LOCAL PHOTOGRAPHER DISPLAYS WORKS AT HAVERFORD

One of the photographs in the De Noche/By Night series by Laurence Salzmann.

Philadelphia-area photographer Laurence Salzmann will display 45-50 of his works in an exhibit titled "De Noche/By Night" at the Cantor Fitzgerald Gallery, October 28 through November 20. An opening reception will be held Friday, October 28, from 5 to 7 p.m. in the Gallery.

The photographs in "De Noche/By Night" consist of two distinct bodies of work that are 20 years apart in time. Part one of the exhibit includes photographs from Salzmann’s Vent series. Made in the mid-1980s, these images feature nude models enshrouded in mist atop Philadelphia vents. As a veil that both obscures and illuminates the body, the mist in the Vent series highlights the multiple readings of the human form, as an idealized subject of divine design as well as an erotic object of earthly desire.

The second component of "De Noche/By Night" consists of photographs Salzmann took during Semana Santa (Holy Week) of 2005, during which he accompanied thousands of pilgrims on their annual journey to a high Andean Plateau in Argentina’s JuyJuy province. This series is also composed of two parts, one representing the ecstasy of the spiritual journey of the pilgrims, the other documenting the more secular activities of the night such as hanging out in a pool hall, embracing one’s lover in the shadows, or chatting with a friend on a street corner before making one’s way home.

Both series constitute a departure from Salzmann’s traditionally documentarian body of work, which includes The Last Jews of Radauti, a record of a small Jewish community in a town in northern Romania, and La Lucha/The Struggle, a look at the parallels between sports and national identity in Cuba. According to Salzmann, the rationale for pairing the Vent series with the De Noche/By Night series is that “both juxtapose sacred and profane elements of the human form and activities.”

Laurence Salzmann is a Pew Fellow in Photography. He received his MA in Visual Anthropology from Temple University. His works have been shown at International Center of Photography in New York, the Beth Hatefutsoth Museum in Tel Aviv, and many other international galleries and museums. To find out more about Salzmann’s work, visit his Web site at www.laurencesalzmann.com

Located in Whitehead Campus Center, the Cantor Fitzgerald Gallery is open 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and 12 to 5 p.m. weekends. Laurence Salzmann will give a Gallery Talk Wednesday, November 9, at 4:15 p.m. For more information, contact the Gallery at (610) 896-1287 or online at www.cantorfitzgeraldgallery.org.

—Brenna McBride, staff writer