By Martha Nodar
Members of the Buckhead-based Atlanta Artists Center (AAC) are once again engaging the viewers with their images this fall during the annual Atlanta Celebrates Photography (ACP) festival.
Now in its 17th season, the festival, which takes place at multiple locations every October, is sponsored by ACP, a local nonprofit dedicated to promoting photography. One of those locations is the Buckhead Branch of the Atlanta-Fulton County Public Library System.
“The AAC Eleventh Photography Exhibit at the Buckhead Public Library” opens on Sept. 30, and runs through Nov. 2. A reception, open to the public, is scheduled for Oct. 10, from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m.
Included in the exhibit are images by Midtown artist Paul D’Amato and colleagues: Aleta Aaron, Gay Allen, Althea Brown, Chet Burgess, Cheryl D’Amato, Nathan Dean, Mikki Dillon, Judith Dunne, Erin-Elizabeth Durham, Louise Georges, Nafisa Sheriff, and Saul Torres.
One of the pieces in the show is Paul D’Amato’s “Disconnected,” a black-and-white digital photo of a rural landscape south of Atlanta. D’Amato said he is drawn to black-and-white images because he believes they are the best for him “to elevate the contrast” and possibly “evoke a sense of place or mood in the observer.”
That was the case with Atlanta artists Clara Blalock and Carolyn Meltzer who perceived a touch of nostalgia in the implied contrast between past and present captured in “Disconnected.”
“As I look at this photograph, I am transported to another place and time,” Blalock said. “The house, which is the focal point, is static, while the movement of the sky keeps the eye from resting for too long. It is almost as though part of the image has stopped-in-place while the environment continues to move in the present tense.”
“This piece really drew me in,” Meltzer said. “The ordinary house and the open green space may pull the viewer back to a time long past, the middle of nowhere, a humble beginning perhaps. Yet, the turbulent sky above stirs the present atmosphere and adds to a growing sense of uncertainty.”
Participants and attendees for ACP 2015 can also expect lectures from prominent photographers and curators, public art installations, the “My Atlanta” pop-up gallery of photos by residents at Ponce City Market, a photography auction, film series, photobook fair and much more.
For a complete schedule of ACP events, exhibitions and participants, visit acpinfo.org.