by Taylor Lieuwen
Daily Lobo
In some cultures, photographs are believed to capture a subject's soul.
But it's the photographers' souls that are captured in an exhibit at the Downtown Contemporary Art Center.
"1x20: Twenty Photographers, One Model" explores the spectrum of ideas and feelings photographers can convey through Rose Bryan, their common subject.
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"Rose is the perfect model in that she is a true chameleon," Curator Pat Berrett said. "She is so comfortable with who she truly is that she can become whoever the photographer needs her to be."
Oscar Lozoya represents the darker side of the exhibit with his intense spiritual representations of time before and after death with a picture of Bryan going to heaven and another of Bryan naked and dead.
Dawn Allen's work, "Storytime and Companions," is equally surreal. It shows what looks like Little Red Riding Hood after she has made amends with the wolf and his family.
Other artists had different
visions. Chip Simons placed Bryan on top of a water tower and then added an airplane using photo manipulation. Nolan Rudi had a '50s version of Bryan talking on the phone and smiling as if revealing the most shameful and delicious of secrets in "Talking Shit."
Greatly influenced by comic book art, Rudi said he was trying to create "something dynamic." In a photograph titled "Ghost," Bryan is surrounded by a dismal, broken-down setting, undoubtedly thinking about the future of her character's hard life.
"Seeing all the finished pieces in that gallery at once is like
being able to go back and find artists I've worked with over the last 10 years, pull the art they made with me out of their collections, lay them all out next to each other and look for visual similarities or recurring themes,"
Bryan said.
The exhibit, designed to showcase the perspective of each photographer involved, demonstrated how the concept of a shared subject is a great way to highlight how diverse artists can be.
"1x20: Twenty
Photographers,
One Model"
Downtown Contemporary Art Center
105 Fourth St. S.W.
Tuesday-Saturday
10 a.m.-5:30 p.m.
