Seven Standout Photography Exhibits of 2023: Louis Jacobson, City Paper’s photography critic

Congratulations to Alan Sislen whose solo exhibition, AMAZING ASPENS, at MEG earlier this year was included in Louis Jacobson’s 7 Standout Photography Exhibits in 2023.

Colorado Valley View ©Alan Sislen

Seven Standout Photography Exhibits of 2023

Louis Jacobson, City Paper’s photography critic, recalls the best, most creative exhibitions of 2023 at area venues both big and small, plus some other noteworthy shows.

Venues both big and small mounted trenchant photography exhibits in 2023. In the big category, the National Gallery of Art, the Phillips Collection, and the American University Museum all offered worthwhile exhibitions of images from decades past, while smaller galleries—including Photoworks, Multiple Exposures Gallery, and Gallery B—opened their venues to works by talented local photographers.

As City Paper’s photography critic, I have assembled a list of the top exhibits in the D.C. area on a (mostly) annual basis since 2001. This year, I’ve selected—and ranked—seven exhibits that merit a place on the list of best photography exhibits of 2023 in the Washington area. I have also included three additional exhibits beyond the bounds of photography that deserve a special mention this year.

3. Alan Sislen at Multiple Exposures Gallery

Maryland-based photographer Alan Sislen mounted an entire exhibit on the quaking aspen, a tree anchored by a silvery, cylindrical trunk and decorated with bright yellow leaves. The exhibit included a few black-and-white images, but the payoff came with his intricately detailed color photographs. In one particularly pleasing example, titled “Zorro Was Here,” the aspen canopy seemed to have the texture of velvet.

Washington City Paper Art Review of "A TOUCH OF RED" by Louis Jacobson

Girl From the North Country, A Touch of Red, and More Best Bets for Dec. 7–14

The most celebrated “touch of red” in recent artistic history is likely the little girl in the red coat who represented the only dash of color in the otherwise black-and-white Holocaust movie from 1993, Schindler’s List. None of the 27 photographs in the Multiple Exposures Gallery exhibit A Touch of Red approaches that degree of poignance; in fact, in some images, the splashes of red come across as something of an afterthought, as in the depictions of hoses and bollards at a car wash, a man on a sidewalk dragging a suitcase, and the exterior of a door to an otherwise white room. Fortunately, juror Phil Hutinet managed to locate some fine works within a pool of 14 artists: Clara Young Kim’s flat fire engine panel with old-school knobs and dials; Francine B. Livaditis’ wispy red reflection on the curved, metallic panels of the Frank Gehry-designed Guggenheim Museum Bilbao; Maureen Minehan’s partially red-painted house set against the blankness of a winter sky and snow-covered ground; Soomin Ham’s locksmith at work, surrounded by an overwhelming but orderly wall of key blanks; images by Minehan and Eric Johnson that experiment with the transformational effects of translucent raindrops; and Sarah Hood Salomon’s depiction of a red-hued memorial bouquet that’s unmoving even as cars zoom around it. The exhibit’s two most intriguing images share a curiosity in how a viewer will absorb and understand three-dimensional space. Minehan photographs a rotary phone set on a dusky beige ledge that resolves into a nearly flat background, while Kim deconstructs a tree, merging a wall shadow of its trunk and branches with a three-dimensional outreach of leaves that overlays the shadow. Notably, in neither image is red, or any other color, crucial to the photograph’s appeal. A Touch of Red runs through Dec. 31 at Multiple Exposures Gallery at the Torpedo Factory Art Center, 105 N. Union St., Alexandria. Daily from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. multipleexposuresgallery.com. Free. —Louis Jacobson

A Touch of Red: MEG New Exhibition Juried by Phil Hutinet

Rainy Morning © Fred Zafran

Multiple Exposures Gallery (MEG) is pleased to announce A TOUCH OF RED, a new fine art photography exhibition juried by East City Art founder Phil Hutinet.   

On display at MEG through December 31, 2023, the exhibition features 27 images that each have a relationship with the color red. 

"Contemplating the array of images, I delved into the essence of red—its emergence in nature and humanity's perpetual pursuit to replicate it. As a result, the selections for the exhibit are a visual exploration of red's dynamic presence, both as a dominant color and as a nuanced element interwoven in the intricate tapestry of artistic expression...Each photograph I selected for A TOUCH OF RED not only acknowledges the intrinsic quality of red but also adeptly positioned the color within an expertly shot image," Hutinet says. [READ MORE]

Exhibition Artists: Soomin Ham, Tim Hyde, Eric Johnson, Clara Young Kim, Irina Lawton, Sandy LeBrun-Evans, Matt Leedham, Francine B. Livaditis, Maureen Minehan, Van Pulley, Sarah Hood Salomon, Alan Sislen, Tom Sliter and Fred Zafran

Exhibition: November 21 - December 31, 2023
Gallery hours: 11am-5pm daily
Location: Multiple Exposures Gallery | Torpedo Factory Art Center | #312

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Contact Information For Media & Purchase Inquiries
High resolution images for media use are available upon request. All images are available for purchase through the gallery.

Multiple Exposures Gallery
The Torpedo Factory Art Center
105 N Union Street, Studio 312
Alexandria, Virginia  22314
Phone: 703.683.2205
Email

Reflection Unknown, Fred Zafran's solo show: Washington Post Art Review by Mark Jenkins

A camera lens is a portal, a sort of window onto moments that can be self-evident or enigmatic. For “Reflection Unknown,” Fred Zafran pointed his camera at openings, whether actual or figurative. The Multiple Exposures Gallery show is “an allegory of doubt and inquiry,” according to the photographer’s statement.

The most expected subjects are windows and doors, literal portals that become metaphors for discovery, transition and hidden depths. Zafran’s color pictures, many of which are overwhelmingly black, gaze into unknown interiors. In one photo, there’s someone on the other side of the glass, peering outward through a bank of curtained windows. More characteristic is a picture of a person at an entrance, a moment rendered in a whoosh of motion that supplies a sci- fi feel. A simple step through a doorway appears to be occurring in hyperdrive.

Not all of Zafran’s subjects are literally enterable. He also portrays shadows, lights, mist and bodies of water, from puddles to oceans. The liquid is reflective, like glass, but trickier. One picture of the moon over the sea depicts the natural satellite — also a reflector of light — and two white patches on the surface below. The three small, illuminated areas are openings in the darkness, but they aren’t actually entrances. Zafran shows us visual paradoxes: things that appearpermeable but actually offer no way in.

Fred Zafran: Reflection Unknown Through Nov. 19 at Multiple Exposures Gallery, Torpedo Factory, 105 N. Union St., Alexandria. multipleexposuresgallery.com. 703-683-2205.

Washington City Paper Art Review of Fred Zafran’s "REFLECTION UNKOWN" by Louis Jacobson

"Gateway" by Fred Zafran, part of Multiple Exposures Gallery’s Reflection Unknown

Ongoing: Reflection Unknown by Fred Zafran at Multiple Exposures Gallery

Fred Zafran acknowledges that his current one-person exhibit at Multiple Exposures Gallery is an “unusual” one. It’s an “allegory of doubt and inquiry,” he says, in which the works should be “considered symbolically or metaphorically.” Not surprisingly, Zafran’s photographs—a mixture of natural scenes and portraits of anonymous figures—are pensive and moody. In fact, Zafran’s works are intensely personal to the point of opacity, with brief titles like “Beckoning,” “Deepening,” and “Far Beyond,” explaining little. Fortunately, their visual vocabulary makes many of Zafran’s photographs compelling. One image of sky reflected in water is pleasingly multilayered, with a water surface splotchy with algae yet coexisting with a dreamy cloud-and-branch-dappled sky. In another, fog swirling within a brambly forest tricks the eye into wondering whether one is looking straight ahead or straight down; in a third, lily pads in bright sunlight take on an unusual, ghostly yet reflective sheen, sharply contrasting with an impenetrably inky aquatic backdrop. If one image successfully marries the natural and the human worlds, it’s “Presence,” in which a man sits, trancelike, on a park bench as tendrils of water dance from a nearby fountain; the image presents a concise embodiment of the yin-yang of motion and stasis. Reflection Unknown runs through Nov. 19 at Multiple Exposures Gallery at the Torpedo Factory Art Center, 105 N Union St., Alexandria. Daily, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. multipleexposuresgallery.com. Free. —Louis Jacobson

REFLECTION UNKOWN, An Allegory: Solo Exhibit by Fred Zafran

Becoming Aware © Fred Zafran

Multiple Exposures Gallery is pleased to share “Reflection Unkown”, a solo exhibition by Fred Zafran at Multiple Exposures Gallery, Alexandria, VA. The show goes up on October 10th and runs through November 19, 2023. The opening reception for the exhibition will be held at Multiple Exposures Gallery in the Torpedo Factory Art Center on Sunday, October 22, 2023, from 2 to 4 pm. 

About the Exhibition:

Fred Zafran has long been interested in photography as a distinctive means of storytelling.  His work examines the artistic possibilities of photographs that combine the poetic with a representational view of the world.  The resulting photo essays which Zafran calls “poetic narrative,” are post-documentary in that the stories are open ended, subjective, rich in symbolism and metaphor, and encourage consideration and interpretation by the viewer.

The exhibition “Reflection Unknown” is a narrative of doubt and inquiry.  It is an allegorical body of work, a visual arc of questions, every moment a place of astonishment, unending change, and uncertain meaning.  The images in the exhibition are expressive, each standing alone as a small fiction.  However, the exhibition overall is meant to be “read” in sequence, to reveal a coherence and contextualization between the photographs, and a story pointing beyond the depicted images themselves. 

About the Artist:

Fred Zafran is a fine art photographer living in Loudoun County, VA and working in the DC Metro area. Photography as narrative is central to Zafran’s work. He finds that photography differs in character and method from other art forms and creates opportunities for expression unique to this medium.  Zafran views all photography as symbolic, and metaphor more revealing than literal depiction. His work is represented by Multiple Exposures Gallery in Alexandria, VA, and he exhibits throughout the DC metro area.

Exhibition Materials for Media:
High resolution exhibition images and an artist statement for Media use are available upon request. fred.zafran@comcast.net.

Matt Leedham: Iceland Adventure

Click on images to enlarge. All images by Matt Leedham.

In late July, Matt Leedham packed up his Nikon D810, two lenses, a tripod, and a few filters, and headed to Iceland to join mountain photographer Alex Nail and five others for a backcountry photography trip. His six days fording rivers and climbing ridges while capturing beautiful vistas would be challenging and rewarding. 

Leedham initially planned to make the trip in 2020, but was sidelined by the pandemic. When Nail started up his photography expeditions again, he jumped at the opportunity. “I signed up for it, trained for it, and eagerly prepared for it.” 

In hindsight, Leedham says with humor, he may have mis-prepared for it. “I didn’t have a lot of experience with this type of trip. Between my tent, sleeping bag, camera gear, food and water for 6 days, and a lot of unnecessary gear, I had 60 lbs. on my back. About 20 steps in, I realized that was a mistake.” Fortunately, the other members of the group lent their expertise to the rookie, and Leedham gained comfort and confidence as the trip progressed. 

Off the beaten path
If you’ve ever been to Iceland, you know there are “must-see” areas that every tourist aims to visit: the Ring Road, the Golden Circle, Seljalandsfoss Waterfall, Jökulsárlón Glacial Lagoon, Reykjavik, thermal lagoons, and more. This wasn’t the aim of Leedham’s group, however. “We took a Super Jeep deep into Iceland. We traveled for five hours from Reykjavik to the middle of nowhere, driving through rivers, over boulders and even into a lake. When we arrived at our starting point, the driver waved goodbye, leaving the seven of us on our own for the next six days. It was high season for tourists in Iceland, but during our time in the backcountry, we saw only two other people trekking in the opposite direction.” 

Rising to the challenge
Leedham says the first few days were both physically and mentally challenging. The group hiked 8-10 miles each day, up and down ridges while carrying their packs. Walking up a black  volcanic sand dune felt like moving through freshly poured cement. Iceland is known for its fantastic food, but fancy meals were not part of the program. Instead, they boiled water and hydrated the dried food they had packed.

Leedham says these challenges, while hard in the moment, made the rewards he reaped from the trip even more satisfying. “The sun doesn’t set this time of year so we would wake up at 4 a.m. and look at the skies to see where they were interesting. We’d hike up to a ridge to set up and begin shooting. It’s hard to describe the uniqueness of the landscapes that were before us, and we each worked to photograph them in our own ways.” 

Trust your style
The Icelandic landscape forced Leedham to think deeply about his typical photographic style. “The landscape was different from what I’m used to. It was stark. Not a single tree. No wildlife. After a time it began to feel a bit redundant to my eye so I had to work to see beyond what I was initially taking in.” 

Leedham found that while he could be beguiled by a grand landscape, his style lends itself more to an intimate landscape that isolates a small part of a larger scene. If he goes back, he says, he will spend more time shooting with his longer lens. “This trip helped me embrace and trust my style, and I’m looking forward to carrying that with me when I take a backcountry trip again.” 

Leedham’s other important takeaway? Sometimes you should put your camera down, even if it’s just for a minute. “It’s easy to get distracted by your effort to photograph and not fully absorb what’s in front of you. Always take a moment to just enjoy the scene. You won’t regret it.” 

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Eric Johnson: A Conversation about KEY BRIDGE

In September, we hosted KEY BRIDGE, a terrific fine art photography exhibition by Eric Johnson. The show was a fan favorite among locals who often shared their own experiences with the bridge as they viewed the show. While the physical exhibition has ended, it can be viewed in its entirety online here.

Given the interest in the bridge and the images Eric included, we asked him to tell us more about the impetus for this project and how he put his show together. 

Why did you choose Key Bridge as the subject for this project? 
It’s a structure that has always attracted me. I’ve kayaked underneath it, cycled near it, and driven over it. I’ve seen it in all different seasons and lighting. It’s a beautiful bridge, and it’s celebrating its centennial this year. 

At the same time, for personal growth as a photographer, I wanted to take a single subject and do a deep dive. Another big project of mine has been shooting along Route 50, which spans the country from east to west. While that project also has a single geographical focus, the possibilities for shooting are vast given the road’s length. For this project, I wanted to challenge myself to create a body of work based on a much more constrained subject. 

In preparing for the show, did you start from scratch or select from existing images? 
I first went through my archive and found about a dozen shoots over the prior 7 years that included images of Key Bridge. I found more than 500 images related to the bridge, and I chose what I thought were the most interesting of these as my initial base. Then, over the next 6 months, I visited the bridge 11 more times at various times of day and in varying weather conditions to capture additional images for what I was envisioning. 

Were you trying to capture specific shots or did you wait to see what you found? 
A bit of both. I got lucky on the day I shot the panorama. When I arrived, the bridge was shrouded in dense fog. That’s not something I could have planned. Other shots were previsualized. I knew I wanted to capture certain night shots, for example, or images of people and cars in certain arrangements. I wanted variety so it didn’t become too repetitive. To help, I broke the images into categories: the whole bridge, people interacting with the bridge, abstracts, views from the bridge, etc…By grouping images into these buckets, I was able to ensure I had representation in all of them. 

In the end, you had a multitude of good images to choose from. How did you make your final selections for the exhibition? 
I considered how they might play together on the gallery walls. I tended to favor those that were good from a technical perspective – sharp, good tonal range, strong composition. Sometimes there would be an image I liked, but something was lacking, and I would go out and reshoot it. There are still images I have in mind that I haven’t captured to my satisfaction so the project will continue even after the exhibition. 

You said you started this project for personal growth. What lessons did you take away from it? 
Focusing on a single subject allowed deep growth. If you look at the early photo shoots in my catalog, you’ll see a lot of emphasis on the structure of the bridge. When you look at my later shoots, you’ll find an evolution toward including more people and focusing more on the experience of the bridge, rather than just the bridge itself. This project profoundly shifted how I view objects I am photographing. 

Lastly, for those who love the technical details, what equipment was used in the making of this exhibition? 
The images were shot with several cameras, including a Leica Q2 Monochrom, Canon 5D Mark II and Mark IV, Sony RX100 and Sony Alpha 6000. The two 5Ds were my main cameras, but most of the more recent images were shot with the Leica. The other two cameras proved useful to have in my pocket when I was kayaking on the river or riding on the C&O Canal path for spur-of-the-moment captures. All of the images were printed with an Epson P800 printer on Epson Hot Press Natural paper, which provides really good shadow detail. 

KEY BRIDGE and other exhibitions by Eric can be viewed on the MEG website here. 

All images in the exhibition are available for purchase by contacting MEG at info@multipleexposuresgallery.com or 703.683.2205. 

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Click on images to expand. All images by Eric Johnson.

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Sarah Hood Salomon Named CRITICAL MASS Finalist

Sarah Hood Salomon hasn’t let any grass grow under her newly received Master of Fine Art in Photography. In August, she was named a finalist in the Photolucida Critical Mass competition based on her body of work in which she deconstructs photographs and reconstructs them into sculptural art using resin.

For Critical Mass, photographers from around the world are invited to submit portfolios of 10 works, and the field is narrowed to a group of 200 finalists. The finalists’ work is then viewed and voted on by over 150 esteemed international photography professionals to choose the Top 50. Please join us in wishing Sarah much success in the last phase of the competition this fall. We would love to see her earn a well-deserved spot in the Top 50!

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"Small Town Town Empty" — Shadow & Light Fred Zafran Interview

Shadow & Light Magazine has a terrific interview with Fred Zafran in its September/October issue. Fred and columnist E.E. McCollum (a former MEG member!) talk about Fred's series, “Small Town Empty."

Read the interview here.

Note: If you don't subscribe to Shadow & Light yet, the cost is only $10 for six issues, and it’s money well spent. We're not affiliated with the magazine in any way; we just think it's a great value for high quality work!