Proceed to the Route: An American Road Trip Experience
December 1-31, 2018
Opening: Saturday, Dec 1, 6-9pm
Artist Talks: Thursday, Dec 13, 4-6pm
The primary installation consists of the intertwining work of two photographers who traveled and “roadtripped” together, Thom Bennett and Renée Allie. The photographs were made at the same locations but from two distinct viewpoints. Various large and medium format analog cameras were used as well as cellphones and a Polaroid camera. The result is a free form collage that explores and celebrates the American road trip experience.
The remainder of the gallery features other photographers who were inspired by the American road, namely Bryce Lankard and Natasha Sanchez.
BIOS
Renee Allie is a New Orleans artist who uses darkroom photography as her main medium, exploring the layers of analog using vintage 2 ¼, 35 mm, plastic cameras and family ephemera to create bodies of work that hold personal resonance. Her photographic subjects vary and sway, from specific long-term documentary projects to reoccurring thematic ideas and concepts in portraiture and landscape. She is recently exploring various alternative processes and incorporating them into her artistic arsenal. In 2018 she completed a portfolio of hand-colored silver gelatin images that were exhibited in a solo show, American Malarkey at Brick Red Gallery; one image also received an honorary mention in And Now for Something New, Vol. 1 at Le Mieux Gallery and she was chosen as one of the twenty-five artists for the Louisiana Contemporary 2018 at the Ogden Museum in New Orleans.
Thom Bennett is a New Orleans-based photographer deeply steeped in the classical traditions of the craft; his expertise is seen in his darkroom, lighting and shooting techniques. Variously employing large format, vintage Polaroid, and toy film cameras, he brings to all a distinct, classic style harking back to the traditions of the 19th and 20th centuries of photography. Precise, direct compositions, clear, pure light, and evocative subjects become a timeless body of work. Thom is equally comfortable in the commercial realm and his work includes a long stint as a jewelry and art photographer for M.S. Rau Antiques, Boyd Satellite Gallery, and Michalopoulos Gallery, among others. His editorial photographs have been seen in multiple publications including New Orleans Magazine, BIZ Magazine, New Orleans Homes & Lifestyles, Restaurateur, ByFaith, Homes & Land, Kingfish, and City Business. His fine art photographs have been exhibited throughout the Southeast, including the Contemporary Arts Center in New Orleans, WORKPLAY, Birmingham, AL; The University of Arkansas, Conway, AR; Delta State University, Cleveland, MS; The New Orleans Museum of Art, New Orleans, LA., The Darkroom, New Orleans, LA, and The New Orleans Photo Alliance Gallery. He has conducted workshops in large format photography and vintage darkroom techniques in New Orleans at The Darkroom and in Mississippi with the Rebirth Workshops.
Bryce Lankard has been making images in the south as a documentary photographer for 35 years. He was a co-founder and creative director of Tribe Magazine in New Orleans and following Hurricane Katrina he co-founded the non-profit New Orleans Photo Alliance. He is a co-founder and the executive director of the Click! Photography Festival and a veteran instructor at the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University. His current project, “Drawn to Water”, was featured in the Summer 2016 issue of Southern Cultures and has solo exhibitions at Flanders Gallery in Raleigh, NC and the South East Center for Photography in Greenville, SC. His work was featured in “Across County Lines, Contemporary Photography from the Piedmont” at the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University.
Natasha Sanchez is a photographer, songwriter, performer and photo instructor exploring, sharing and always inspired by the vast richness of our world. Her photographic works use a variety of mediums to share her worldview – 35mm film, recycled photographic paper used to create lumen prints, plus a smidge of digital. She chronicles her path in song by writing clever and thoughtful tunes that she performs as a solo acoustic act and in one-woman shows which features her storytelling and photography. Natasha travels the world, oftentimes without leaving her home state. When she’s not searching for Himalaya, Louisiana, among other places, she lives and creates in New Orleans, Louisiana where she host songwriter nights and also teaches photography workshops focusing on exploring the different ways to see and photograph the world in which we live and create for ourselves. She performs and exhibits her work regularly.
