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Photography Show Well Worth the Price of Admission
Photography Critique Spring 1984 by Jeff Dieffenbach |
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The Janvier Gallery on the University of Delaware Campus in fashionable Newark,
Delaware, is currently the site of the work of two very unique photographers.
When Steffi Simkin and Rosamund Purcell finally trip the shutter, the result is
the culmination of hours of creativity and preparation, hours marked by toil and
labor. While drastically different, their styles are each in their own way
distinct, incisive, and fresh. From Simkin's common street scene to the bizarre
and abstract collage that typifies Purcell's work, an old medium, photography,
and oft used subject matter, are presented in bold and invigorating fashion.
Steffi Simkin's photographs, when viewed at first glance, appear to be photographs that have been greatly enlarged, and hence are grainy. Upon closer inspection, however, the works appear instead to be painstakingly detailed paintings. They are neither, and both. Each photograph is a black and white print which has been enlarged to a 36" by 48" poster. Color is then added by hand to the photo, giving the work a rough edge. The photos in one series each focus on a motorcycle located in the foreground. The viewer soon notices slight abstractions of color, for when making the final coloring, Simkin took certain liberties with color to slightly distort the realistic image. The viewer is struck with the impression that something is amiss, but it isn't for several moments that the color differences are noted. Another of Simkin's series, entitled "Crowd Series," is much more abstract. The photographs surrealistically depict large groups of people intertwined with geometric shapes and backgrounds. The overall effect created is one of confusion and disorientation, but in a happy and carefree environment and attitude. |
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Sharply contrasting Simkin's light style is the deep and heayy aura projected by the work of Rosamund Purcell. [Note: An example of her work is at left; however, this piece was not part of the Janvier Gallery collection. More about her style can be found here.] One can almost detect two different atmospheres created by the two artist's photographs. It is a dark and gloomy mood which hangs over Purcell's creations. Indeed, creations they are, and diligently created at that. Quite the opposite of Simkin's on-location photography, Purcell was restricted to the one room in which her almost one ton camera was situated. Purcell's prints are actually 20" by 24" Polaroid shots, taken with one of four such cameras in existence capable of the shot. The camera forced Purcell to work with a very limited depth of field, perhaps 2-3 inches. Thus, all of her work is two-dimensional. It is not the technique, however, but the style and mood which make her art stand out. |
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All of Purcell's works on display are collages
which, with a few exceptions, follow a similar style. The works are mounted in
four and six pane window frames, which gives the impression of looking out, or
in, to a very abstract world of the past, and perhaps the future. The images
contain human and animal forms, broken bits and pieces of structure, writing,
and lifestyle, machines of war, and flashes of fiery red color. The frames are
created from scraps of old paintings, photographs, writing samples, and loose
material, and then photographed.
One untitled work typifies her work, and her message. The primary objects in the picture are a monkey in the upper center, a group of World War I soldiers in gas masks in the lower center, and horizontally across the center, and dividing the two, a semi-legible band of oriental symbols and characters. The writing is broken and distorted, as if intentionally destroyed. The left side is dark and indistinguishable, with the exception of the beheaded figure of a soldier carrying a grenade. The right side is dominated by a torn map and drawing of the city of Verdun, the site of the famous World War I battle and the signing of the peace treaty. The city has been mostly destroyed by fire. Around the edges of the picture are human forms with expressions of horror on their faces, piles of nondescript forms which appear possibly to be heads or skulls, and patches of color, especially blues and greens, and vague shapes. Set in the upper right portion of the picture is an early drawing of an atom. The theme which one draws from the work is that of destruction--man-made destruction. Man is portrayed as an animal, as evidenced by the startling similar blank looks in the eyes of the monkey and the mask-clad soldiers. Man's creations--his cities, his writing, his very civilization--are needlessly being laid to waste. The headless figure with the grenade is killing, and at the same time, is dead. The self-imposed terror in the faces tells the tale of horror. Purcell's use of color--the tranquil blues and greens interrupted by the harsh reds--also has a message. Perhaps the most ominous of all of Purcell's symbols is the atom; a portend of destruction and destructive potential in the years to follow World War I. Neither Simkin nor Purcell has photographed an original subject (are there really any left?), theirs as mundane as the motorcycle or as encompassing as the war. It is their method which makes them unique. The combination of the two artists in the small but capable Janvier Gallery provides for an interesting contrast: the thought provoking and socially reaching universality of Purcell matched against pleasurable, fun and enlightening stabs at reality of Simkin. It is this contrast which makes the show, and hence the work of both artists, an unqualified success. |
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