Transparent Layers January 6, 2007

Transparent Layers
Solo Photographic Show through Jan. 31
Melody Reed - photographer

The place to be
Opening reception
Date : Saturday Jan 6th from 11 am to 4 pm
Place: Tompkins Sq. Library
331 East 10th St. Ave. A and B
Gallery hours Wednesday evenings 4-7 pm and Saturdays 2pm-4pm
Appointments available other times 917-721-9696
Sold pieces can be picked up or delivered at the end of the show

Refreshments will be served and the sophisticated sounds of Jin, a fascinating Korean man raised in Japan, architect, musicologist and DJ, will be spinning his diverse musical complement to Transparent layers.

Bio: Melody Reed is a photographer and digital photography teacher at Pratt Institute, City tech (CUNY), and ICP, where she teaches a class ‘Shooting for Collage’.

The idea of Transparent Layers came from her many years of teaching and using Photoshop, with its layered approach to creating and editing photos as a digital darkroom.
Photoshop showed her how the meaning of her images can shift subtly or completely by introducing an object on a new transparent layer. For this show, she calls this ‘ironic urban synergy’, when the joining of two or more realities create the possibility of a new and unplanned reality.

Her photography has a collage-like appearance, even when it is shot straight, with no manipulation. New York City is the perfect urban cornucopia to discover these unpredictable layered encounters.

Sometimes the synergy of these arbitrary positions are amazing, because they are unlikely, like ‘Unexpected encounter with The Gym Boys’. Sometimes they hint at a social utopia. ‘Subway Musicians’ are set up in front of a mural where a white woman offers flowers. Often the juxtaposed layers of reality (or the decisions in the darkroom) just complete a more idealized landscape. ‘Pier 17’ is such a photograph, with a perfect crescent moon complementing the composition, or a bird entering a sunset in just the right way, ‘Bird in flight’.

What fascinates her most at this moment is the construction going on in her neighborhood of competing lofty glass towers intruding into the sky. In themselves they do not show much originality or skilled workmanship of the old world structures, but they have something new and unexpected. Every day, depending on the time, the natural light, and other spontaneous elements, (a passing plane or bird, cloud formations, skywriting, a building across the way, a new construction in progress, etc.) creates a stunning original new art form boldly displayed on this gigantic glass canvas.

The beginnings of a new tangential series occurred when her dog Mugsey died a little over a week ago. To deal with this unexpected heartbreak and mystery she found herself delving into the fragile layer between life and death. To commemorate his life, she dedicated this show to him with a piece that searches for him in the reflections of the clouds, ‘Stairway to Heaven’. In her mind’s eye she finds him, and her camera captures it. It is another tribute to the living reflective towers, and her magical camera.