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The Dartmouth
July 11, 2025 | Latest Issue
The Dartmouth

Local photographers showcase work at Spheris Gallery

The show, which opened Jan. 15, features the work of seven members of VCP, located in Brattleboro, Vt. To compile work for the show, Spheris put out a call for submissions to members of VCP and selected the pieces by jury. The result is a comprehensive and impressive exhibit showcasing local photographers.

Four digital black-and-white photographs by local artist William Dixon portray beautiful architecture in an abstract manner. "View from Brooklyn Bridge" shows fragile rural constructions alongside towering New York City skyscrapers, viewed through the bridge's framed infrastructure. Similarly, "Lathe" showcases a man-made steel lathe, an awkward and blatantly artificial contraption of concentric wheels.

In a striking contrast to these spare, synthetic pieces, Dixon's "Field Barn" displays a quaint pastoral scene. This more natural photograph hangs below "Lathe," highlighting the differences between the pieces.

In addition to juxtaposing pieces that clash with one another, Dixon plays with the notion of difference in his photographs. For example, the artist's final piece, titled "Volkswagens," is an image of a black car and a white car perched side by side against the backdrop of a brick wall.

In his artist's statement, Dixon explains that he sees his work as a record of spaces, carefully constructed moment-in-time snapshots of everyday events.

In contrast to Dixon's stark black-and-white photographs, Doug Frank's "Steel Magnolia" feels more like an oil painting than a photograph. Using piezography a printing method that ensures a piece's longevity Frank captures the smooth, ivory petals of the magnolia. There is an alluring vagueness in his representation of the flower. Much like Dixon's abstraction of a lathe, the photograph dismisses the need to identify itself as technology or nature, instead functioning as a study of shapes and shadows.

Two additional botanical photographs by Richmond, N.H., resident Albert Karevy hang side by side, an arrangement that emphasizes similarities between the pieces. On the left, "Puff Flowers" evokes movement and urgency, with flowers out of focus and the grass in front of the lens crisscrossing rapidly to build tension.

The counterpart to this photograph, "Spike Plant," also addresses the subjectivity of photography. A thorny shrub is entirely out of focus, exuding a calm elusiveness not typical of botanical shots.

Doug Frank's "Bonsai" and "Apple Hill Cupola" each capture New England's natural charm. Although the leaves pictured in "Apple Hill Cupola" are actually much larger than the ones portrayed in "Bonsai," the latter focuses on the intricacies of the leaves and stems, rendering them in greater detail. In "Apple Hill Cupola," by contrast, leaves fill only a portion of the image.

However, despite differences in size and scale, these two photographs are united by a common mission: revealing ordinary, simplistic and often overlooked beauty. Essex, Vt., photographer and film artist Ken Signorello contributed four pieces, all shot over the last five years on various cross-country road trips. Examining the pieces closely, viewers may be reminded of a rest stop on a road trip meandering line segments evoke the sense of wandering off course.

In Signorello's "Idaho Homestead," a meadow in front of a farmhouse is more in focus than the structure itself, suggesting that the scene continues beyond the frame, stretching outside of the viewer's perspective. Similarly, "Ancient Obelisk" shows an old, abandoned gas pump with rubber hoses snaking out of the image. The mysterious body of water presented in "Grand Portage" also wanders out of the frame.

Suzanne Flynn's two sets of photographs add technical diversity to the VCP show. The first display a series of four miniscule, mounted collodion on aluminum photographs use layers of texture to contrast brick and wood, tree and shadow. The second display, a single-pigment print that is much larger than the other photos, resembles a painting with its graceful portrayal of a river.

Joan O'Beirne, the last exhibitor, contributes three untitled mixed media portraits. Using gridded plexiglas, O'Beirne creates pigmented photographs of three women, blurred but still expressive. The artist's abstract work clearly constructed but still undefinable helps complete this diverse and dynamic exhibit.

The Spheris Gallery is located on South Main Street in Hanover.

Staff writer Trevy Wing contributed reporting for this article.