Arts & Entertainment
"I See What You Meme", opens Sunday Nov. 4
Pinhole photography exhibit by Thomas Mezzanotte at City Lights Gallery
At City Lights Gallery, 265 Golden Hill St. downtown Bridgeport, CTY 06604 www.citylightsgallery.org 203.334.7748
Gallery hours: W-F 11:3-5, Sat 12-4, Sat 12-4 pm.
View the mind-bending and light bending pinhole photography by Thomas Mezzanotte in, “I See What You Meme,” opening Sunday Nov. 4, 2018 with an artist’s reception/talk and running to January 5, 2019. Works focus on the role of the camera and lens-based imaging in the evolution of visual cognition. Viewers are prompted to consider the history of photography, the camera obscura, and the process of sight.
DON’T KNOW WHAT A CAMERA OBSCURA IS? Tom will explain on Sunday Nov. 4, 2018
In this digital age, photographic imagery is ubiquitous. This stunning exhibit focuses on the basics of vision and how it has been influenced by the invention of the camera and mathematical perspective. Thomas’s mind-bending photography represents his extensive exploration into the evolution of visual cognition.
These works are made exclusively with pinhole cameras and film. The rudimentary tools that Tom makes himself, harkening back to the origins of photography. By manipulating the shape and orientation of the negative in the camera he creates fantastical distortions of the human form. He is intrigued by the curvature of the retina in the human eye and what this suggest about how we see the world. The exhibit poses this question, “Why do we imagine the world as if it is projected onto a flat plain, when in fact the image of the world we see is projected onto a curved surface at the rear of the eye?” Bridgeport Art Trail visitors will have the rare opportunity to view the exhibit at City Lights Gallery and then tour Thomas’s working studio at the American Fabric’s building (#1). Thomas will host an open house on Saturday and Sunday, Nov. 10 &11 where the public can further discuss Thomas’s perspective and process and view more of his art and his impressive collection of antique cameras. Attendees can enjoy the gallery exhibit coupled with a studio tour experience, only scheduled during the Bridgeport Art Trail weekend.
