Hot Shots

Three photography shows feature very different styles.

A A A Comments (0) By Michael Paglia Thursday, Apr 13 2000

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All of these photos were posthumously printed under the direction of Partridge, Cunningham's son, a noteworthy photographer in his own right. In the 1930s, he worked as an apprentice for Dorothea Lange and later for Ansel Adams. He then embarked on a fifty-year-long career as a commercial photographer; his work has appeared in Time, Life and Fortune magazines. Retiring in the 1980s, Partridge dedicated himself to creating fine-art photos.

The earliest Partridge photos at Camera Obscura date back to the 1930s, but most are ones he's created since retiring. Stylistically, his work is akin to Cunningham's and, like his mom, he likes to capture the abstract quality of a single object, in particular, flowers. "My Magnolia," from 1999, could easily be mistaken for a Cunningham -- except for its recent date.

"I Choose Door #1," by Jerry De La Cruz, altered photographic collage.

"Flying Lying Lady," by Mark Brasuell and Dania Pettus, mixed media.

Details

Everything Personal
Through April 16
Edge Gallery, 3658 Navajo Street
303-477-7173

Years Together & Years Apart
Through April 23
Camera Obscura Gallery, 1309 Bannock Street
303-623-4059

Color Constructs
Through April 15
Colorado Photographic Arts Center, 1513 Boulder Street
303-455-8999

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A special feature of Years Together & Years Apart is that everything is a platinum palladium print. Partridge enlisted accomplished platinum printers Richard Lohmann and Pradip Malde to make the prints. Ironically, one of Cunningham's claims to fame was her development of a lead salt substitute for platinum printing, a task no doubt assisted by her background in chemistry. According to gallery director Hal Gould, the platinum method is the best way to print black-and-white images. "The gradations in tonality are impossible to achieve in any other way," he says. "You certainly can't get the same effect using gel-covered photographic paper, like so many of them do today."

Camera Obscura is the first American gallery to present this exhibit, but it premiered last year in Germany. It continues Gould's decades-long tradition of presenting the world's greatest photographers in intimate and intelligent little shows.