Unknown Photographer D.Puglia
ALL CAPS TITLE
DAVID PUGLIA
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
The CameraWork Gallery is pleased to announce the opening of the exhibition Philadelphia Light– Selected Images 1973-1978 by David Puglia. The exhibition will run from May 6 to May 28, 2022. An opening reception will be held from 6 – 8:15 p.m. on Friday, May 6, and is free and open to the public.
The work of David Puglia did not see the light of day for decades. His intensely high contrast images portray the citizens of Philadelphia blanketed in bright sunlight emerging from the deeply dark shadows that surround them.
The Camerawork Gallery is located downstairs of the Marquis Gallery 515 Center St. Scranton, PA.
Gallery hours Monday-Saturday 10 am - 5 pm.
For more information, please contact Rolfe Ross at 570-510-5028
PHILADELPHIA LIGHT PHOTOGRAPHS (1973 - 1978)
Deep Space Astro-photographers record the past. They capture light that has taken hundreds, thousands, and millions of light-years to reach the earth. The photographs of the “Philadelphia Light” portfolio are similar - captured decades ago and forgotten for many years. Now, the light that formed the images on the silver-halide-based negatives reached earth in 2019.
The photographs, taken in Philadelphia primarily in the “center city” area, are always made with a select set of characteristics: bright sunlight and large areas of negative space, subjects captured in between conscious thoughts, dreamlike states, and a social narrative of the society that inhabited the walls of the city. The camera was a Leica M3 using Tri-X film.
The Camera Obscura is the ancestor of the photographic camera, meaning "dark chamber" in Latin, consisting of a small darkened room with light admitted through a tiny hole. The result is an inverted image of the outside scene cast on the opposite wall.
Camera Obscura takes on a new meaning in the post-pandemic world, "dark chambers" of isolation; at times, mandated by government or self-isolation. Images seep into our Obscura through light portals of our outside world. Is the Obscura a gulag or welcome respite? Society adapts to work using a digital screen, eliminating direct human contact. As social beings, are we now less human?
Some adapt by ingesting the digital exhaust of media through our modern devices living in a virtual world for most of their day. For some, isolation is a curse, and others a chance to reflect and meditate.
Other portfolios at this site include past and present work.