The sixth annual LACP Members Exhibition exercised a menagerie of contemporary fine art photography with noticeable attempts of expanding the concept of the photograph. Intrinsic to the art form is the occupation of a subjective lens, so unavoidably naked a proclamation to perceive what is focally intended by the artist. There have been obvious movements beyond a glistening capture of reality towards meditations on the reality of perception itself in its avante garde form – as is typical of the exhibitions at dnj Gallery. It is here where art is most culturally self-reflective and is the height of contemporary art, as is clear the novelty of this challenge is an abstract capture of visual perception.

The clearest representation of this comfort of contemporary subjectivity is Karchi Perlman’s Joshua Tree Red & Green. The playful yet serious emphasis of static in the composition of what would be a routine photograph by a nature enthusiast demonstrates a blurring, if not integration, of the digital and analog subjective world. By analog, we connote our normal everyday subjective eyesight and, by extension, subjectivity self-reflected onto an objective world of desert beauty, in the instance of the photograph by Mr. Perlman. It is the increasing digitization of our subjective world which is stupendously articulated, wherein our subjective lens is increasingly exercised in a purely mathematical world of digital society that is being participated in via mobile internet technology.

Clearly, too, is the continuum of the digitization of subjectivity from the lens of the camera through to the digital printing of the artwork. Yet do the digital artifacts pose a problem? The distinctive gentle static noise that is incorporated in the digital communication of the original instance of beauty photographed is an important remembrance of an authenticity towards the transcendent and a fidelity to the analog wonder perceived. The communion of Nature’s self-reflectance of Her beauty accomplished by our eyesight is an affirmation of Her integrity, permanently separated from the myriads of layers of digital samples of Her ever-present existence. Mr. Perlman daringly, then, champions natural life over a virtual one without being rudely petty about acquiring technological convenience.

 

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Speaking to the end of technological adoption, Jane Szabo’s November 10, Sunshine Skyway is terrifically high-concept, creating a crystalline surrealist moment that is otherwise impossible to perceive in reality. It is genuinely, without any jarring dissonance, an alleviating challenge to perception and the concept of the natural. This is an imagined world, possibly ideal in its savoring of pure cloud blooms and immaculate reflectance of sunshine. And yet there is no consternation in presenting man-made construction in such a heavenly horizon. This is a humanist affirmation, then, of a presented Kingdom Come wherein Nature is not subjugated but harmonized with the ends of mankind to go to-and-fro as a means of finding peace and quiet – the upmost ends of a tranquil shelter by the shore.

Furthering the abstract, Jacques Garnier’s 6x7x10 is willfully geometrical – possibly algorithmic – in the patterning captured. It is an eerie confrontation: that man has the capacity to imitate Nature’s elegance. But perhaps this is because of his capability to idealize forms with geometry, to give his perception rational boundaries and structure – or cohesion. Much like the natural world, such beauty is attributable to the timeless and unchanging. These quadrilaterals and silent triangular forms we perceive in the composition exist permanently beyond any eyesight in a pure mathematical realm. Yet when we can perceive the ideal, we find harmony with a world which is beyond our own. In this manner, Mr. Garnier is presenting a quintessentially Platonic celebration, and further, a humanist championing of our ability to transform our perception towards ever higher ideal ends.