will run through July 5.
The exhibit 8 New Photographers presents a variety of styles and processes, and a wide range of conceptual ideas by artists who have been actively working in the studio since graduating from UL Lafayette. The artists are using both film and digital format cameras, sometimes in combination. The final prints in the exhibit include black and white, gelatin-silver, color ink jet and pigment print processes.
Several themes become apparent in this group of new photographers. Many of the artists use themselves as models and main subjects, though they are not always strictly conceived as self –portraits in the traditional sense. Some of the work in the exhibition comments on current moral values. Other repeating themes include the pervasive influence of the media and the profound environmental challenges individuals now face. Many artists are using constructed scenes which they have fabricated in order to photograph.
For the past two years the artist David Broussard has been making “ground views” of parking lots, sidewalks, streets, construction and demolition sites. He creates new contexts for what is considered commonplace. Broussard’s work acknowledges the rich aesthetic qualities of what is often overlooked or ignored. Some viewers may see an environmental message.
Elise Dejean explores the overwhelming and turbulent journey of a young girl through puberty and adolescence in her series Perpetual Red. Using the story of Little Red Riding Hood as metaphor, her heroine deals with the pressures of society and her peers at the same time she is experiencing changes in her body and emotions.
My Brilliant Darkness is a series by Angela Deville who is currently working on an MFA degree in Commercial Photography at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco. Her cinematic narrative style addresses emotional conflict one deals with while going through a process of self-diagnosis.
The self portraits by Sarah Life explore memory and emotion expressed though the use of body language, mark making and color. She uses personal memories as a suggested starting point and experiments with the painterly technique cliché verre in the darkroom.
Nicole Linscomb’s color work is inspired by the Seven Deadly Sins, an idea originating in the 6th century and popularized by Dante’s Inferno. Her work delves into human nature and our reaction with images arising in the media today. While some may find the images disturbing, these offenses are more common in contemporary media than ever before.
Jenny Lyon’s work in the project room of the gallery deals with ideas about healing and reconstruction. She photographs her own fabricated landscapes. Her pictures have a theatrical quality and speak about the environment and human relationships.
Colin Miller’s large digital works are political in nature. Using himself as a model, he creates highly constructed images in which he plays multiple roles. He uses the media and historical materials as sources to comment on current values and positions himself as an activist artist.
All photographs by Cody Miller are single exposures using a film camera; the built spaces have not been altered by computer. In this series of images the artist collaborates with his sons to create delightfully surreal scenes which play with our sense of reality.