Exhibiting Photographers

The photos I am submitting to you are taken from a series that I made 3 years ago in Costa Rica. I have always been fascinated by the beaches which welcome without moderation all the oceans and seas of the world. Majestic oceans on which humanity depends. They are a perpetual movement. The swell, the wind, the tide, the attraction of the sun and the moon, the currents … everything is connected. And if we focus on a very small part like I did with my camera, you realize that nothing is constant and permanent. Everything is in motion. Everything is change. Everything becomes art. And art becomes endless.

There are 3 themes in this series: White, Colors and Black.

With my camera, I also enjoy documenting the visual journey and stories from my travels to various unique locations throughout the world. Many of my pieces combine  photographic imagery utilizing both digital and fine art studio techniques. In addition to traditional fine art printing techniques, I use alternative processes for transferring photographs onto metal, fabric and unique papers.

I work primarily with an infrared converted SLR camera. In addition  to infrared photography,  I have also been working on creating Cyanotypes and Cyanolumen prints from materials collected around the shores of CT and ME. These natural items are  arranged on photosensitive paper and exposed to sunlight for up to six hours. During the process, additional items such as turmeric, lemon juice and sassafras are added to enhance the color tones. The photographic  result is an abstract painterly image with various tones of blues with hints of shimmering white and gold specks.

My work seeks to capture a compelling moment in time found in cityscapes, street scenes and nature. My goal is to create “visual meditations” in my photographic images. I have shown my photographs  in various group and solo exhibitions throughout the east coast for over 30 years.  I look forward to displaying my photography work in the Carriage Barn Arts Center’s Annual Photography Show.

The intention of this series is to invite psychological interpretation while remaining firmly objective due to its uncanny proximity to the real, and its relationship with the minimal.

Learning to Fly was taken of a ballerina in Brooklyn. Her form was beautiful.

Someone to Look Up To was taken during the Covid times. I just love how the little boy stopped to look up at MLK.

School’s Out Forever was taken in an abandoned school in VA. There’s something about abandoned spaces that always draws me in.

Waiting for the Mother Ship was shot in Munich’s subway system. It just looks like the man is going to be picked up by aliens.

Etched by Time was photographed in another abandoned space. I love the rich variety of textures.

I chose these photos because I feel they represent my style of photography.

         DARKER MATTERS – Patrick J. Cicalo

This picture was taken quite spontaneously in a bathroom stall. Presented in black and white and cropped to show only a small part of the finger, the reflection of the hand is the extraordinary center of the composition. The limits of time and space are blurred, though the faint light of the window in the background alludes to a nearby reality.

Photographs are containers of memories. I have photographed their home to preserve a way of life that defined my childhood. I use a square format film camera because it slows down the image making process. I work slowly, framing compositions that are typically overlooked during everyday life. The square crop is reflective of how organized and polished their home is.

I have always photographed, but since the birth of my first child, the camera has become my preferred medium of expression and tool of my aesthetic worldview. My work is a manifestation of the relationships I have with people and places. Through photography, I provide the viewer with a new means of seeing by highlighting the drama of light and form.

A recurrent theme in my work is the relationship between humans and the natural world. My portraits and landscapes are intended to reflect a sense of timelessness. There is a deliberate stripping down and essentializing of forms to highlight the relationship between people and place. My roles as mother, wife, artist and environmentalist inform my work. I am acutely aware of the precarious nature of our shifting environment, of the fragility of life and the ephemerality of childhood and I use my photographs to express this sensibility.

Photo 06 Hay Bales is from a trip to Italy I took. and relates to Landscape photography that I center on.

As a photographer, I have always enjoyed this process; traveling to new places, learning new skills, creating new images.  For over 30 years I have been as fascinated by a butterfly’s wing as with a 5 mile wide landscape, a child’s eyes, an old man’s beard, or the details of man-made objects.  Over the years I have also been inspired by, and used, my experience as a science educator to work with filters, lighting, and subjects.  I have traveled through Europe, the western US, and extensively through New York and New England. 30 years ago I was shooting with a classic film camera, and printing black and white at home; I am still creating and printing at home using current digital gear and media.  I do use Photoshop, but few of these are “photoshopped” effects – it’s all about light.

I have been a member of the Stamford Photography Club for over 20 years. My work can be seen on the Club website, as well as a gallery on flickr.com; and I can be contacted by email at [email protected]

Once I create a photographic image, I hope afterward, anyone looking at my work will enjoy the virtual experience of “following in my footsteps”.  Certain elements within the composition may be organic, while others are more subtle and invariably left to my photographic interpretation.   

My street images are taken spontaneously as people go about their daily life.  Hopefully, these leave the viewer observing the image the option of experiencing a specific feeling, story or idea.  The images tell us about life and encourage us to think and ask ourselves questions.

To me, landscape photography goes beyond the scenery to capture the perspective. Images to which one relates to can be important in our lives. Photographs may be serene or bring back memories. Photographs can transport us to another place, spike our imagination, or give us a sense of being there.

I hope you will see a story in each of my photographs as you follow in my footsteps.

The three landscape images transport the viewer to another place.

These B&W film photos are representative of the documentary style that originally beckoned me to the photographic image as a storytelling medium. They are all “street photos”, so to speak, spontaneous, un-posed imagery that asks the viewer to think about the human beings they are witnessing.

When my interest in photography bloomed in my 30s, I felt that same Impulse to escape to the city and the shore, using light, color and form to (re)capture the psychological power of these spaces in photographs. My photographic subject matter often incorporates cultural artifacts, man-made structures and architectural forms, composed in the viewfinder in a deceptively stralghtforward manner that draws the viewer into my world and Invites questions about the cultural origins and uses of these objects.

The work I am submitting for the Carriage Barn Arts Center show reflects these interests, and my underlying compulsion to “elevate the ordinary” and share my way of seeing with others so that they, too, can feel the psychological pull of a place and reimagine the world for themselves.

The submitted photographs are from ongoing projects documenting Times Square, NYC Pedestrian Images and a long term study of vernacular architecture in the Naugatuck Valley.

The images selected for submission to your show include examples of each aspect of his practice. Image 1 is a street portrait taken in Greenwich Village this past Halloween. Images 2 and 4 are street details from a NYC store front and from the Lisbon transit system respectively. Images 3, 5 and 6 are graphic design driven. Image 5 arose from an assignment from Photographers Without Borders to document the work of a women’s textile cooperative in central India. He very much looks forward to resuming documentary work in developing economies.

Lee Jefferies, Brandon Ruffin, Mark Seliger, Helmut Newton, Peter Lindbergh and Herb Ritts, just to name a few.

Robert Sachs

Together with my wife, we have explored rivers, lands, mountains and human efforts on six continents and chronicled these journeys on film.  Many of my images are from high mountains and places that are difficult to reach, seldom seen by man, while the others depict our everyday lives and pursuits.

Finding the way through a wilderness to unexplored places and photographing these experiences, for me, is much like solving an engineering problem or designing something new.  Both require vision, knowledge and care.  There is much hidden beauty on our planet, we just have to look and see.

“Semaphore” examines the shift in my perspective after having been diagnosed six years ago with Parkinson’s disease. Through images, I consider what it means to integrate this life-altering information into my sense of self. What does acceptance look like?

Post diagnosis, everyday items and experiences take on new meaning. New tasks top my “to do” list each day. Simple tools now represent challenge. Uncertainty pervades the periphery surfacing my vulnerability. As I look around me, the branches of trees become networks of neurons, or resemble tendons in my wrist imaged by MRI. Acknowledging these signals facilitates the process of adaptation.

Optimism holds the key for me right now. Light, always an inspiration, illuminates a path for me to follow. And I go.

With this project I aim to connect with others whose journeys also require growth, patience and perseverance to move forward.

But when the world suddenly shut down last year, and as people continued to hunker down at home, I became a street photographer without the street. I continued to take pictures, though, turning my attention to the vibrant ecosystem in my small backyard. In doing so, I found myself becoming more introspective—and more thoughtful in general about the world around me. There is so much everyday beauty to be found in nature, be it in a fragile robin’s egg, or in a mammoth grey stripe sunflower, or in fox that’s unafraid of heights.

I like to tell people that I self-medicate with photography; these three photos in particular are favorites of mine from the past 18+ months. I am hopeful that people who are struggling with our strange new reality might find hope and solace in these simple images.