New York, a city of icons, a city of deja vu - one that one senses a certain acquaintance with before setting foot on the sidewalks; a city that was being forged as photography as an art form was evolving.
Edward Steichen and Alfred Stieglitz were two Americans who found success in careers as photographers and curators collaborating for more than a decade until 1917 as the Photo-Secessionists. They photographed celebrities and society people, and many of the city’s new buildings using techniques involving gum bichromate and platinum processing that produced results similar to those of pen and wash drawings.
Having started her creative life as a painter herself, these natural inspirations spurred Ann M Holmes to consider today's New York through classical photographic filters and to capture some of the city’s most iconic landmarks in ways that seem to dilute or halt the passage of time. Human figures and traffic are rendered as dynamic forms to emphasise a transience and persistence of flow around an architecture that exudes solidity and wealth. The monochromatic tones resonate with the original skyscraper masonry and link the pictures to a timeline of uncertain contemporaneity and monolithic narrative - here the viewer is invited to speculate on their own New York drama and possible concluding scene.
These images form part of the exhibition entitled 'Journeys' by the Open Studio Photographers, on display at the Horsebridge Centre, 11 Horsebridge Road, Whitstable, Kent, CT5 1AF
8-14/2/17 Inclusive, Open Mon-Sat 0900-1800, Sun 1000-1700
All rights reserved ©Ann M Holmes Fine Art & Landscape Photographer www.annmholmes.co.uk
Credits:
All photographs by Ann M Holmes