artist work

JOANNE DUGAN

Photographs

EXHIBITION DATES:

Friday August 7 thru Thursday August 13 2009

Opening Reception: Friday August 7, 7-9pm

Provincetown Banner

" A New York photographer, Dugan shoots atmospheric black and white photographs of the Lower Cape, of water and sky rendered in long vistas and close-up studies. Her uniquely composed and dynamic cityscape images of New York City are juxtaposed against the Lower Cape images.

Cape Cod Times

"Dugan presents vernacular images of the city (New York) and the Cape that are remarkable for planting new seeds in such overworked soil. Although there is a measured quality to her work, Dugan's treatment of light and shadow feels intuitive. Her images are at once reflective and arresting. In "View from 29th Street", Dugan snips the top of the Chrysler building to look like a disembodied pagoda sequestered among the clouds. She is as adept at containing these open, minimal spaces as she is at using bold silhouettes or engaging in the ephemeral textures of water. "House Meditation No. 1, North Truro feels a little like Andrew Wyeth's iconic "Christina's World,and
"Downtown View in July is equal parts Whistler and a polka-dot "Broadway Boogie Woogie. There's a marvelous fluidity between all of Dugan's images, reflecting an awareness of the similarity between the supposedly antithetical worlds of New York City and Cape Cod.

Andre Van Der Wende

artscope

"In one of her works, New York photographer Joanne Dugan's slightly blurred shot of Manhattan clearly captures the excitement of the city. Her shots of tall buildings, taken from ground level, slowly pull your eyes upward, climbing along as if you were Spiderman, capturing the beauty of their ridges and notches and windowsill designs."

 

Joanne Dugan's atmospheric and uniquely composed photographs, inspired either by the street rhythms of New York City, or the peace and tranquility of Cape Cod, offer new possibilities for interpreting "place." With her astute sensitivity to the power and burden of photography and the transience of the moment, Dugan captures the essence of her subject.

Dugan draws information from a range of artists, including the painter Joan Miro and the poet Ranier Maria Rilke. She cites classic photojournalism and filmmaking techniques as having a strong influence. Documentation and art are not antithetical in Dugan's view. Her photographs convey emotion and suggestive narrative in the juxtaposition of everyday people, places and things with humor, mystery and sheer visual appeal. The expressive power of light and shadow evoke resonances beyond the merely descriptive.

Using her camera as a compositional tool, Dugan lets each visual moment dictate how it should be framed. Her dynamic cropping of her subject matter leads to formal compositions that add to the unique edginess of her photography.

"I don't obsess as much anymore about cameras, lights, setups. It's more about finding the essence of the subject. My favorite images are those that feel completely spontaneous, yet have a careful consideration of composition and space."

Dugan is the sole printer of the handmade, archival gelatin-silver prints she creates in her Manhattan darkroom. She feels that the labor-intensive printing process contributes much to the viewers experience of the work and shies away from the over sharpness and tonal 'perfection' found in digital printing techniques. "Gelatin silver prints are more lyrical and organic to me," she says. "It's about finding the poetry in the process as each set of prints is unique to the moment."

Dugan has made pictures since her early teens. Her father was a photographer in the Korean War and she grew up looking at his large format documentary photographs of Korea as well as thousands of saturated Kodachrome images of her childhood.

Dugan's work has been shown in galleries in Los Angeles, New York City, Europe, Japan and is part of many private and corporate collections. Her images have been published in six books. She is the author of ABC NYC: A Book About Seeing New York City, a children's book published by Harry Abrams in 2005 and its newly released sequel 123 NYC: A Counting Book of New York City (Harry Abrams, 2007).

Eighty five of her images illustrate the 1996 Chronicle Books' best-seller Taxi Driver Wisdom and its sequel Beauty Parlor Wisdom (Chronicle Books, 2006). She has also authored two fine art monographs combining text and image; To Music and Other Short Stories (1992) and Mostly True (2000), which is in the library collections of the J. Paul Getty Museum or Art, The Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the George Eastman House. 

In addition, her lifestyle and location assignment work has won numerous awards in the communications and design fields, including the American Institute of Graphic Arts, the Art Directors Club,  Graphis, How Magazine and Communication Arts, among others.  She received a BA in Communications from the University of Delaware and has continued her studies at the International Center of Photography, Parson's School of Design, The Maine Photographic Workshop and The New School for Social Research. She is currently on the faculty at the International Center of Photography in New York City and the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, MA.

ERNDEN FINE ART GALLERY is pleased to represent Joanne Dugan . For more information on Joanne's work, please contact Dennis Costin, Gallery Director at 508-487-6700 or 1-888-304-ARTS.