Bil Zelman "Isolated Gesture" A Solo Show

BIL ZELMAN: "ISOLATED GESTURE” / A SOLO SHOW
ON VIEW MAY 31 – JULY 28, 2015
OPENING RECEPTION: SUNDAY, MAY 31, FIVE TO TEN PM

// Curated by Bil Zelman
// Isolated Gesture Books available with purchase of print: oversized 9 1/2" by 12", 144 pages of Duotone plates, hardbound linen cover with foil stamp on spine, slipcover with cover image and title, stitched "Smyth sewn" seams.

"For twelve years I obsessively carried a heavy, modified Nikon film camera with a powerful flash on it everywhere I went. I traveled to small town fairs, parades, public gatherings- Shot on the street and snuck my way into parties and gala events everywhere I could.

I never looked through the camera, but rather placed it near the scene with my outstretched arm, clicked the shutter and popped the flash. I don’t know any of the people in these pictures and I never asked anyone if I could shoot and people’s responses over the years varied from great interest and feelings of total flattery to invasion of privacy, near violence and even an unwarranted arrest.

In the end, and after photographing ten or so thousand people- hangs “Isolated Gesture” which has been collected by or shown in The Museum of Photographic Arts, The Museum of Contemporary Art, The Lucie Foundation, Fort Collins Museum of Art, The Center for Photographic Arts, The Center for Fine Art Photography, The Center for Exploratory and Perceptual Arts, Newspace Center for Photography, The Portland Museum of Art and many others." --ZELMAN

Art Critic Leah Olman- (Excerpt from “Introduction to Isolated Gesture”): “Since Garry Winogrand, Larry Fink, Diane Arbus, William Klein and so many others, the aesthetic of the “wrong” has become accepted practice in photography. Aggressive framing, dramatic contrast, unconventional subjects, unflattering shots—all have become comfortably ensconced in the standard repertoire. These photographers—and Zelman positions himself among them- are agitators of a related sort, purposely getting it wrong in one way so as to get it right in another, disrupting visual order to ignite a kind of visceral disorder."