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Urban Dreams: new exhibition at Morpho Gallery

Here we go. In two weeks, we will have the opening reception for Urban Dreams, our new exhibition at the Morpho gallery in Chicago. And I can't wait for it to happen! The exhibition will feature the work of my two dear and so talented friends Mirela Momanu and Yves Vernin. Opening night will be Friday May 9th, starting at 6pm. The show will run from May 9th to June 4th.

Here's the information if you are planning to attend:  Morpho Gallery, 5216 North Damen, 60625 Chicago, Illinois.

A little more about this exhibition:

Exhibition Presentation

Urban Dreams explores the mysterious and invisible relationship connecting people to their urban surroundings. Through the use of unusual perspectives, shadow play and reflections, the cities we’ve known forever take the substance of dreams - ethereal and mysterious, foreign and strange. As a group of artists, we are seeking to question the way we usually experience urban life. By transforming the ordinary into the extraordinary, by casting a new light on the most usual scenes, our intention is to unveil the unconscious emotions that connect us to our cities, and to ourselves.

About the Artists

Marie Laigneau, USA – Marie’s images portray a timeless and overshadowing city, made of silence and whispers. In her work, the constant opposition between light and darkness seems to overpower her subjects, creating tension and unbalance. Her lonely figures evolve in a foreign, yet familiar world, reminiscent of forgotten dreams and memories.

Yves Vernin, France – Yves’ images are stories of shadows and light. Yves expands on this theme by showing how the mundane can easily become extraordinary if one understands the true beauty of light. His images portray a city transformed by the joyful sun, where shadows create rhythmic worlds shattering our common perception of urbanity.

Mirela Momanu, Romania – Mirela’s images take us to a world of silence and introspection. Her lonely figures are fleeting silhouettes evolving into the darkness of highly geometrical settings. Mirela portrays one of the most mysterious aspects of cities, made of steel and concrete, of evasive light and repetitive patterns. Her subjects are faced with themselves, in the silence of their surroundings.

Mindfulness: welcoming the unexpected

While telling another street photographer that, no, I had not been waiting 45 minutes to get that shot, he said to me: “Well, you must be damn lucky then.” I am not, I have to confess. I take thousands of pictures, I process maybe 5% of them. I fail often, I rarely succeed. I try again, I never stop trying.

But by now I have learned one important thing: success will come if you let things happen, not when you try to realize an idea that has already formed in your mind. Because, let’s be honest: if you know what you want, why can’t you stage it? What would be the fun of waiting hours – maybe days – before getting that perfect shot that you’ve imagined in detail? If you know what you want, if you go out with specific expectations, you’re putting yourself in a situation where you are bound to be disappointed. Then you’ll claim to the world that you are not lucky, when in fact, you’ve only made yourself unlucky by desiring something specific.

I am not beaten up if nothing happens in front of a nice background. I just move along, and I let the world surprise me somewhere else. I look everywhere, I am curious about many things. I am not particularly lucky – but I believe in miracles. The beauty of street photography, and candid photography, is our inability to predict how things might turn out. It is the unexpected, the unpredictable that creates a drug for many of us. But in order to make it work, you need to forget yourself, and get rid of your secret desires. You need to focus on the present, and the present only.

This is what we call mindfulness – the art of embracing the present as if no past, and no future, could get any hold on you, even for a moment only. So give it a try: let go of any pre-conceived idea of images and scenes. Don’t think, just shoot. Embrace the world as it shown to you, not as you would like it to be. And more often than not, you’ll be surprised to see how easy it is to be lucky.

The transformative power of light in photography

Light – and the absence of light – is inherent in all photography. But light is not neutral – it shapes your image, it emphasizes your story, and can ultimately transform the reality to create new worlds as mysterious and powerful as those found in our dreams. Knowing when and how to use light is key to creating greater impact with your photography.

If we look at the impact of light as a continuum, light can transform your image in 4 different ways:

1.       Separation. At the very basic level, light acts as a separator between your subject and the background. Back to the core of our perceptions, the human mind can only distinguish elements in visual art if, and only if, they have different colors or shades of a similar color. In B&W photography, when colors are de facto absent from your composition, the only way to define your subject vs. the background is to create tonal differentiation. In other words, you need to capture elements with different values of light if you want them to be distinct from one another.

2.       Emphasis. A more advanced use of light in your composition can allow you to emphasize your main subject. In other words, light can help create better stories if used smartly and appropriately. Think about how light, and its opposite the shadow, can contribute to your composition: leading lines, blockers, frames, negative space. All those elements will support your story by leading the eyes to what really matters – and get rid of what doesn’t.

3.       Substance. Furthermore, light can create elements of its own – secondary actors that will help you tell a more subtle and powerful story: silhouettes, shadows, reflections. Those elements often convey more mystery and depth to your stories, helping to emphasize underlying emotions in your images. Those elements will create substance if they reinforce your existing story – which means, if they do not contradict the story in place.

4.       Tension. The most powerful impact of light that can be found in photography is to create meaning. When new elements created by light – or absence of light – detract and contradict the story in place, you are in fact creating new meaning. This is probably the most interesting and inspiring use of light for street photographers. New meaning will be created if, at the end of the day, elements with contradictory meaning come together to form a greater whole. This is the power of opposites – stirring emotions in multiple directions to create, ultimately, meaningful tension.

Let’s now study some examples of the transformative power of light.


1.       Separation: Using light to dissociate elements in your photographs

The primary subjects in the photo below would be almost indistinguishable from the background if the sun was not highlighting their faces. Here, light creates that required differentiation between tones that is at the basis of our perceptions. Because the light in the background is subdued, the point of highest contrast (meaning, the point where there is the highest difference between light and dark) also falls on the subjects. The eye will naturally focus on the point of highest contrast, ensuring that my subjects are prominent in my composition.

Tonal differentiation also works the other way, with a darker subject positioned in a lighter background, as in the photograph below. In both cases, the distinction between figures and ground is clear and indisputable, which is the basic essence of traditional composition.


2.       Emphasis: Using light to direct the eyes to what matters

In the photograph below, absence of light is used a frame and negative space. The resulting effect is to strongly emphasize the subjects, as if spots had been cast on them. Negative space will convey a feeling of mystery and gloom if it has a low value (meaning, if it uses dark, not light). On the other hand, light negative spaces will convey more positive feelings to your image and primary character. Here, the subjects appear a little lost in the surrounding darkness of Chicago’s alleys.

Light can also act a blocker, like that shiny ray of light on the steel of the bridge in the picture below. The line created separates the photograph into two distinct areas: the dark part of the left, where our eyes do not want to stay or linger too long, and the brighter part on the right where the subject stands. As a result, more emphasis is given to the subject, as the eyes are forced to shift on the right and rest on the illuminated face of the woman.

 







​3.       Substance: using light to create depth in your stories

The sun has this wonderful aptitude to create new elements in photographs. Reflections are one of those elements that only light can create, and, if used properly, will add significant substance to your story. In the photograph below, the little girl looking beyond the window is facing her own reflection. Elements respond to one another – as if her reflection was an extension of herself, and extension of hey journey into her mind.

Shadows – that other artifact created by light – have a strong symbolic value. They tend to show that we are dual in our humanity, that there are two of us – the dark and the light, the reality and the dream. In the picture below, the shadow of that little girl is enhancing the story, not creating conflict as we could suppose so. That little girl alone imitates the world of adults as she proudly wears her feminine hat, yet behaves like a child in her attitude and posture. Her shadow and negative space around only enhance that story by offering a representation of that world of hers, of that imaginary place where she stands – bridging the seemingly separate worlds of childhood and adulthood.


4.       Tension: Using light to transform the reality

Tension is born out of the confrontation of opposites. Light and dark are in constant opposition with one another, and are associated with opposite feelings as well, as we already discussed in this article. In the photograph below, elements created by light do not act as an extension of the characters, but appear in total contradiction. The beautiful woman rests in the dark, while the strange-looking woman with naked legs is in the light. This inherent contradiction creates a feeling of mystery: the beautiful woman is not who she seems to be. From that dark corner, she seems to hide a secret that she will never share.

Light can also transform and personify ordinary objects. In the photograph below, light is not only acting as negative space. In fact, it brings together two key elements in the story: on one side, the group of people happily walking. On the other side, hidden in the dark, the shadow of a car coming at them. There is a strange and powerful contradiction between those two elements, and the car can easily be perceived as another character of its own – with motives of its own. As a result, the image conveys a threatening feeling, a sense of cinematographic drama that gives a totally new meaning to the image.

Hopefully, you will have enjoyed this travel into light in photography. The transformative power of light has no limit - it is a world of possibilities that I encourage you to explore. Now.

Contact: marie.laigneau@gmail.com