Friday, February 3, 2012

Burk Uzzle is Having a Show at the Lawrence Miller Gallery in NYC




Distinguished Wilson, NC-based photographer Burk Uzzle is having a show of his recent work at the Lawrence Miller Gallery, at 20 West Street, in Manhattan.

This show is of work from Uzzle's Burned portfolio, and you can see work from the show here.

I have seen pieces from this portfolio when it was on view during Burk's major show at Raleigh's Flanders Gallery last fall.

This is strong and compelling work. There is something about the fragility of the objects, and the randomness of what the fire did to them, and yet the compelling nature of the messages they present to us -- note the text that survives from the Bible that is now fading away -- that makes this work strongly evocative.

Like the photojournalist he used to be, Burk knows that sometimes the wonders of life often appear unexpectedly.

In this case, Burk discovered by chance the ruins of an old country store that had burned years before. In the ruins, he found a host of things -- charred books, rag dolls, and other objects -- that, he says, practically crumbled to his touch. 

Burk took them back to his studio and used studio lighting and a large-format view camera to make the images in this show, images that the Gallery rightly calls "brooding, yet affirmative; filled with mystery and glowing light; and intimate though presented in monumental scale." 

Congratulations to Burk for this fine body of work and for this show. 

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