Magnetic Pull

Exhibition Statement Magnetic Pull is a selection of works by members of the Bay Area Photographers Collective (BAPC), a community of photographers who nurture each other’s professional and artistic growth. As curators, we are interested in the support structures artists create to sustain their practices over time — especially in a region that attracts so many artists to live, study, and work.

Collectives are a strategy that particularly intrigue us: The promise of a self-selected community seems almost utopian. Going into this process, we were curious how that kinship might show up in the individual images and bodies of work made by each member.

We intuited that some kind of attractive force might be at play, drawing the artists not only to the individual subjects that compel them toward image-making, but to one another as colleagues and co-conspirators.

While we did not set out to curate a show about “these times” (in fact, much of this work was photographed before shelter-inplace orders due to COVID-19 went into effect), we are struck by the haunted sense of isolation and desolation that reflects the surreal circumstances of the past year. From the empty waiting area of Nick Winkworth’s Snack Time to the unpopulated agricultural spaces of Steve Goldband & Ellen Konar’s images of the Central Valley, from Tom Lavin’s abandoned structures to Nathalie Strand’s ghost-like images of interiors seemingly from another era — many of the spaces that make up this exhibition are marked by an uncanny lack of inhabitants. A deeper kind of loss permeates Angelika Schilli’s intimate untitled photographs of her Oma’s apartment and Mitch Nelles’ images of crumbling mausoleums.

Many of the landscapes have an otherworldly aura, toying with the camera’s ability to represent the physical world, some with a humorous edge. Richard Dweck’s rocky vistas and Rose Borden’s fog-filtered images evoke a sense of wonder and mystery. Maria Budner’s lone palm tree spied between barbed wire–topped fences invites interpretation, while Linda Fitch’s tree study from Hokkaido, Japan, offers a poetic visualization of seeing the forest for the trees. Ralf Hillebrand’s Bakersfield, California, juxtaposes gleaming metal pipelines among the arid fields. Steve Raskin’s series Error Messages memorializes the absurd and makes one wonder if perhaps what we are seeing are the remnants of some kind of alien abduction. Tamara Danoyan’s Inner Circles, not quite interior or exterior, evoke planetary portals. Form and Formless, by Cindy Stokes, hover somewhere between image and object, eliciting an intense, unconfined energy as if the flattened images of crashing waves have compelled themselves back into dimension.

When there are figures present in these photographs, they often function more as forms than as portraits — a tension exploited in Gene Dominique’s mysterious images of shadows in the museum and Ari Salomon’s humorous grouping of faces found in objects. Dan Fenstermacher frames the people in his works so that they are all nearly faceless, their cropped torsos and legs filling the frame with the color and pattern of their clothing. Rusty Weston’s images of video gamers playing together in public draw attention to the players’ intense focus and hunched submission. Only Anthony Delgado’s scenes of street life are fully animated by moments of preparation and waiting before a public celebration.

When pulled together, these images engage us in contemplating the tangled world around us, our need to explore it and understand it. The attractive forces at play — whether in the images themselves or the collective engagement of the artists who made them — are as complicated as the varied subjects on view: haunted and humorous, isolated and otherworldly, desolated and surreal.

Daniel Nevers & Jennifer Brandon, Curators Catalog design: Michael Yochum Arc Gallery © 2021

Participating Artists Rose Borden

Ellen Konar & Steve Goldband

Maria Budner

Tom Lavin

Anthony Delgado

Mitch Nelles

Gene Dominique Tamara Danoyan Richard Dweck Dan Fenstermacher

Steven Raskin Ari Salomon Angelika Schilli Cindy Stokes Nathalie Strand

Linda Fitch

Rusty Weston

Ralf Hillebrand

Nick Winkworth

ONLINE OPENING RECEPTION: Saturday, January 16th, 7-8pm ONLINE ZOOM ARTIST TALKS: Thursday, January 28th, 7-8pm Tuesday, February 9th, 7-8pm Saturday, February 20th, 11am-12pm

Rose Borden Elements of precipitation (i.e., fog, condensation, mist, steam, etc.) intrigue me because they instantly can make the world (even the very familiar world) appear very different and unexpected. Everything becomes softer, unsharp and therefore special, especially since these occurrences are rare and random. No two foggy days are the same - I see it as nature's way of saying, "better enjoy it while it lasts" - these moments are fleeting jewels. Suddenly the same view from my window that I’ve seen a million times over becomes this doorway into a wondrous and surreal, dreamlike alternate world that I can’t wait to enter. Shooting in black & white enhances these feelings by slowing everything down and adding a sense of timelessness.

website: www.rosebordenimagery.com email: rose@rosebordenimagery.com

Through the Fog #2 Dye-sublimation Metal Print 24" x 16" $ 600

Rose Borden

Through the Fog #5 Dye-sublimation Metal Print 24" x 16" $ 600

Maria Budner

I am drawn to photography as a means of telling a story or illustrating a concept. My photo Hope is a representation of the desire to be pulled toward what is good and beautiful in the world. In this B&W photo the viewer encounters an opening to move from a menacingly enclosed space of litter and detritus towards a more hopeful place, from darkness to a brighter possibility.

website: www.mariabudner.com email: mariabudner@gmail.com

Hope Archival Pigment Print 24" x 30" $ 500

Tamara Danoyan INNER CIRCLE When it is experienced from the inside, devoid of all exterior features, being cannot be otherwise than round. — Gaston Bachelard The desire to capture these images came from observing how the light makes heavy and solid industrial objects appear ethereal and otherworldly.

Large pipes become architectural spaces. Light enters through the openings like it would through the windows. Reflected off surfaces and diffused by plastic it becomes more visible. A physical environment starts to feel celestial and evokes an elevated state of consciousness. Translucent plastic occupies space between emergence and disappearance and creates awareness of impermanence and preciousness of a present moment. Circles and curves are reminiscent of ensō – a Japanese Zen circle. The light illuminates darker passages of a soul and the circles symbolize a desire of a soul to be whole and feel connected to the Universe.

website: www.tamaradanoyan.com email: gonetangoing@yahoo.com

Inner Circle #8 Archival Pigment Print on Dibond 13" x 20" $ 800

Inner Circle #10 Archival Pigment Print on Dibond 17" x 11" $ 700 Tamara Danoyan

Inner Circle #18 Archival Pigment Print on Dibond 10" x 15" $ 700

Anthony Delgado

Over the years I have photographed Holy Week and other religious processions with an eye both to the spectacle and emotion of the main event and also the action that occurs at the edges. Each offer rich photographic opportunity, but in the activity at the edges I can sometimes find moments of humor and beauty.

The Band Awaits, Scicli, Sicily 2009: With the town dog at its feet, the band waits for the procession to begin.

Intersection, Seville, Spain 2011: Two waiters exchange places crossing the alley from one dining room to the other.

Cinching the Corset, Trapani, Sicily 2015: Core support is needed to carry a heavy float in the procession, and so the corset.

website: www.anthonydelgado.com email: anthony@anthonydelgado.com

Clinching the Corset Archival Pigment Print 30" x 24" $ 600

Intersection Archival Pigment Print 30" x 24" $ 600 Anthony Delgado

The Band Awaits Archival Pigment Print 30" x 24" $ 600

Gene Dominique

Shadows in the Museum I, II and III are part of a series I created as an homage to the now-closed Dapper Museum in Paris, and part of its collection: the figurative art carvings of the Dogon people from Burkina Faso and Mali in West Africa. The Dapper was a special place in Paris for us.

When we learned about the impending shuttering of the museum, we visited one last time in the summer of 2017.

Creating memories of the Dapper and its exhibitions by directly photographing the artwork felt uninspired and inappropriate, so I decided to capture the essence of the work by photographing shadows they cast upon the walls and floors of the space.

Using shadows as the main subject, I incorporated a variety of techniques to create unique images that interpret the essence of MusĂŠe Dapper and the Dogon collection.

website: www.genedominiquephotography.com email: genedominiquephotography@gmail.com

Shadows in the Museum I Archival Pigment Print 16" x 20" $ 800

Gene Dominique

Shadows in the Museum II Archival Pigment Print 16" x 20" $ 800

Shadows in the Museum III Archival Pigment Print 16" x 20" $ 800

Richard Dweck

I’m training myself not to see the world. I know that’s a strange thing for a photographer to say but sight, when not fully connected to feeling, gives an undue weight to the mind over the heart. My goal is to strike a balance.

By continually unshackling my brain from mindimposed constraints, I’m able to follow my instincts and feelings more freely—and to let my heart take its proper place in my work.

website: www.rdweck.com email: richard@rdweck.com

Interplanetary Archival Pigment Print 28" x 20" $ 475

Exultation Archival Pigment Print 28" x 20" $ 475

Richard Dweck

Introvert Archival Pigment Print 28" x 20" $ 475

Dan Fenstermacher Wherever we travel in this lifetime, inevitably, humans are the same. Where faces do not receive focus, hand gestures embrace quirky moments of happenstance.

Humor is a common theme throughout; a trait that reminds us not to take life too seriously. Adding charisma, the use of flash exaggerates life’s vibrancy.

Unconventional framing creates an element of mystery, leaving a sense of wonderment about the intriguing stories of the people we meet on our journey.

Dan Fenstermacher merges environmental portraiture, documentary storytelling, and street photography with both humor and activism. He received a BS degree in Advertising from the University of Idaho. He holds a MFA degree in Photography from San Jose State University, is a member of the Bay Area Photographers Collective, and teaches photography at West Valley Community College in Saratoga, CA.

website: www.danfenstermacher.net email: dfenstermacher5@gmail.com

On the Other Hand Archival Pigment Print 30" x 24" $ 1000

Larger Than Life Archival Pigment Print 30" x 24" $ 1000 Dan Fenstermacher

Recruit Them Young Archival Pigment Print 30" x 24" $ 1000

Linda Fitch

Our job is to record each in his own way, this world of light and shadow and time that will never come again exactly as it is today.

— Edward Abbey 1927-1989 Linda Fitch is a Bay Area native with a Bachelor’s Degree in Theater Arts from the University Of California, Los Angeles, where she was first introduced to the art of photography.

Photography is a powerful art form allowing her to express her view of the world. She is challenged by the process and rewarded when the image succeeds in conveying the mood and feeling of that moment. While her earlier work was taken in and around California, she now travels aboard to locations that transcend geography and where time stands still. As a photographer she strives to make an emotional connection with my viewer. It is a quiet time that allows her to slow down and study the light, composition and mood of the surroundings.

Being a traditional black and white photographer, she finds inspiration and satisfaction creating images in her own wet darkroom. It is a slow and deliberate process that fulfills her need for the “hands-on” experience. As a photographer she strives to make an emotional connection with her viewer. Each archival gelatin silver print is selenium toned, signed and dated and numbered with the title in pencil.

website: www.lindafitch.com email: lindafitch000@gmail.com

Trees, study 1, Hokkaido, Japan Silver Gelatin Print 16" x 20" $ 450

Ralf Hillebrand

Since moving to the United States from Germany in 2010, and transitioning from commercial photography, I enjoy to photograph in the wide-open landscapes of the deserts or farmland here in US. I am always fascinated by the mystery of everyday objects. In the countryside, you can experience the tension between nature and man-made objects. I believe this is an environment where you can feel the natural soil under your feet while seeing the signs of human presence.

That is what I like to call American landscapes, industrial creatures in a natural environment, where they don’t belong by nature but claim their place in a foreign territory.

website: www.ralfhillebrand.com email: rhillebrand@gmx.com

Bakersfield, California Archival Pigment Print 31" x 25" NFS

Ellen Konar & Steve Goldband INNER CIRCLE Along the central coast of California, hugging the Pacific ocean, are the acres of farmlands and orchards that produce fully one third of the fruits, vegetables and nuts consumed each year across America. The fertile ground and the lush arrays of vegetable seedlings engage the passing attention of travelers who drive between northern and southern California. Hiding in plain sight are mounting signs of trouble: dwindling and tainted water supplies, the occasional farm worker amidst the automated factory-like machines, and unpredictable weather that threaten production year after year. The future of the area and our fresh food supply may well lie between the rows, amongst the hoop houses, powerlines, scarecrows and minimally maintained equipment framing the future of America. A few images, printed on japanese paper and encased in wax, reflect a region and an industry in flux.

website: portfolio.goldband.com email: ellen.konar@gmail.com

Central Pacific Archival Pigment Print 30" x 24" $ 600

Load It Up Archival Pigment Print 30" x 24" $ 600 Ellen Konar & Steve Goldband

Zip Archival Pigment Print 40" x 30" $ 950

Thomas Lavin

In my multi-decade involvement in photograph, I have photographed every thing, every place, and every person that was important to me or played a significant role in my life. The end product is a visual journal of what was, and is, meaningful to me, a small portion of which is included in this exhibit.

My inquisitiveness has gained me access to places I never otherwise would have considered. Many of those places were abandoned structures and campuses of buildings. As an architect, I had a special interest in the reuse of obsolete buildings and the preservation of historical details and methods of construction. I found the role photography played in my explorations was immeasurable. I could document a singular moment in time for structures with a dubious future, as well as visually explore the process of decay as an artistic medium.

website: www.thomaslavin.photography email: tlavin1@comcast.net

Skaggs Island Doorway Archival Pigment Print 20" x 24" #4 of 5 $ 500

Thomas Lavin

Southern Pacific Station Archival Pigment Print 24" x 20" #5 of 10 $ 600

Mitch Nelles

Mitch Nelles is a photographic artist who captures images of objects and scenes encountered in everyday life. Nelles was an early convert to digital photographic methods since it allowed him to best capture the character and unique qualities of the everyday. Areas of urban transition, low technology workspaces, nautical themed objects, inner cities and open-air markets particularly fascinate Nelles. Decaying piers, ships in dry dock, urban basketball courts, barbed wire fences, old tools and street scenes in older areas of the city are all subjects that speak to him by virtue of their geometric shape, texture, detail and gesture, It is through his photography that Nelles hopes to share the wonderment that can be found all around us if we are willing to stop and look.

website: www.mitchnellesphotography.com email: smejm@comcast.net

Metairie Cemetery #3 Archival Pigment Print 18" x 24" $ 300

Mitch Nelles

Metairie Cemetery #8 Archival Pigment Print 24" x 18" $ 300

Steven Raskin ERROR MESSAGES On a daily basis we come across benign circumstances that, should we notice, make us blink our eyes and look again. On the surface they appear quite ordinary… and yet perplexing. Friendly and encouraging, but resolved to hold their secrets.

As a photographer, I try to notice these “in between” moments – they are all around us. I could photograph them such that they pose questions that they then answer, but I prefer to let the questions alone tickle the imagination. Ideally these are images that compel the viewer to come back again, hoping in vain to see something that will rationalize the experience.

What do we do when we encounter unanticipated ambiguity? How do we process the “huh?” moments that accompany their discovery? We look around hoping that someone or something will magically appear to solve the puzzle, but most of the time we are simply left with our bewilderment.

Like much of the informational overload that clutters our perceptual operating systems, these transient signals often arrive as Error Messages.

website: www.stevenraskinphotography.com email: steven@stevenraskinphotography.com

It's Too Cold Archival Pigment Print 30" x 24" $ 500

The Big W Archival Pigment Print 30" x 24" $ 500 Steven Raskin

Goodyear Archival Pigment Print 30" x 24" $ 500

Ari Salomon INTERFACE This series investigates the humanness that can be found in mechanical objects. Using fresh eyes, I can find fresh eyes winking back at me from surprising places. This series also investigates the mechanical nature of human perception.

Pareidolia is the scientific term for the brain’s process of finding significance in vague or random stimulus—finding animals in clouds is a common example. Carl Sagan hypothesized that human beings are “hard-wired” via early evolution to identify the human face as a survival technique.

I am interested in how photography can make the invisible visible—in this case the part of our brain that unconsciously strains to find a face and, by the same token, the matching part of the industrial designers’ brain that pushed them to unconsciously design an object with a face in it. I find in these objects a reflection of the people that anonymously build the cities around us; that anonymously roam the cities around us.

Over time, repeating this process of instant recognition of a face strengthens a kind of perceptive muscle that allows viewers to see these images everywhere, to tune into the process in their brains that was always there. I’ve enjoyed hearing from many viewers how they see faces everywhere after seeing these images and how fun the journey of finding them can be.

website: www.arisalomon.com email: ari@arisalomon.com

Interface #0074 (Sanchez) Archival Pigment Print on metal 12" x 8" $ 200

Interface #4772 (Shimokitazawa) Archival Pigment Print on metal 12" x 8" $ 200 Ari Salomon

Interface #7232 (Kanazawa) Archival Pigment Print on metal 12" x 8" $ 200

Interface #4136 (Tachikawa) Archival Pigment Print on metal 12" x 8" $ 200

Angelika Schilli

The space we live in and call home is so much more than an accumulation of functional rooms and objects. It is an intimate portrait of ourselves. How we fill our space has meaning.

Stories are lived and told.

I have always felt an emotional and nostalgic pull not only to the places I used to occupy like my childhood home or my first apartment in San Francisco but also to the homes of important people in my life. The loss of these places due to life changes has often been difficult for me. I try to cope with my camera and have been photographing these defining spaces for decades. I like to explore the emotional connections that the place and the objects in it evoke in me. How does a place shape us? What imprints do we leave behind?

website: www.bapc.photo/members-gallery/angelika-schilli email: angelika@silentphotos.com

Untitled (Apartment Floor) Archival Pigment Print 18" x 14" $ 400

Untitled (Apartment Towels) Archival Pigment Print 14" x 18" $ 400

Untitled (Water Bottle) Archival Pigment Print 14" x 18" $ 400

Angelika Schilli

Untitled (Oma Bathroom) Archival Pigment Print 14" x 18" $ 400

Untitled (Apartment Carpet) Archival Pigment Print 14" x 18" $ 400

Cindy Stokes For all time, water has simply been. It endlessly transforms its appearance, all the while sustaining our lives on earth.

In details isolated from the immense waterfalls of Iceland, I seek in these works to embody the intense energy and fluidity that I experienced, its abstract form and formlessness. I fold, crumple and shape the photographs into sculptural objects to better express the power, cacophony and mutability that I felt at the scene, which don’t seem containable in just two dimensions.

Like all of nature, water is fundamental, timeless, known and yet unknown. If I pay attention long enough, I think perhaps someday I’ll understand it.

website: www.cindystokes.com email: stokes@cindystokes.com

Form and Formless lX Archival Pigment Print on Kozo 34" x 44" $ 1800

Form and Formless V Archival Pigment Print on Kozo 30" x 20" $ 800 Cindy Stokes

Form and Formless lII Archival Pigment Print on Kozo 17" x 22" $ 500

Nathalie Strand

Haunted is the first part of my Photo Essay on Bodie, California. Looking through the windows of the few still-standing homes, I wondered about their prior inhabitants. It felt as if their disembodied spirits were hiding in the wallpapers, the old furniture and the various objects left behind in a hurry. The inversion technique and the prints on aluminum give great emphasize to the eeriness of the place. This portfolio speaks of my own connection to the past, the dead, the abandoned, and the desolate.

I wanted to create atmospheric and emotional images translating how Bodie made me feel.

website: www.nathaliestrandphotography.com email: nathstrand@gmail.com

Haunted 8 Dye-sublimation Metal Print 45" x 30" # 1 of 1 $ 2000

Nathalie Strand

Haunted 14 Dye-sublimation Metal Print 24" x 16" $ 500

Rusty Weston

Gamers may know when it’s late, but it’s hard to tell by their demeanor. Hours fly by and they’re leaning in with a laser-like focus. Competing in public is not a virtual interaction.

These images focus on gamers — and gamer culture. The players are participating in Smash tournaments — essentially a retro-looking, arcade-style game held in venues ranging from college meeting rooms to sports bars, convention centers, or even Esports arenas built in converted warehouses.

There are no secret strategies in Smash — everyone can see what you’re doing — typically on a shared monitor or over a streaming service like Twitch. Smash’s open culture is both its greatest strength and its most limiting characteristic. In an era of high-tech massive multiplayer slickness, Smash is a low res throwback to a somewhat simpler time.

In this project, I explore and document the nature of face-toface social gaming and see where gamers find joy in this experience. Until the pandemic struck, I’d spent at least one evening a week for eight months hanging out with gamers in various venues, getting to know many players and asking them about what motivates them to play and compete in public rather than online. For me, a non-gaming parent, this project marks a personal quest to connect me with a vibrant culture that people near and dear to me find highly immersive.

website: www.rustyweston.com email: info@rustyweston.com

Gamer Focus Archival Pigment Print 18" x 12" $450

Goofballs Archival Pigment Print 18" x 12" $450

Rusty Weston

Lean In Archival Pigment Print 18" x 12" $450

Nick Winkworth

The image, Snack Time, comes from my series Nowhere Here which celebrates those quirky places which feel a little out-of-step with the rest of the world. Some find these images a little spooky, others see them as humorous or simply odd. To me, they all seem to contain a question or a mystery I can't quite put my finger on. Each image is a simple observation — a place seen in passing. Nothing is arranged. This one was made on a recent visit to Japan.

website: www.absoluteblank.com email: nick@absoluteblank.com

Snack Time Archival Pigment Print 40" x 30" $ 600

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