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November Issue 2009

Plum Elements in Charleston, SC, Features Works by Gary Geboy

Plum Elements in Charleston, SC, will present the exhibit, Up Close, featuring photography by Gary Geboy, on view from Nov. 5 - 30, 2009.

Using 19th century processes, Geboy introduces an uncommon perspective of the "everyday' floral and fauna, and other natural (oft over-looked) objects.

Geboy spent the last five years creating emotional portraits of the Lowcountry. In this work, hundreds of details comprised each vista: elements of texture, form and function easily overlooked. For this exhibit, Geboy turned to those parts that make up the whole. "Up close" is how he described the intimacy of the series, a new and different vantage point for his work.

"I've always collected curiosities, things I didn't need but intuitively treasured as a child. So, in a way, photographing the bugs, eggs and shells of the Lowcountry was natural," explained Geboy. He recalled naturalists' fascination of specimens brought home from far-away. Especially then, since travel was out of most people's reach, even common things found overseas became wonders in a glass cabinet or illustrated on a parchment page. With this body of work, Geboy wanted to elevate what we find common to that same sense of marvel. "To me," said Geboy, "they are treasures. Adding gold leaf to a platinum/palladium print allows its luminance to work a kind of magic - the back of a magnolia leaf becomes a map; a robin's egg a jewel."

The floral cyanotype series is another path to the same place. Instead of stepping back and admiring the color and artistry of a garden, he gets close up. Stripped of background, context and even color, these lilies, azaleas, and camellias become abstract. Like blueprints of nature, they are architectural and tender at the same time. Geboy sees them like a window in a dark room, bringing an ethereal beauty inside and closer to our lives. Working in the darkroom, Geboy uses a process involving two metals bathed in ultraviolet light results in an insoluble blue dye known as Prussian Blue. No two cyanotypes are alike and the pigment prints he creates from cyanotypes vary in color from pale porch blue to rich indigo.

Platinum prints are the sine qua non of photographic art - remarkably subtle, with rich tonal ranges and luxurious textures. Geboy hand mixes, coats, exposes and develops each image in his limited edition portfolios. His highly-detailed, naturalist still-life series is printed on transparent vellum, allowing the hand-painted gold leaf to illuminate the image.

Visitors to Plum Elements will be familiar with Geboy's landscape portraits of the Lowcountry and images from his travels to Laos. Geboy's 30 years in photography and cinematography have taken him around the world - from Peace Corps documentaries in Kyrgyzstan to a National Gallery of Art exhibit on ancient Mexico. Transfer of Grace, the award-winning book based on Geboy's signature black-and-white Lowcountry landscapes is in its second edition. Published by Charleston-based Joggling Board Press, it is available at Plum Elements.

For further information check our SC Commercial Gallery listings, call the gallery at 843/727-3747 or e-mail at (info@plumelements.com).

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