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‘Beyond Photography’ adds new meaning to capturing images with light

Tom Ross
Beyond Photography art show chairwoman Karen Desjardin fine tunes the placement of a photographic image by artist Paula Jaconetta in preparation for the "Beyond Photography" show opening 5 p.m. Friday at the Depot Art Center on 13th Street in Steamboat Springs.
Tom Ross

If you go

What: Beyond Photography exhibit

When: 5 to 8 p.m. March 3, artists' talk 4-5 p.m.

Where: Steamboat Springs Depot for the Arts, 1001 13th St.

Free to the public; refreshments served

Also: Beth Liggitt/Wyld Blue Studio, jewelry and glass art in the Platform Gallery

Not to be missed First Friday

“The Barbie Series” by Jana Cruder at W Gallery, 115 Ninth St., Steamboat Springs

Los Angeles photographer Jana Cruder rewrites the Barbie and Ken doll myth through a series of storytelling color photographs that has been in process since 2011.

“She’s making a statement on what it is to be female in our society. The expectations and the transformation of women while breaking out of the traditional roles and paths people take,” Steamboat Springs architect and W Gallery owner Katherine Kiefer said.

The message this portfolio of large prints conveys is the complexity of human relationships.

The exhibit is on display through March.

— It’s 2017, and everyone who attends the First Friday Artwalk opening of the “Beyond Photography” exhibit at the Depot Arts Center March 3 will most likely have a camera in their pocket.

Gallery goers, in turn, can expect to have their perceptions of what constitutes a photograph to be challenged. And that’s just what volunteer show chairman Karen Desjardins and co-chair Candice Jones are hoping for.

“I wanted us to do something different with photography and push the boundaries,” Desjardins said. “The whole concept is something I’m so passionate about. I wanted it to make people think about all the ways photography can be used in art.”



Desjardins was expecting to receive artist submissions that comprised non-literal images employing a range of styles and techniques. And the show certainly lives up to that expectation.

Gallery goers may experience difficulty getting beyond the video installation just inside the door at the Depot, where Frederick Hodder’s transparent and blended still images of New York and Tokyo cityscapes scroll across a background of his wife, Monroe Hodder’s, abstract paintings on a large digital screen. The images are accompanied by soothing piano music, and the effect of the imagery in motion is mesmerizing.



However, there is much more to take in and process.

Gloria Pereyra has contributed a haunting, untitled image that appears to have arisen entirely from the artist’s imagination. The giclee print on translucent vellum depicts a single shoe on a pyramid-shaped stairway to nowhere. But other viewers are apt to interpret it differently. The print is textured with gold leaf.

In terms of the exploration of alternative photographic processes, the work of Denver artist Melanie Rose stands out. Her image, “Aquamarine,” employs, among other compounds, Kool-Aid crystals in her photographic printing process.

Rose, who refers to her process as cliche verre — French for glass print — begins in the darkroom experimenting with film, ink and water applied to a clear negative, then exposing it onto photographic paper.

Not to be missed First Friday

“The Barbie Series” by Jana Cruder at W Gallery, 115 Ninth St., Steamboat Springs

Los Angeles photographer Jana Cruder rewrites the Barbie and Ken doll myth through a series of storytelling color photographs that has been in process since 2011.

“She’s making a statement on what it is to be female in our society. The expectations and the transformation of women while breaking out of the traditional roles and paths people take,” Steamboat Springs architect and W Gallery owner Katherine Kiefer said.

The message this portfolio of large prints conveys is the complexity of human relationships.

The exhibit is on display through March.

“My work is a concept of capturing the sparkles, the bright colors and the tiny little joys that can be found in very life,” she wrote in an e-mail … I’ve become “fascinated by the visual collisions that happen while taking natural materials such as water, air, sugar crystal and combining them with food dyes, inks and Kool-Aid crystals.”

Beyond Photography is part of the larger Denver Month of Photography, and Desjardins is showing her work, including an image captured on Mount Werner, “Twilight Trees in Winter,” at Valkarie Gallery in Lakewood.

Depot Arts Center gallery hours are 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays to Fridays and 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturdays.

To reach Tom Ross, call 970-871-4205, email tross@SteamboatToday.com or follow him on Twitter @ThomasSRoss1


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