Gathered Impressions

What Henry James wrote in his Italian Hours of his own "acquired passion" for the delights of Italy is echoed in the visual language of Murray Weiss' recent digital photographs.  The photographs on exhibition at the Haggerty Museum are a selection of works shot during visits to Italy in 1998 and 2002.  In the artist's words, the photographs are intended to "communicate pleasure, please your eye, and pique your curiosity."

The body of works shown here reflect Weiss' newly discovered fascination with the technological advancements in creating photographs through digital printing and the new color films that allow for greater control of color tonalities and range.  In this instance, the artist adapts his impeccable technical facility based on long years of experience with black and white photography to explore new possibilities afforded by digital color printing.  The marriage has produced a virtual feast of colored imagery.  Lush Italian landscapes, architectural details including fountains, doors, and facades along with altarpieces, baroque sculptures and family shrines are among the artist's featured subjects. Some of the urban scenes are populated with people at leisure (local residents attentively engaged in a chess game on the edge of a plaza), or tourists at rest on the steps of a church. Then, there is a man reading his newspaper in At Home in the Forum.

The main question that arises is, what distinguishes these photographs from those of every other camera-carrying tourist who traverses the seductive landscapes and architectural sites of Italy?  One's initial response would be their technical perfection.  These works are indeed the works of one who has mastered his medium.  In the spirit of John Szarkowski, who restated the distinctive visual and pictorial characteristics of a photographer's medium in the 1960s, Weiss' photographs exhibit actual, significant detail, in a particular moment in time, framed by the photograph's edge. The works emphasize description over stories.  In the best of these works, the artist's unique vantage point brings fresh insight to the viewer's experience. 

Among the writer's favorites are Madonna and Child in Pace where a strong contrast exists between the colored façade and figures in the foreground and the background of cream-white paper which apparently has no pigment. The tension between these two sections provides for a striking aesthetic effect.  Similarly, the powerful dark cloud shapes overhead contrast beautifully with the patches of light reflected from the wheat-colored fields on the ground in Patchwork Landscape, Todi.

The play of light on a pink wall in Pink Façade, Castel Ritaldi contrasts beautifully with the recessed fresco of a Renaissance Madonna and Child.  In contrast with the smooth textured Pink Façade is a wall surface sculptured of rough stone surrounding a weathered painting of St. Francis and a dog. 

Where does Weiss' photography fit into contemporary practice? Unlike some photographers of the late Twentieth century, Weiss did not choose abstraction over representation.  Nor does he elect to redirect photography through manipulated images or ideological documentary.  Rather, he prefers a classical approach to making pictures.  He uses contemporary means, but the aim is to produce works that are valued for their aesthetic features.  There is little doubt that these photographs will be admired for their sheer sensuous beauty and for the associations they evoke for both those fortunate enough to have visited Italy, and for those who only dream of traveling there.  For indeed they are beautiful.

Curtis L. Carter 
 
 
 
 
 

Artist's Statement

I have been a professional photographer for more than fifty years. I taught photography for thirty-two years and during that time photographed almost exclusively in black and white. The infinite gradation of tone and potential for personal expression through chiaroscuro in black and white has proved a very rewarding medium. In 1988, having retired from teaching, I found myself, as a studio photographer, working primarily in color to satisfy needs of clients. New films were on the market that offered a greater range, control and more satisfying color. As a result, since then I have concentrated on working in color. Initially the drawback was that, for personal as well as practical reasons, I could not do my own printing. In addition, dyes produced color that was not archival. Recent developments in digital printing have solved those problems. Newly introduced printers using pigmented inks and improved papers have great capacity for print sharpness, tonal fidelity, beauty and permanence. Prints made with this procedure can last two hundred years.

Since acquiring an archival printer, I have produced numerous prints that are completely satisfying in every respect. Previously these images were viewed as transparencies, or in less than fully satisfactory prints made by a commercial lab.

The artist's core problem has always been how to make a work of art "come alive". For that to happen, two salient ingredients must be present. First, the artist must be specific. It is penetrating specificity that enables an image to achieve a degree of universality and thereby live. Second, materials must be used in a manner that target and heighten that selectivity - in a word, beautifully!  In my work, those goals have been pursued by photographing as a consequence of amazement, delight, curiosity and love for what I see. 

Murray Weiss