‘Photography 5’ opens in Kittery

Despite intermittent snow and overcast skies, a solid crowd of people found their way to the Kittery Art Association on Sunday, Feb. 10. They came for the opening reception of “Photography 5,” the most recent all-member show and the association’s largest ever photography exhibit. While visitors went back and forth between the artwork, their social circles and the buffet table, Dave Graf provided mellow guitar work.

Upon entering the front door, the first visible piece is Stan Campbell’s double-sided screen, “Bamtiki.” On one side, a forest of bamboo trees sprout from the black and white screen. On the other side, several images from a tiki bar are printed on long scrolls of paper and then stretched the length of the screen. The images are slightly blurred, which lends a funky, dreamlike quality to the entire piece. Campbell calls it a combination of photography and furniture.

Each year, the Kittery Art Association holds a number of all-member exhibits. The events allow local members to come together, organize shows and display their work. “Photography 5” was initiated by Campbell, but all five participating photographers shared responsibility for organizing the show. When the time came, the artists chose spaces to hang their work in the two-floor gallery. The five photographers have very different styles and subject matter, but each series seems to complement the others.

“Each photographer shows a different subject, yet each one is very passionate,” said photographer Barbara Ingersoll, who took detailed photographs of rusting metal, oxidized rocks and weathered glass at Fort Foster Park. The resulting images are so detailed that they become sort of abstract. Although Ingersoll has won an award for her photography, this is the first time a collection of her work has been part of an exhibit. She thanked the Kittery Art Association for the opportunity.

“This allows artists to show their work and learn how to do a show. It supports new artists, as well as experienced ones,” she said. 

Another one of the featured photographers is Dutch-born Els Overkleeft. She began her professional career as a nurse, but, after taking a photography class in Rotterdam in the early 1980s, she was hooked. Although the Seacoast landscape lends her work inspiration, she claims the light was better in Holland. The sky was always overcast there, whereas here, she has to wait until just before dusk to get the right light. Still, she appreciates the open space and sparsely populated coast of Maine.
Using Adobe PhotoShop, Overkleeft layered several snapshots of the coast over close-up images of wood, metal and stone, all taken at Fort McCleary. Part photography and part graphic design, her work is full of the texture and scenery that is native to Maine. 

Digital technology was a unifying factor among all five photographers. While some purists believe film is still the way to go, Campbell disagrees. “There is this connotation that digital means something is lacking, but this show shows it isn’t, when it’s handled properly,” he said. In addition to the screen downstairs, Campbell has two more upstairs, as well as several framed photographs lining the stairway up to the second floor.

There, Lawrence Elbroch’s photographs reveal a world far from the Maine coast. Except for a few images of abbeys in England, most of his photographs were taken in India. Among these pictures, many depict ornately detailed architecture, with specific focus on backlit archways—a common theme for photographers, he said. Other images show more colorful and clamorous scenes of people along the banks of the Ganges River. These images seem alive with human movement and create a stark contrast to the empty, grey-toned buildings.

“In India, there are mobs of people to deal with. You just had to shoot when you have the chance,” Elbroch sad.

Most of his photographs are from a trip he and his wife took in January 2007. In fact, his initial foray into photography came as a result of similar trips with his artist wife. While she was drawing scenes, he began to photograph them.

The work of the last artist in “Photography 5” shows images a little closer to home. As the former chief photographer for the United States Environmental Protection Agency, Steve Delaney knows a few things about nature photography, especially in his home region of New England. Whether shooting animals, landscapes, plant life or even tree bark, Delaney’s photographs reveal what nature looks like when no one else is around. One photograph, aptly named “One in a Million,” shows a flying seagull in the foreground, with several structures in perfect focus in the background. According to Campbell, Delaney has yet to reveal how he was able to capture this shot.

“Photography 5” will be on display until March 2 at the Kittery Art Association, 8 Coleman Ave, Kittery, Maine. For more information, visit www.kitteryartassociation.org.