Blog Post 4- UNH Alumni Photography Exhibition Write-Up

This piece is called Chola Cactus, 2015 by Adam Tracksler. This piece has a solid black background but because of the lighting in the gallery you are able to see the reflection of the gallery in the image. This image caught my eye out of the other photos in the gallery quite instantly. It was quite different than all of the other images, and was printed not on photo paper but more so a plastic/glass like material. I think one of the main reason why it caught my eye right away was the simplicity of it. There is not anything for your eye to dance around, its just the cactus and thats it. Although its not super nature-like it does have a earthy feel to it and artwork like that resonates with me the most. 

When I first look at the picture the first thing that stands out to me is the texture and the detail you can clearly see in the cactus and on the jar. The reason why this stands out so much is how the picture was taken. Because it using blacks and shadows it highlights the jar with the cactus in it allow you to see all the detail in the image since that is the only thing that the camera needed to focus on when the photographer was taking the photo. I really do like how this photo is lit, it really allows the image to pop and really allows your eye to be drown to the main subject of the image. 

When I look at this piece of work it allows to be think of life, peacefulness and solitude. The way the lighting is the darkness with a little bit of light shinning on the cactus draws me to the thought of solitude but within solitude you can find peace within that solitude and I feel that those are two big parts of life that you have to deal with and come to terms with. I also feel like in other ways that the darkness of the image is the solitude where as the light is the life and together that is what makes the peace in life. Solitude is not always bad, as shown in this picture, sometimes it highlights what something is really about; this is where someone truly uncovers oneself.

In conclusion, I feel as this is a very powerful piece of art. It is very simple but I believe it is portraying a very big and important message. The photographer created a very powerful piece. It is amazing how beautiful of a piece you can do with just lighting. I also believe that sometimes a very simple piece of art can speak louder than something that has a lot going on and thats the beauty of art, you are able to display your feelings in different ways and it may not always be portrayed the way you though but to that person you image can mean so much more than you expected. I'm glad we took time out of the class to go look at the gallery.