DTII Omnibus Page 9
Thursday March 19, 1992
Minton creates striking images from ordinary
ASS
David Minton
Portfolio Images II: an exhibition
of black & white silver prints
Through March 26
Hours of the planetarium
Morehead Planetarium North Gallery
Free Admission
For information, call 962-1 236
m wm hen photographer David
if Minton decided to turn
f I I his fawire hobby into
his profession, his work
focused on some of the
most significant subjects on the East
Coast: the Duke Chapel, the
Smithsonian Mall in Washington,
D.C., city life in New York, and the
South campus water tower.
Wait a minute the water tower?
But it's true. In his second show,
Portfolio Images II, Minton has man
aged to make effective images out of
even the most mundane subjects, such
as a warehouse, a metal fence, tree
roots, steps, even an apple core. He
feels that it's nor so much the subject
that determines a good photograph.
Rather, he looks for prime lighting,
shapes and shadows.
All of the portfolio is presented in
black and white silver prints, which
Minton considers to be a greater chal
lenge than working in color.
"The photographer has only sub
ject and composition, light and
shadow," he said. "There is no glitzy
palette of contrasting colors to save
the image. Light and shadow are the
building blocks of the black and white
medium."
Although he has done some work
in Washington, D.C., and New York
City when the time and money were
available, he began in Chapel Hill.
HegraduatedfromUNC-CHin 1989
with a degree in political science. He
worked for the school yearbook, the
Yackecy Yack and The Daily Tar Heel,
where he was photography editor his
senior year.
Portfolio Images II, a follow-up to
last year's Portfolio Images, is an as
sortment of black and white prints
from Minton's favorites over the past
body
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seven years. The pictures, however.
were not shot with the intention of
being shown as a composite, and that's
why Minton calls his show a portfo
lio. The exhibit does not have a cen
tral theme, but photographs are orga
nized in group subjects, such as "Boats
on University Lake," or "On the
Smithsonian Mall."
Many of the pictures in the show
were taken in Chapel Hill, where
Minton has been able to uncover the
culture and natural beautyof the town.
"Franklin Street Nightlife" (1987)
shows a group of barefoot students
gathered around an acoustic guitar
player outside a local shop. Another,
"East Franklin Street - Looking East"
( 1 990), was taken just before Hector's
burned down, for it shows the street
comer restaurant and a graffiti board
beside it. Both pictures simply and
effectively portray the spirit of a col
lege town.
"Five Boats" (1991) is a picture
taken on University Lake of, as the
title implies, five battered row boats.
"Fisherman in Mist" (1989), also
taken at the lake, shows a lone fisher
man casting a line into misty waters.
Minton's trips to New York and
Washington have shown him that
urban backdrops provide a large vari
ety of new subjects which are far re
moved from a small town like Chapel
Hill. The portfolio pictures from this
setting are surreal images of harsh
shadows and commuters blurred in
motion, such as in "Couple on Mall"
(1992 ), in which a blurry couple walks
down the empty Smithsonian Mall, a
barren foreground, and the Washing
ton Monument rises through a foggy
background.
Even though Minton enjoys tak
ing pictures in an urban setting, he
finds it easier to produce and present
his work in Chapel Hill. "I like to
travel to make images," he said, "but
come back home to work with them."
Minton prefers findingout-of-the-ordinary
ways to present his subjects.
His use of wide-angle lenses modifies
perspective and depth-of-field. Re-
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cently, he has been working with
different time exposures in an at
tempt to record the movements of
people and the environment.
"This technique hopefully will al
low me to record the fourth dimen
sion time in the two-dimensional
medium of photography,"
Minton said.
Although he often seeks conven
tional subjects, Minton also concen
trates on simple geometric shapes and
their related shadows. An example of
this is found in one of M in ton's favor
ite pieces, "Batting Helmets,
Boshamer Stadium" ( 1 986). The pic
ture is a view from above nine hel
mets sitting atop the dugout and the
elongated shadow of a player, which
offers sharp contrast to the picture's
bright lighting.
"It's from a time I let neither skill
or technique interfere with my ef
forts," he said of the photo, "yet still
produced a piece I find little fault in."
Minton emphasizes technique and
shadow. He will not shoot any sub-
just tell 'cm you read it in
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lit
David Minton's 'Batting Helmets, Boshamer Stadium' (1986)
ject until lighting and background
are optimal. His picture, "Steps,"
taken in Southampton, N.Y., in 1988,
does not even show actual steps. In
stead, it is a picture of their shadow on
a brick wall. This pinpoints the stark
geometry of the step's structure, and
presents an ordinary subject in an
extraordinary aspect.
Another photograph entitled
"Bryan Center Window, Duke Uni
versity" (1991), uses shadow to cre
ate depth. Its subject is a man seated
in a chair, his back to the camera,
with a large plant beside him. Such
simplicity allows the lighting to make
its own statement, pronouncing the
shadows.
Minton's current project, a docu
mentary on life in East Coast subway
systems, is an attempt to capture the
feeling of life underground in major
cities. In the upcoming months,
Minton plans to travel to Atlanta,
Baltimore, Boston and Philadelphia
to contrast and compare life in six
major cities. He hopes to present this
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show by the end of next year.
Minton would not be the first to
say that his work is art. "I took the
pictures," he said, "so, it would be
pretty egotistical for me to say that
what I created is an art form. That's
for others to interpret."
But photography remains fulfill
ing for him, because he is able to
produce something from which he
can get immediate feedback and reach
a wide audience.
"I am the master of what I create,"
he said, "limited only by my tools and
my imagination."
Minton's sense of innovation en
sures he is not soon to run out of
either.
8 ACADEMY AWARD NOMINATIONS
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