Featuring works by: Philip D'Afflisio, Douglas Dacy, Dawn Jolly, James McCracken, Cody Adam Pearce, Oswaldo Pereira, Giovani Santoro, David Wiggins
Curator: Stephan Apicella-Hitchcock
Exhibition dates: May 27–September 30, 2015
Reception: Wednesday, September 16, 6–8 pm
Summer Vet Together: Thursday, July 16, 4–7 pm. For all students, veterans, faculty, friends, staff, and allies
The Lipani Gallery
Fordham University at Lincoln Center
113 West 60th Street, New York, NY 10023
fordhamuniversitygalleries.com
veteransphotographers photographersveterans
brings together forty images made by eight artists who have studied
photography at Fordham University. Philip D'Afflisio, Dawn Jolly, Cody
Adam Pearce, Oswaldo Pereira, and David Wiggins are Fordham University
alumni and Douglas Dacy, James McCracken, and Giovani Santoro are
currently matriculated students.
Working in black and
white, color, and with both traditional and digital photographic
technologies, their work represents a range of years, styles, and
interests; however, despite their differences, each photographer is
engaged in the process of carefully studying the world and representing
it in a descriptive manner. Significantly, each of the exhibition
participants is a veteran of the United States Armed Forces.
Philip D'Afflisio’s
color images focus on details in the landscape, particularly objects
that foreground a sense of history. There is a classical beauty to the
photographs, as well as recognition of inherent mystery. His picturesque
image of an alert hunting dog leads us into this exhibition and sets
the tone of inquiry found throughout the show.
Douglas Dacy’s
images pay special attention to form and the simple qualities of light.
Illumination imparts significance to both landscapes and still lifes,
regardless of the nature of the subject matter. The resultant
photographs are poetic meditations on the ordinary.
Dawn Jolly’s
photographs were made during the Visual Arts Department course
Documentary Photography: Italy. They display Rome and its inhabitants
bathed in the beautiful summertime Mediterranean light, yet hint at
social issues of gender and race just below the surface.
James McCracken’s
quiet images made in Virginia along the West Virginia border provide a
glimpse into territory that he is intimately familiar with, as he was
raised in nearby Richmond. His spartan landscapes are precise
descriptions of the topography, of the season, and have a timeless
quality.
Cody Adam Pearce’s
black and white images made in Morocco and Iraq are carefully composed
studies of the relationship between humans and the landscape. In some
cases the figure is directly featured, in other cases the human presence
is dwarfed by its surroundings, or even absent entirely.
Oswaldo Pereira
makes very traditional, black and white documentary images of subject
matter that is anything but traditional—an S&M convention in New
York City. His understated approach to the topic yields a pragmatic
record of an atypical event.
Giovani Santoro
spent the summer of 2014 traveling throughout Italy as the recipient of
the Visual Arts Department’s Ildiko Butler Travel Grant. His images in
this exhibition contrast the architecture and opulent spaces of Rome
with their inhabitants.
David Wiggins
subtly adjusts the tonalities in his images highlighting latent faces
that he detects in the tarmac of roads and streets. The resulting
portraits accentuate the surreal hiding within the everyday.
Regardless
of the photographers’ chosen subjects, all participants in this
exhibition are deeply engaged in the process of looking at what is in
front of them. Their images embrace a long tradition in the medium of
photography that celebrates the revelatory power of direct
representation.
Stephan Apicella-Hitchcock, 2015 (for more information please email:
apicellahit@fordham.edu
