The Photo Salon is a group of professional, semi-professional and entirely amateur photographers who meet biweekly at the Armory Art Center in West Palm Beach. Together they’ve mounted an exhibit of their work that showcases their different photographic styles, as well as their unique perspectives of Florida.
The exhibit, titled Florida In and Out of View can be seen at the Armory Center until Saturday, when it will then be moved to the Dixie Art Loft in time for an opening reception Oct. 21. There are 35 works by 25 local photographers and they present a myriad of interesting viewpoints on the familiar, and not-so-familiar, Florida surrounds.
The Photo Salon group is the brainchild of Marie Marzi, a semi-retired professional photographer who has worked for The Washington Post and USA Today, among others. She had been teaching photography classes at the Armory.
“I’d been teaching at the Armory for several years. Students wanted to show and discuss their work. Then I attended a photo salon in SoHo in New York City and thought, ‘This is exactly what we need,’” she explained.
So, in 2008, she began hosting biweekly Photo Salon sessions in the evenings in the Armory Center’s library and now the group has grown to a solid core of about 20 local photographers who attend, and engage, regularly. There are also transient members that come and go and the group does not require a regular commitment, but is open-ended and casual. Participants range in age from high school students to those in their 80s. Seasonal visitors are welcomed.
While there are a few members that are professional photographers, such as Greg Allikas, most are amateurs and hobbyists who do this for enjoyment and for the opportunity to mingle and exchange ideas with other photo enthusiasts.
Their exhibit presents different views of Florida, some that might be expected and others that are a pleasant surprise because they show a quasi-typical scene in a new light. One such work is Marzi’s Blue Heron Baptism (2011), which showcases her artistic skill and a knack for capturing the unusual.
In this image, taken under the Blue Heron Bridge in Riviera Beach, people from a church are participating in a baptism ritual in the canal. Marzi explained that she stumbled upon the event while she was out looking for interesting things to photograph.
“I just came upon it, but I go to that location because it’s an interesting area,” she said.
The composition is complex and that is what makes the image so compelling. Marzi explained that she seeks out images that have different layers of activity happening simultaneously. So, in this image, one views the onlookers in the immediate foreground, the participants in the water, and more onlookers on the shore. The myriad activity creates an intriguing visual story that engages the viewer because of its surface interest, but also because of the contemplation it evokes.
Cigar Bar (2011), by Robert Swinson, who also teaches at the Armory, is equally intriguing, but for different reasons. Unlike in Blue Heron Baptism, here people are not actively engaged in any activity, but rather in conversation. This appears to be a normal night at a local cigar bar, and the depiction of a very ordinary scene with warm lighting is reminiscent of the work of Edward Hopper’s 1942 painting, Nighthawks.
Swinson used a technique called HDR, or high dynamic range, imaging. This technique allows photographers to create nuances between the darkest and lightest areas of an image by capturing multiple photos of the same image and then digitally merging them using photography software, such as Photoshop.
Another photo that stood out because of its intriguing composition and subject matter was Elle Schorr’s Glam (2011). In this photo, Schorr presents an interesting work-within-a-work because in the foreground one views a reflection. The building across from the store window, which is the central subject, is being reflected back on the window. So one sees the building, as well as the mannequin within the store window, and all are representative of Palm Beach “glam.”
“This is what I specialize in. Everything I’ve been showing for years has a reflection in a store window,” Schorr said. “I’m looking to capture a broader perspective of the community and I’m looking for past and present — time passing.”
All in all, Florida In and Out of View is a charming show by a talented group of photographers who provide though provoking images of familiar and not-so-familiar Florida scenes.
Jenifer Mangione Vogt is a marketing communications professional and resident of Boca Raton. She’s been enamored with painting for most of her life. Visit her art blog at www.fineartnotebook.com.
Florida In and Out of View is showing at the Armory Art Center in West Palm Beach until Oct. 15. Hours for this exhibition are Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. and Saturday from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. Admission is free. The Photo Salon meets biweekly on Thursdays in the Armory’s library from 6:45 until 8:45 p.m. There is a $10 fee to attend. For more information, call 832-1776 or visit www.armoryart.org. The exhibit moves to the Dixie Art Loft, also in West Palm Beach, on Friday, Oct. 21, for the opening reception and remains there until Nov. 14. Hours for this exhibit are 10-4 p.m. daily. For more information, visit: http://www.dixieartloft.com.