February 23 - March 22, 2008
John Cleary Gallery, Houston, TX, USA

1. UH Photo / Digital Blog by photonat

”I visited the John Cleary Galley, the “Dancing Walls”, by Thomas Kellner last week and had likes and dislikes on the show as a whole. I found it amusing as first that he presented his photos as a contact sheet, an assignment that was given to me in my second year of photo class. Even though you would think of it is an easy shooting assignment, it needs to be well thought-out or sketched before you attack it and use up a lot of film. The main photo itself is the process, by taking this route you can tell how important it is to the photographer to show an image as a shot and not cropped. Uniquely produced as flat sheets, the photos are surprisingly 3dimintional and geometric. As these everyday calm and beautiful structures stay put, they are presented as jungle jims. You grab a presence while viewing the images and it makes you excited!

I continued to walk through the gallery of tourist attractions, as I realize how he shows and depicts Houston as a colorless and ugly refinery. The image of Houston was the only one I really disliked, but only because he made every other image there look so colorful and cultured. I can’t help but look past the aesthetic graphics of the photos, and find it the same old mundane places as a very attractive place to visit. The Dancing Walls piece, however, as a whole lacked. The space also felt empty, even though the images were a big size I would of liked to see them bigger. Plus the show is still up and there is already missing photos, which I hate and believe is very rude. Because I can only say that I was impress with the quality of the photos. The colors especially in the night shots were very vibrant with color and well printed I would say. The images were made smart and done in high contrast to attract the black contact sheets that glistened with energy. Another thing I noticed is when tilting a camera that works with an image you need to draw out the image in your heard before you approach it and begin to buy many rolls it will take to get it done."

my comment on this is: well check out the early Heidersberger or Renger-Patsch, or see my Houston Refinery at the Museum of Fine Arts, Collection of Photography in Houston.