Nicole White at Gallery UNO, Chicago

NICOLE WHITE – THE SURROUND

Gallery UNO
Fine Arts Building
410 S Michigan Ave
Chicago, IL 60605

Opening Reception: September 14, 6-8pm

During: September 1 – October 31, 2012

Artist Talk: October 12, 6pm

“If the figures and intended subjects of photographs were cut away, the mass of photography—the acreage of prints and slides and screens and posters and digital frames—would be comprised of overlooked, un-needed and unwanted details. … the surround, which is often enough unwanted…is only noticed when it helps identify the place the photograph was taken, or when it adds a general atmosphere.” ¹ Nicole focuses the attention of the viewer on the overlooked in her new body of work, The Surround. The expected compositional reference points are absent, leaving the viewer to reconsider the photograph’s function. 

¹James Elkins, What Photography Is, 117.

- Curator Barbara Goebels-Cattaneo

www.nicolewhite.net

Pilgrims

This summer I photographed two groups of people. The first was at a book signing event held at Harris Cyclery in West Newton for my friend Grant Petersen who’s new book Just Ride had just been published.  A group ride had been planned for after the signing but as light and time were fading we ended up with just the picture.  Grant’s book is a fine one, well worth reading for anyone with an interest in riding a bike.  In addition to cycling and photography Grant and I have shared the trials and tribulations of beginning and operating smallish businesses through the years.  His counsel has proven invaluable.  

The second group was the annual Chmura family reunion held on July 7^th at the old Donohue family farm in Krumville (pop. 7, I’m told), NY, in the Catskills.  This reunion has been held without interruption for 47 consecutive years.  This year it served also as a double memorial service: for my Uncle Paul who grew up in this house (the empty chair front row center was his) as well as cousin Moira’s 18 year old son Tobias who was lost in a tragic fall off of Sleeping Giant in Hamden, CT in February.  I have made this picture many times now. Faces present in years past, now no longer with us, are still well represented and remembered by the DNA comprising this years group.  

423,194

Our 1996 Toyota Corolla on it’s last day here.  Our main small package delivery vehicle since 1997, it covered 423,194 miles with nary a complaint.  As pictured it was still running like a champ.  I had planned to keep it until we hit 500,000 and then bring it to Toyota’s attention, secretly hoping that they would embrace their aged warrior and bestow a new one upon us.   Over the last few years it was being used less and less, mostly Wayne going to the bank and running errands, and it was becoming increasingly clear that at that rate 500k was unlikely – not because it couldn’t get there but rather we just didn’t need it to.  When this year’s insurance bill arrived it pretty much seal it’s fate.  Original engine and transmission (never even opened either up), original most everything else.  All it ever needed was tires, brakes, wheels (potholes), oil changes and gas.  Not bad.

The Newest Year

2011 now gone, we welcome 2012. We are now in our 24^th year of operation. It seems at once an impossibly long and short existence. Many of you were not yet born when we were; the rest were exponentially younger. For many in our line of work the ensuing years have not been particularly kind. In 1988 there were 13 labs in the Boston area. Now? Digital capture, post production, and online hardware, software, and consumables procurement have helped accelerate a race to the bottom. Sometimes I wonder what it will look like in another 24 years and then I realize that even 5 years out is a tough call.

In 2011 the New England Mobile Book Fair, one of the last remaining large independent bookstores, was sold. Jon Strymish, longtime friend and customer, was one of the owners. Jon seems at peace enough now with letting go but watching this from my perch here in Needham has been unsettling. Small businesses get founded and if all goes well they prosper and grow and the founders or their heirs eventually sell and move on or retire. That is just the way it is and it’s not a bad thing, but the ubiquity of Amazon et al has pretty much assured the ultimate demise of many brick and mortars. This past year saw the closing of Zeff Photo in Belmont. They had a well established longtime base of professional and amateur photographers and enthusiasts and that wasn’t enough. In the hypercompetitive world of consumer and even professional equipment things change so quickly that the only practical way to keep up is to continually research your needs online. The local brick and mortars have difficulty continually bringing in the newest and latest when there are boxes of unsold not quite the newest and latest sitting on their shelves. Faced with the choice of paying a little more for hands on real time access or clicking “add to cart” from B&H et al an ever increasing many choose the latter. The way of the world, the laws of nature, the rule of the market.

Still, we are here, now. Things are going well enough as to make any complaining seem selfish and trivial. We are and remain deeply appreciative for your support and trust. We will continue to do our best for you. For auld lang syne as well as the future our thanks best wishes for 2012.