Last week, PhotoPlace Gallery hosted its opening reception for “Monochrome,” the gallery’s newest exhibit. On Friday, Nov. 7, the gallery in the yellow house at 3 Park St. was warmly lit, beckoning visitors in from the chilly evening from 4:00 p.m.–7:00 p.m. People were welcome to view the gallery for free, drink mead and snack on charcuterie boards.
Monochrome will be on display for the public until Nov. 28, Tuesday through Friday from 11:00 a.m.–4:00 p.m.
The gallery space is intimate, but boasts numerous black and white photographs. The exhibit featured a range of work, from a wall of photographs dedicated to the diverse nature of the West Coast to an image of aged hands weaving a loom. Through the use of black and white, the shadows and lights of the photos popped, allowing patterns to present themselves in new and intriguing ways.
These photographs were first submitted to the gallery and then curated by one of PhotoPlace Gallery’s 90 jurors. Jason Landry, an independent curator and photography collector, is the visionary and juror behind this month’s collection.
“There is a nostalgic feeling that I get when looking at a black & white photograph,” Landry wrote in his juror’s statement at the exhibition. “An older photographer that I once represented through my gallery, by the name of Harold Feinstein, told me that a good black-and-white photograph has all the colors of the rainbow. And I guess that’s how I see it as well.”
Landry looked at over 2,500 photographs for the current exhibit. Ultimately, only 36 photographs were selected.
Kyle Meckes-Gibbon, PhotoPlace Gallery’s newest hire, used to manage Vermont’s Own Gifts and Goods, a store located in downtown Middlebury. He’s lived in town for five years and had visited the gallery’s exhibits many times before becoming an employee.
“I think it’s a really beautiful style,” Meckes-Gibbon said at the gallery’s opening reception, reflecting on the exhibit’s black and white theme.
In the past, Meckes-Gibbon enjoyed the Trees and Seasons exhibit, which was on display in October of this year. As someone who has rekindled his love for photography, Meckes-Gibbon noted that he is specifically drawn in by the composition of a photograph.
“I think composition is a big factor. And, you know, maybe not the usual frame. An unusual frame would draw me in,” Meckes-Gibbon said.
Also present at the exhibit’s opening was Alexandre Apfel. Apfel runs Golden Rule Mead, located at 8 Elm St. which, since earlier this year, has supplied the mead tastings for PhotoPlace Gallery’s opening receptions.
“On the first Friday, I bring some mead and I offer complimentary tastings of the different varieties that I bring, and people can buy bottles if they want or have a glass while they look around,” Apfel said.
As someone interested in photography himself, Apfel was drawn to a photograph titled “The Girl on the Bus to Toledo, Spain.” It depicts a young girl, no more than 12, looking back at the viewer from her seat a few rows in front of where the camera is positioned.
“I was really struck by the intimacy of that shot. You know, with the caption, especially. When I looked at the image without the caption, I was thinking, OK, this is like someone who the photographer knew [and they] couldn’t find seats together, and she was looking back. But the caption makes it sound more impersonal than that,” Apfel said. “The idea of letting a stranger take a picture of you and taking a picture of a stranger, there’s a real, like, intimacy there that normally I think people shy away from or find transgressive.”
Middlebury student Reyan Kassam ’29 attended the event and was struck by the photograph “Dunes and Grasses,” a snapshot of the Oregon coast.
“What the curator had said in his statement about the contrast of the dunes with the waves and having the kind of conflict of the sand, the sand moving, and then the waves kind of eroding the coastline over time, spoke to me,” Kassam said. “You have the sand moving and eroding the land, but the ocean is also eroding the coastline. It’s just so beautiful to see how two different things kind of chip away at time.”
The collection is one of the many exhibits that the gallery has displayed this year. Every month, PhotoPlace presents curated and juried exhibitions, working with both local and more far-reaching artists. All juried selections are also available online for those who are unable to experience the artwork in person.
PhotoPlace Gallery continues to serve as a diverse gathering place for artists and those who simply appreciate art alike: following “Monochrome,” the gallery will reopen its doors on the first Friday of December with another unique exhibition, yet to be announced.
