Hamptons Art Hub

There’s a lot to see at the “Spring Photography Exhibition” of the East End Photographers Group. The nine-day show gives members the chance to present one photograph or a mini-body of work.

Different members participate, making each show a bit unexpected. There are 104 members listed on the non-profit group’s website.

Walking around the exhibition, it struck me that mannequins, dolls and robots formed an unusual triangle between photographers with different styles and concerns.

Mary Trentalange has two photographs that combine mannequins portraits with words. Trentalange gravitated toward mannequins as models as they simulate humans but are lifeless, she said.

"I had my Reasons" by Mary Trentalange.

The works are meant to explore actions taken to “improve” appearances that sometimes, instead, strip away life or the spark of individuality.

Trentalange’s photographs are on an adjacent wall to photographs featuring Betty Boop and Barbie made by Andrea McCafferty.

The Barbie photographs feature the 1959 Barbie. The photographs seem to capture Barbie mid-adventure or in unguarded quiet moments.

The Betty Boop photographs get creative with the 1930s cartoon sex symbol. Sometimes there are many Betty Boops. Other times, only few or a single Betty Boop is caught in rough-and-tumble action or unusual spots.

"Betty Boop" by Andrea McCafferty

Both series rely on sex symbols from the past to question body image attitudes of the present, said McCafferty.

The dolls were selected to generate smiles, channel nostalgia and raise potential battles between inner and outer beauty and public and private personas, McCafferty explained.

A pronounced unveiling of a dramatic series, WOMEN WHO SAVED THE WORLD, by Mark Seidenfeld is immediately evident. Seidenfeld has eight 17” by 22” archival pigment prints on view.

"WOMEN WHO SAVED THE WORLD" series photograph by Mark Seidenfeld.

Each captures, mid-action, a weaponed woman battling an oversized monster. The images feel like classical Japanese monster movies only colorized, modernized and set in the Hamptons.

Seidenfeld said the series depicts “the struggle between good and evil that can only be overcome by the wisdom and clarity of the feminine principal.”

Further, the “She-Warriors are the embodiment of the mysteries, the moon and the tides. Victory doesn’t come from the ax of the king but from a maiden’s song.”

"WOMEN WHO SAVED THE WORLD" series photograph by Mark Seidenfeld.

The EEPG show is their debut, Seidenfeld said. There are 28 images in the series, so far.

Implied stories took different forms in the exhibition. For instance, Christina Stow’s photograph, “The Stranger,” has a surrealist touch with a dose of Alfred Hitchcock.

The disembodied legs and their shadow are surrounded by towering pages ripped from Albert Camus’s book, The Stranger.

"The Stranger" by Christina Stow

The photograph was made as an exploration of collaging and Photoshop’s capacities.

"Baseball" by Gerry Giliberti.

The photograph felt like he was “holding his family in hands” and he decided to continue working with the hand motif, said Giliberti.

The hand cradling objects can be single or a pair.

Photographs include childhood objects, family photographs plus one happy accident—an eyeball recently given to Giliberti as part of a full plastic eye.

"Davy" by Gerry Giliberti.

A photograph from the series recently won an Honorable Mention at Guild Hall’s Artist Members Exhibition.

A subtle kind of implied story can be found in photographs by George Mallis. In his case, images reveal what a search for beauty can render.

Mallis uses his camera lens to make artwork that imparts “beauty in its most sublime form,” he commented. “This sense of beauty really is about grace and harmony found in the natural world and the integration of the man made with the natural,” Mallis explained.

For me, these was evident in Mallis’s photograph, “Isolation.” The black and white image kept pulling me back for another look. Quietness settled and peace arose.

"Isolation" by George Mallis.

It was easy to spend time wondering about the house and its inhabitants, the importance of the single tree and whether standing apart was a good thing.

“The beauty of the harmony of the universe becomes an ethical and spiritual force when it serves as a template for human activity,” Mallis offered.

“The truest depiction of beauty must employ the simplest of means, always striving for an idealized elegance.”

I was also drawn toward photographs by Mike Reale. Wide swathes of bright and vivid blues were accentuated by a judicious use of light. My imagination was especially pulled toward the photographs featuring a single house.

Patterns, curves and lines pulled my eye in photographs made by Alan Weinschel.

An electric orange beach fence set in a pure white background was puzzling and interesting. A photograph of greens and blues and watery stripes on a window was intriguing in a different way. After realizing both were made by the same photographer, I wanted to know more.

"Rainy Day" by Alan Weinschel.

Weinschel’s focus as photographer is “looking at ordinary everyday things and seeing them my way; sometimes by focusing on details, sometimes on shape and color.”

“What did you really see and what do you remember?” he queried.