Light Codes The Altered States of Photography

Lindsay Comstock who has been the curator of 1053 Gallery in Fleischmanns for the past year. Comstock announced this is her final exhibition with 1053 Gallery with ‘Light Codes’ 

FLEISCHMANNS — The exploration of photography comes alive through the twelve photographers/artists at 1053 Gallery on Main Street in Fleischmanns which opened this past weekend.  Curator Lindsay Comstock expresses her passion for this exhibition and reflects upon the past year, “This exhibition was a special one for me because it’s the last show I’m curating as the official director of the gallery. It’s been a great year, and I put on eight exhibitions including this one, and I’ve been very proud of what we’ve been able to grow at the gallery. Light Codes is the exhibition I’ve been wanting to curate as a former photographer and editor for photo magazines.” Before coming to the Catskills to share her gifts as a photographer and her tremendous networking skills as curator at 1053, Comstock worked primarily as a writer and senior editor for photography magazines such as American Photo, Graphis, PDN, FeatureShoot, and Rangefinder and wrote about art for publications such as ArtCritical. Suffice to say, the art community of the Delaware/Ulster Counties has greatly benefited by Comstock’s contribution to the growing popularity of 1053 Gallery which has become a hub of highly respected and accomplished artists and patrons of the arts who have either settled in this area or have some sort of connection to the Catskills. 

This exhibition is not for the photography purist as it’s an experimentation of various techniques. For example, Don Freeman’s pieces include watercolors with his Bamboo series of black and white photography.  The dreamworld scenes created by Caroll Taveras that infuses collage with her photos in both ‘Between the Bush and Flower’ and ‘Exploration’, and the fascinating work of Peter Manis who uses emulsion of dyed Kodak Endura with a single pour, and Kathleen Sweeney adds a couple magnificent pieces showing light passing through glass objects from her ‘Solar Power Series’. Sweeney sheds light on the inspiration and nature of her pieces in this exhibition, “The Solar Power Series evolved from an ongoing fascination with the silvery-gold shadow patterns cast by streaming afternoon sun rays refracted through glass objects on a western-facing windowsill in Upper Manhattan. The white windowsill, facing a sliver view of the Hudson River, became a still life repository of prism-bending travelogues and dancing energy lines captured full spectrum by the camera lens. The series continues with observational explorations of light patterns streaming through windows in the Catskills,”

Monte Wilson, who is the 1053 Gallery installer and guest curator, brings his artistic talents to this exhibition, as well. Wilson and Comstock have several works of art inside the partitioned dark room. Each piece is illuminated by light boxes, which adds an interesting element to Light Codes. Prior to moving to the Catskills in 2018, Wilson was a freelance installer for the NYC public school system, MOMA, and various galleries throughout the city. Owner of the 1053 Gallery, Mark Birman, has been truly fortunate to have such an experienced staff with such a diverse background in the field of art. Wilson is currently showing at the Art Up gallery in Margaretville. Wilson has sold 5 pieces over the past couple weeks at Art Up and will be showing there through January 1st. 

This bears repeating from this exhibition’s press release last week ‘Photography, derived from the words photo and graphein literally means to write with light.’ Comstock talks about this Light Codes which will be up until February 25th, “In curating a photography show, I wanted to say something different about the medium and I was thinking about how an image can only exist through the language or signature of light, and in that way, it has the power to be a channel or a portal to bring through other dimensions of reality. And I thought, what if I assemble a group of artists whose work inhabits the idea of photography as a healing modality or a language of its own that goes beyond the object to offer a new dimension to our experience of the still image. I reached out to some of my favorite artists who are visionary in their approach to photography and photographic processes and curated their work into this show.” Several of the works on display have spiritual and holistic intentions as they are from a recent trip Comstock made to Peru while visiting sacred locations such as ‘Hauca Pucllana’ and ‘Moray’. Comstock expressed a desire to continue with this art form of photography that she feels has healing properties and says she will continue as a freelance curator. Monte Wilson expressed regret of losing Comstock as a co-worker at 1053 Gallery after this run, but there’s hope that she will continue her valued contributions in some way. 

Comstock’s final thoughts on ‘Light Codes’ “Being that this exhibit is up through the winter until February 25. I hope that it brings in some light to these dark months and dark times. We’re brainstorming some events to go along with the show, so stay tuned!”