Online Group Exhibition - "The Psychology of Night” September 2020
Analog Forever Magazine is pleased to showcase 13 images in this month’s online exhibition, entitled "The Psychology of Night”. Curated by esteemed photographic artist and educator, Jason Langer. These photographs capture the psychology, solitude, and privateness we experience during our introspection afforded in times when most are asleep - night’s extraordinary effect. Created by photographers around the globe in both traditional and unconventional ways, they make you wonder, what am I missing while I sleep?
Jason Langer writes: Just as photography has the ability to capture an instant in our conscious world, it can also conjure a new world of its own, complete with stage, story, protagonist and lighting. The best photographs entice us to involve all our senses; they tantalize our eyes with exceptional composition and we are inspired to hear, smell, touch, and sometimes taste the image.
My hope for this “call for entry” was to gather a group of images that describe the feeling of isolation and emotion that is often only possible at night. My experience lately has been that the feeling in quarantine is not all that dissimilar. I have heard from many of my friends and family that being isolated and socially distant has encouraged self-reflection and self-reckoning.
Night photography- especially using film- presents technical challenges. The photographer’s understanding and control of the medium are critical under low light conditions. We, film photographers, are concerned with getting the most out of the relatively narrow dynamic range provided by light-sensitive emulsion. Being able to create a well-crafted low light image that touches a place in our mind is exceedingly rare.
This brings me to the top three images that I feel best express the theme “The Psychology of Night” while exhibiting technical prowess and a sense of adventure:
“She Wanted to Be Called Mary, Untitled” by Cristal Tappan | Graphic View 4x5 + Kodak Portra 400
Cristal Tappan’s image of what appears to be a female figure in a sheer dress standing in a hallway or bedroom entices us to ask all sorts of questions, all of which we know will be perpetually unanswered. This is particularly compelling, especially now. I want photography to take me into someone else’s intimate world, even if just for a few seconds. In this image Tappan describes the late-night light exceptionally well, both in luminescence and color. If we were to reach out and touch the sheer fabric we could anticipate it’s exact texture. We can almost smell the musty room. The image is quiet. It’s as if we could hear a pin drop, a dripping faucet or the faint sounds of a staticky radio emanating from the next room. My only criticism is that Tappan has chosen to not show the woman’s feet. This isn’t necessarily a flaw in the image. It could be carefully chosen to make us wonder about the shape of her feet, the curl of her toes. We will never know. It’s simultaneously a beautiful, haunting, calming and disjointed image. It’s emotionally complex and ambiguous, which for me is one of the highest compliments in any art form.
“Insomnia” by Lodiza LePore | Canon Elan 7
The second image I feel expresses this month’s theme exceptionally well is a black and white image of two women by Nick Tarassov. In the image one woman is leaning her head against the other’s shoulder. We don’t know the relationship of the two women. We’re not even sure how well the two women know each other. Are they friends? Are they lovers? Are they mother and daughter? We’re not sure, but the sense of intimacy and electricity between the two is palpable. They each have perfectly rendered glints in their eyes. Reflections from their skin and clothing glide across the image. Something special happened in this photo. It has put me in a curious trance. Low lighting conditions can often force a photographer into using a shutter speed too slow for a clear image. In this photograph I see a great example of something I often teach; focus is subjective and can be widely interpreted. Tarassov has also given us an image with a wide tonal range and grain that is tack sharp; two qualities pleasing to these eyes, especially coming from a night photograph. Again, I want to know more, probably never will – and this is a good thing.
“Anya & Olya” by Nick Tarasov | Olympus Mju II + Kodak 400TX Tri-X
As an honorable mention I am pleased to include Lodizal LePore’s diorama of a doll figure in bed appearing to be startled by a bad dream only to find a suited rabbit figure looming over her. We are not sure if the hare is a guardian or ghost. The rabbit almost looks like a therapist guiding the woman through a bad dream. The image is appropriately surrounded by darkness. The image is both nightmarish and playful. It strikes us as an image that is both incongruent and strikingly familiar.
I want to thank everyone who submitted images to this month’s Analog Forever call for entry. It is important that photographers carry on the legacy of film. We photographers are more open to the mystery of the medium by using it. Not knowing if we have captured the images we have pre-visualized makes us hungry for more image making. As photographers we seek to make indelible images that sum up our thoughts and feelings that only the mysterious click of an analog camera can deliver.
Gallery
About the Curator
Best known for his psychological and noirish visions of contemporary urban life and meditations on inhabiting a body, Jason Langer’s work has been featured in numerous international photographic exhibitions and museum collections. Langer has published three monographs: Secret City (Nazraeli) , Possession (Nazraeli) and Jason Langer: Twenty Years (Radius) which depict urban life with “carefully crafted compositions reminiscent of the symbolist photographers, and swathes of meticulously printed deep black tones…as much Hopper and Raymond Chandler as Steichen” (Bomb Magazine).
Langer has also appeared in select publications including American Photo, Black and White, Life, Photo District News, Popular Photography, Time, and Vanity Fair. Langer is also a sought after photography teacher at university level and workshops.