Looking Forward (at Pier 24)

Photos: Erica Deeman  (courtesy Pier 24)

Haven't been to a (really) good photo exhibit in quite some time. Looking Forward at Pier 24 in San Francisco has a bit of something for most anyone into photography. Quite frankly, I didn't much care for most of it, but the parts I did- Wow, just... WOW!

The first thing that caught my eye, I mean stopped me dead in my tracks if I'm being honest, was Erica Deeman's The Brown Series. Honestly, I don't think a series of portraits ever so affected me; nor has a grid presentation ever been so perfectly and effectively utilized! It stops you, holds you and demands your surrender. The square, uniform, almost monochromatic portraits are of Black/Brown men of all shades taken against tan backgrounds displayed on a brown wall in a darkened room* and the effect is both stunning and mesmerizing. "The whole is greater than the sum of its parts" was never more true... This experience alone was worth the price of admission- if they charged one. Ain't too many museums worldwide charging well over $20 that hold anything, anywhere this good to look at, and contemplate...

*The room is darkened but the photos are well lit- unlike the current trend in so many museums/galleries.

Photo: Daniel Postaer

Then there was Daniel Postaer's Boomtown- large, dramatic, almost unworldly street photographs! The online reproductions don't do his work justice. There are street photographers, and there's this guy, with a cinematic view that just boggles with its: composition, drama, and timing. There's one shot bathed in the most gorgeous light of a guy caught midstep, approaching another man pausing to ponder existence itself that is nothing short of miraculous. Flawless, impeccable- choose whatever accolades you wish, the guy's just a step (or two) above what passes for superb. 

And some prints by Fred Herzog certainly rounded off the afternoon rather well. The print of the man with a bandaged hand was even better than I imagined in person, and the couple walking in front of the Army/Navy sign has to be one of the greatest photos in the history of photography...

Photo: Fred Herzog