Skip to main content

Ron Rosenstock: New Photographs “Like a Color-Blind Bumblebee” September 10 – October 26 at HCA Gallery

By contributor,
hcasm_4.png

The HCA Gallery proudly opens its third season with an exhibition of new work by Ron Rosenstock, whose photography of environments throughout the world has been exhibited widely in the United States and Europe for almost 50 years. The legendary photographer Minor White taught Rosenstock and selected his work for exhibition at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1968. In 2014 Rosenstock’s landscapes of Iceland were given a show at Iceland’s National Museum.

The HCA show presents work of the past two years shot, in his characteristic black-and-white, in Scotland, Ireland, Iceland, Morocco, Italy, and the U.S. The work, typically vast in perspective and filled with detail, shows complex, sometimes dizzying, arrangements of natural and manmade forms. Commenting on Rosenstock’s 2011 solo show at the Worcester Art Museum, Jared Bowen, on WGBH’s Greater Boston, called the work “a meditation on place,” and said, “His sense of composition is so extraordinary that you feel you can lose yourself.”

Rosenstock himself uses related language, saying that he seeks “to evoke in the viewer a profound depth of meaning.” But he also speaks of his working method in down-to-earth terms. “Just aware of being aware and then let it come to you,” he said. “The way bumblebees see flowers. They can zoom right in on an important part. So I’m photographing the way a color-blind bumblebee would see the world.”

HCA Gallery director Kris Waldman saw the Worcester show with her father, who had taught her photography. "Familiar forms seemed mysterious and fresh. My Dad and I were surprised and transported. It’s wonderful to have a chance to share this superb work at HCA.”

Ron Rosenstock: New Photographs runs from September 10 through October 26. A free reception for the artist and the public will be held at the gallery on Friday, October 6 from 6 to 7:30 pm.