Oddity

EXHIBIT Closed on December 6th 2015

Juror: Oliver Wasow 

Juror's Choice: "Fire, San Jose, California. 2013" by Michael Martin from San Jose, CA USA

Strange, eerie and illusive; photographs that lend themselves to an implied narrative or otherworldly oddity.

Exhibit Calendar (Subject to Change)
Exhibit Opens:	12 November 15
Artists' Reception:	22 November 15 16:00
Exhibit Closes:	6 December 15
Oddity Exhibit Catalog now available at PrestoPhoto The Darkroom Gallery Difference

In documenting the oddness of real life, the "Photographer of the Freaks" Diane Arbus, once said her pictures sought to capture “the space between who someone is and who they think they are”. There is a realness and a perplexing otherworldliness to her work that makes it so provocative.

In contrast, some odd works are less about exposing the weirdness of reality but more about the artist constructing an alternate universe. Photographers have created images that intentionally perplex the viewer as early as the 1860s; Henry Peach Robinson was a pioneer of combination printing, creating the illusory photo montage long before there was Photoshop.  

Darkroom Gallery is calling for images that lead one to the edge, encouraging the mind to leap. Documentary shots, multiple exposures, constructions, staged, anything goes, just go ahead and leave the viewer baffled. 

Juror's Statement: To make an “odd” photograph is, in some to ways, to disrupt the very foundations of what a photograph is thought to be. Even in this digital age, when photographs are as malleable and open to manipulation as paintings, we continue to ascribe a certain assumption of objectivity to a photographic image. If we see a photograph that is in some way disconnected from spatial or temporal specificity, we're tempted to ask questions we would never think to ask of a painting, things like “what is that…where is that….when is that?”. Perhaps because of the desire to sever this tie to objectivity, many of the photographs submitted for this exhibition turned to tropes and imagery traditionally associated with Surrealist Painting. It’s not an exaggeration to say that dolls, masks and dreamscapes make up a majority of the pictures I reviewed. And yet the images that seem in many ways the oddest to me, and those that hold the most appeal, are those that somehow rest between the real and the imagined. The oddest photographs are those that keep one foot planted in the plausible, forcing the viewer to question whether what they are looking at is made or taken, and reminding us that in the end fact is indeed stranger than fiction. Oliver Wasow

Fire, San Jose, California. 2013 Juror's Choice Michael Martin San Jose, California USA	Playpen Honorable Mention Kristen Victoria Harner Damascus, MD USA	Two Toilets Honorable Mention Len Speier New York, NY USA
über die innenstadt Honorable Mention Mark Melnick Palm Desert, CA USA	Fragrant Pink Couch, China 2011 People's Choice Julie O'Connor Weston, CT USA	Echo no. 87 Alexandra Opie Salem, OR USA
Em & Ruth Alexis Doshas West Wardsboro, VT USA	Lake Champlain wreckage Alexis Doshas West Wardsboro, VT USA	You're the One Amanda Marie Harner Damascus, Maryland USA
Untitled (Defaced) Ana Teresa Vicente Lisboa, Portugal	Indian Grain Worker Bob Tetro Arlington, VA. USA	Trapped Selfie 2 Dani Salvadori London, UK
Three Fold Etta Martin Saint Joseph, Missouri United States	Morning Fog Geoffrey Agrons Philadelphia, PA USA	Recourse Geoffrey Agrons Philadelphia, PA USA
concrete cemetery Gianpaolo Mastronardi Conversano, BARI Italy	Lost In The Illusion Haomin Wei detroit, Michigan USA	Online To Offline Haomin Wei detroit, Michigan USA
“Untitled” from “Found and Fabricated Phenomena” series Janelle Young Athens, GA USA	Where the Sidewalk Ends Jeff Evans Rantoul, IL USA	Silent Chaos Jennifer Dipper Arcadia, CA USA
Figure with Vapor, JP Terlizzi New York, NY USA	Untitled Kristen Victoria Harner Damascus, MD USA	Angela and Steve Kristin Skees Hampton, Virginia USA
The Gannons Kristin Skees Hampton, Virginia USA	The Collector Li Shen Thetford Center, Vermont USA	Randa Liza Hennessey Botkin Studio City, CA USA
"We need more ice." Mark Melnick Palm Desert, CA USA	In the Mind of the Creator Mark Melnick Palm Desert, CA USA	Benchless Marty Daily Allenstown, NH USA
Loaded Max Ross Evanston, Illinois USA	Driftwood Max Ross Evanston, Illinois USA	Tree, Berlin. 2012 Michael Martin San Jose, California USA
Salton City, California. 2015 Michael Martin San Jose, California USA	Big Bird Whizzing Mildred Alpern New York, New York USA	Outer Peace Nick Winkworth Menlo Park, CA USA
Rainbow Over San Jose Airport Nick Winkworth Menlo Park, CA USA	Retro Norma McGehee Woodward Fredericksburg, VA USA	Disconnected Peggy Reynolds Essex Jct., VT USA
Father, Son Pierre Hauser New York City, NY USA	51.383831, -0.770176 Priya Baxter Wokingham, Berkshire England	Maintenance Richard K. Kent Lancaster, Pennsylvania USA
Persephone Robyn Wade Richmond, VA USA	Self Asleep for 4 1/2 Hours, San Francisco CA 1984 Steve Harper Greenbrae, CA USA	Barbershop duet Terry J. Allen east montpelier, VT USA
FanBoy Thomas Mitchell Holden, MO USA	Fish Drying Rack, an Iceberg Passes, Greenland Thomas Pickarski New York, New York USA	CAT Timothy Dicke Yellowstone NP, Wy USA

•  All selected entries are exhibited in our gallery and included in a full color exhibit catalog.
• Juror's Choice receives a 30x48" vinyl exhibit banner featuring their image, free entry into a future exhibition, and a free exhibition catalog.
  
• Honorable Mentions receive free exhibition catalogs and free entry in a future exhibition. 
  
• People's Choice gains free entry into a future exhibit.
• We offer free matting and framing of accepted entries for the duration of each of our exhibition, subject to standard sizes.
• Photographers set their own prices if they wish to sell their work and retain all rights to their photographs.

Juror: Oliver Wasow Oliver Wasow is a fine art photographer and collector of found photography oddities currently living and working in Rhinebeck, NY.  He received his BA from Hunter College and his Master’s Degree from the Transart Institute, In Austria.  His work is currently represented by Theodore:Art Gallery in NYC. Wasow has had a number of one person exhibitions, including shows at the Josh Baer Gallery, Janet Borden Gallery, Tom Solomon Gallery in Los Angeles, The South Eastern Center for Contemporary Art in North Carolina, and Galerie De Poche in Paris, France. His work has also been included in numerous national and international group shows, including such benchmark exhibitions as ‘Manipulated Photography Before Photoshop,’ at The Metropolitan Museum of Art,  ‘Image World,’ at the Whitney Museum of Art in NYC, and ‘The Photography of Invention,’ at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC.    His photographs are included in a number of private collections and are also represented in various prominent public collections, including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Whitney Museum of Art, The Museum of Modern Art in New York City, and The Milwaukee Art Museum. Reviews of his work have been featured in most major art publications, including, among others, Art Forum, ArtNews and The New York Times. He has been the recipient of various grants and awards including a Louis Comfort Tiffany Grant in 1999 and, in 2000, his second New York State Council on the Arts Grant.