"Retrospective", currently on exhibit at Hallmark Museum of Contemporary Photography, features forty-six compelling images culled from Jay Maisel's prolific fifty-plus year photographic career.
Smooth, sweet jazz, trays of carefully prepared hors d'oeuvres and a streetscape touched by spring rain, welcomed Maisel to the museum on April 7, for the VIP Invitational Opening of his ten week exhibition. Show-opening weekend found several hundred people from across New England and, as far away as Maryland, viewing photographs highlighting Jay's lifetime work; photographs that are inspired by light, gesture and color.
The images carry the viewer easily through the show, in a blazing rendering of color and form. Maisel has edited the world through his camera viewfinder, picking patterns of beauty out of ordinary landscapes and moments of human activity. Split seconds are captured in "Girl With Bicycle Halo," "Maine Aerial, God Rays and House," and "Moon Between World Trade Center Towers." The watery flow of reeds is caught in brick building reflections in "Reeds and Reflections, Vicenza," and the shadow lives of watercraft shimmer in golden, red & blue reflections in "Gondolas in Venice." Playful joyous abstractions of reality hang comfortably alongside photographs of quiet contemplative moments.
Many of Maisel's images convey a story, as the artist weaves professional and personal lives into an imaginative and fine art that is highly communicative. Maisel shared his keen sense of the world at play and in pain, or, even just being itself, with a full house during a Saturday night Artist's Talk at the Hallmark Institute of Photography lecture hall. Maisel challenged the assembly to look at what is around them, considering its negative as well as positive spaces. He offered what may seem an eccentricity, but one that has proven itself; his camera is always with him ... always! Even on a visit to a restaurant restroom.
In his introductory Artist's Statement, at the museum, Maisel writes: "I have no particular subjects that entrance me to the exclusion of all others. I try to go out as empty as possible without preconception, in order to be open to whatever happens. Therefore, subject matter and formal intent run a wild gamut."
The professionalism of the imagery melds seamlessly with its accessibility. Known for his work in advertising, editorial and corporate communications, Maisel's images are also found in private, corporate and museum collections.
Maisel, a graduate of Cooper Union and Yale University, has been awarded the ASMP (American Society of Media Photographers) Lifetime Achievement Award, ASMP Photographer of the Year Award, ICP's (Institute of Creative Photography) Infinity Award and is a member of the Art Directors Club Hall of Fame.
A teacher and lecturer, Maisel has published Jay Maisel's New York, Light on America and A Tribute, a book Maisel created in honor of the World Trade Center.
Jay Maisel "Retrospective" is on exhibit through June 18, 2006. Located on 85 Avenue A in Turners Falls, Massachusetts, the Hallmark Museum of Contemporary Photography is open Thursday through Sunday, 1-5 p.m.; closed Thanksgiving Thursday and Friday, Christmas and New Year weekends. Admission is free. Information: (413) 863-0009 or www.hmcp.org.
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