Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Colleen Henderson at Multiple Exposures

Colleen Henderson, Chatham Light Beach


Colleen Henderson, Chatham Light Beach

If you're a photography fan in the Greater DC area, then you know that Factory Photoworks Multiple Exposures Gallery on the second floor of the Torpedo Factory is one of the best photography galleries in the Mid Atlantic region and they rightfully boast in their website a very cool recommendation by my good friend Kathleen Ewing:
Multiple Exposures Gallery is a showcase to view quality fine art photography produced in our community. I have always been impressed with the professionalism, variety, and quality of photographic images exhibited at Multiple Exposures.
So I'm never surprised when I wander into MEG and discover yet another strong show.

But this time the photographs by Colleen Henderson... the set on the red wall of the gallery, floored me! It is the mastery and simplicity that she has achieved with the work that faces the viewer as one enters the gallery that merits this glowing adjective.

This is as close as painting with a camera as a photographer will ever get. How Henderson has managed to dilute and trap color, and then use her magical photography skills to re-hue them and present us with works that suddenly become a photographic cousin to the legendary colors of the Washington Color School and even would have drawn a gasp from Mark Rothko... is beyond my understanding of the mysteries of the camera at the hand of a master.

Colleen Henderson

Colleen Henderson, Blue Clearing

And in "Blue Clearing" she traps that scene that all of us have aimed a camera at; that sudden instant when the marine clouds and the beach light and the ocean all become one lazy dreamscape that re-enchants us with our blue planet. We all get crappy pictures that look good to us. Henderson gets a photographic painting that belongs in a Richter exhibition.

Colleen Henderson

Colleen Henderson, Cambridge Dawn

In "Cambridge Dawn" we're brought back to Earth a little, as she offers us more hints of real life, besides dazzling us with color and fantasy, as the dark marine forms in the water anchor an otherwise ethereal scene.

There's an artists' reception on Sept 10th 6:30 - 8:30PM.

Multiple Exposures Gallery
Torpedo Factory Art Center
Studio 312
www.multipleexposuresgallery.com
703.683.2205

2 comments:

Judith HeartSong said...

Lenny,

I could not agree more. Colleen is a tremendous photographer and a tremendous professional and her work is beyond beautiful. She re-images nature at its very best and purest, and she is a gem in the photographic community.

Colleen Henderson said...

Lenny

Thanks for your kind words. It's particularly gratifying because this is a style I've been working on for a few years, and your comments point to much of what I was hoping to achieve, "painting with a camera" and "photographic cousin to the legendary colors of the Washington Color School".