Group shot

Photos give insight into Sunday photographers

by Leon Nigrosh

SIGHT/INSIGHT

at the University of Massachusetts Medical School Gallery, 55 Lake Avenue North, through June 26.

In 1981 a small group of fledgling photographers started meeting privately with photographer/teacher Peter Faulkner to talk about their work. One Sunday evening a month, they sat around discussing each others' photos, sharing ideas, and offering both argument and encouragement. Sixteen years later, they're still at it. Calling themselves the Sunday Photography Group, this mix of professionals and serious amateurs is currently showing more than 100 examples of the group's latest photographic efforts in the UMass Medical Center lobby.

Although each photographer has gone his or her own way over the years with subject matter, content, and technique, the dominant characteristic in this show is the exceptionally high degree of overall craftsmanship. It is obvious that each individual spends hours in the darkroom until he or she achieves just the right effect. There are no washed-out gray prints in this exhibit.

All of the photographers put a great deal of emphasis on the proper presentation of their work. Carefully cut and proportioned mats along with simple frames serve to draw our attention directly to the pictorial image. To the casual viewer these things are usually of little importance -- and rightly so. Nothing should distract us from fully experiencing the finished picture.

All of the group's members have been showing quite regularly in the past, but this is the first time they have exhibited their work together in more than three years. It is especially interesting to see just how diverse their individual pursuits really are. Maxine McDonald's black-and-white photographs go well beyond the usual idea of portraiture. It is easy to see the love in each of her images of family members. Photos of her daughter Aly and granddaughter Eden caught in unguarded moments of affection are particularly moving. More humorous, but just as loving, is Here's My Sister with the leather- jacketed teenaged brother playfully shoving Eden toward the camera. And the doe-eyed Eden has the countenance of a Botticelli cherub in DeCordova Angel #1.

At the other end of the spectrum, literally, are Nancy Engberg's brilliantly hand-colored images. Engberg has taken simple scenes shot during a recent trip to the Southwest and by scrubbing them with colored pencil has brought them to the edge of abstraction. A plain adobe facade with wooden posts in Salado Ruins I becomes a riot of fiery reds within patches of hot color. Even her red frame adds to the excitement. Salado Ruins II is just as infused with vivid colors, only this time the adobe has turned purple.

Lora Brueck also hand-colors her work, but the results are quite different. This is only due, in part, to the fact that she adds tint with the lightest pastel touch. She shot all of these pictures of her new home with a Holga camera -- a little plastic job just one step above an oatmeal-carton pinhole camera. In order to get enough light to the film with the Holga, which has a fixed aperture and speed, Brueck had to click the camera several times for each image. What we get to see are multiple exposures just a tad off-register. This fuzziness adds to the pleasure of pictures like Something for Myself, a overhead view of Brueck's shoes and a spray of flowers. In Life Without a Dishwasher, the multiple exposures seemingly produce a veritable stack of cups, plates, and tableware.

Stu Pomeroy offers a new slant on familiar surroundings. Several of his black-and-white architectural photos were taken during winter evenings in Worcester. His Mall at Foothills goes beyond a shot of dull concrete walls to become a romantic view with snow-laden trees sparkling in the chill night. In Christmas Downtown, it is as if Pomeroy had possessed the ability to rearrange all the new shimmering glass buildings into a framework for the stately stone City Hall. The group's mentor/facilitator Faulkner also shows us several night shots. Taken with available light in exposures up to five minutes, these images lend an eerie credence to Grafton's deserted midnight streets.

Each participant brings an individual insight to this exhibit; and together they make the whole show greater than the sum of its separate parts.

UMass Medical School Gallery hours are Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.