Preparing for an Exhibit

Today’s Post by Mildred Alpern

It is challenging fun to take photographs and equally exciting to assemble them for an exhibit. My local library, St. Agnes, a branch of the New York Public Library, booked me last November for a show of my photographs for the month of July, the first available spot. The library has an arched entrance and tall windows that flood the first floor with light. I had eight months to complete my project and prepare for the installation.

Enamored of the work of the Danish landscape designer, Piet Oudolf, who fancies the beauty of winter gardens for their intricate forms and textures, I photographed hanger-on flowers with their dusky colors and varied seedheads in the nearby Riverside Park Community garden. The wintry winds whipped floating silk tails and cottony fluff, and leathery seeds lay on the ground for birds to eat and distribute.

Selection and arrangement were hurdles to overcome:

• 1) Seek diversity in image and size
• 2) Arrange the prints on the floor in an ascending pattern simulating the library staircase wall between the first and second floors where the pictures would be hung
• 3) Hope for the best when it was time to hang the images which were all printed on light aluminum. Happily, it all worked out and the show is now up for the rest of July. Whew!

Two images were made with the Olympus E-M5 Mark II. The two viewers were made using the Olympus M. Zuiko 12mm f/2 lens with an exposure of 1/8 sec at f/4, -1 1/3 EV and ISO 640; the entrance was shot with the Olympus M. Zuiko 12mm f/2 lens with an exposure of 0.3 sec at f/18. +2/3 EV and ISO 640; Silky Tails was taken with the Olympus E-M5 and the Olympus M. Zuiko 60mm f/2.8 lens with an exposure of 1/250 at f/6.3 and ISO 400.

Mildred’s book Haiku and Images is available on Amazon and is filled with beautifully reproduced color photographs along with original haiku underneath, embellishing the image and deepening its meaning. Pick up a copy to give as gift for yourself or a friend.