Darkest hours

Taking time with Kirk Jalbert's
views of Worcester after dark

by Leon Nigrosh

WORCESTER BY NIGHT:

PHOTOGRAPHS BY KIRK JALBERT

at the Gordon Library Gallery, WPI, through October 1.

Who says that Worcester has nothing to offer after dark? Certainly not photographer Kirk Jalbert. Over the past two years he has made repeated nocturnal forays throughout the city, searching for scenes with the right combination of aspect and atmosphere. When he saw something he liked, he'd set his trusty 4x5 Speed Graphic on a sturdy tripod, compose his image on the ground glass, and then click the shutter open. And an hour later, he'd click it shut. Unlike most photographers who can safely assume that what they saw in their viewfinder has been captured on film, what Jalbert's actually records on his large-format slow-speed (Plus X) negatives remains a mystery until he gets in his darkroom. Moving images turn to ghostly blurs, dark places become filled with light, moving lights register as bright streaks, and the pitch-black sky often takes on a glowing aura.

Twenty-nine of Jalbert's midnight photographs are currently on display in WPI's Gordon Library, each image as intriguing and elusive as the next. His Four Floors, Harvard Street centers on a formation of fire escapes that slant sharply upward, silhouetted by the meager illumination of bare lightbulbs. This picture and Fire Escape, Jacques St. Mills bring to mind the New York City apartment building photos that Walker Evans made for the Farm Security Administration in 1938. Shooting in daylight, Evans waited until just the right moment to photograph a spiderweb of fire escapes and shadows that lent drama to an otherwise bland scene. Shooting his steeply angled fire escapes at night, Jalbert's composition of dark stripes and oblique shadows create a heightened sense of mystery and anticipation.

Photographed around 11 o'clock at night using only the available light, the slumbering cottages on Sears Island come to life with an eerie luminescence. Stucco walls are sharply defined, the pavement glistens, and everything is touched by the radiating glow of far-off city lights. Jalbert's vision of Norton, Ararat St. is all the more powerful because it's illuminated from within. The factory lights shine through the windows lighting the tower across the alleyway as well. Bars of light that stretch across the bottom of the picture serve as evidence that automobiles have passed the scene while Jalbert's shutter was open.

Few people appear in Jalbert's pictures because few Worcesterites venture out in the dead of night and even fewer stand still for the length of his time exposures. But one image, Medical City Pity, is fraught with meaning and historical value because it includes the apparitions of a handful of striking picketers, bundled against the elements, as they passed repeatedly in front of the brand new downtown medical center. His other peopled picture is more whimsical. For the most recent photo in this exhibit, Jalbert made a double image of himself under the lights at Clark's Goddard Library. Taken during a 20-minute exposure, one revenant is seen standing while the other is seated.

Jalbert's major concern about photography is that contemporary camerawork is geared to capture the moment, to freeze the action. By working at night, he can leave his shutter open for long periods and, instead of grabbing a shot, record the passage of time. A perfect example of this phenomenon is his picture of the intersection at Chandler and Park. Ethereal autos pass through the crossroads -- and each other, their headlights and taillights appear as streams of white, while in an upper corner, the spinning Gibbs sign becomes a pale, blurred oval. The fact that the cars in this picture are free to turn left, turn right, go, slow, or stop as they please is slow to dawn on the viewer because the stationary traffic lights, which cycled red to green as Jalbert made his exposure, appear all completely lit. These little time-exposure anachronisms pop up in several other pictures. Check the spelling of the signs in Brite, Webster Square and try to guess where the lighted trees really are in Garage, Shrewsbury St.

By showing us his lyrical views of Worcester during its dark and peaceful hours, Jalbert hopes to allay our deepest fears so that we, like him, "can again venture into the darkness and feel the land as it lays for the other half of our day."

The Gordon Library Gallery is open Monday through Thursday from 8 a.m. to midnight, on Friday from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m., on Saturday from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., and on Sunday from noon to midnight. Call (508) 831-5410. An artist's reception will be held on Friday, September 8, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.