Kenkeleba house
Kenkeleba house and the Wilmer Jennings gallery

Veronica Saddler PR

Veronica Saddler: Pinhole Photographs
February 24, 2021 – April 17, 2021

 

Installation Photography : Christian Carone

Image Photography: Rodriguez Calero

Press Release

Veronica Saddler: Pinhole Photographs

Review

From February 24 through April 17, 2021, the Wilmer Jennings Gallery at Kenkeleba is pleased to announce, VERONICA SADDLER: PINHOLE PHOTOGRAPHS, an exhibition of 43 images taken between 1985 and 2005. Veronica Saddler was born in Chicago in 1950. After high school, she studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and following a brief voyage with the Merchant Marines, moved to NYC in 1979 where she remained until her death in 2019. 

Saddler was a professional photographer when she discovered Pinhole Photography as a way to teach children. Pinhole Photography has a logical connection to Black cultural tradition as it provides an affordable entry into the photographic process. The Pinhole camera is made from a lightproof box, photographic paper or film and a tiny hole where light passes through and projects an inverted image on the back wall of the box.

Saddler taught at the Bronx River Art Center, The Cooper Union, and conducted workshops at the New Museum and the International Center of Photography. An exhibition of her own work, a 15-year retrospective at Postcrypt Art Gallery at Columbia University (1999) was received favorably.She presented a solo exhibit at the Ansonia Pharmacy in 2006. Her group exhibitions include the Bronx River Art Center (1993 to 1996), the New Museum of Contemporary Art (1994), Beyond, A-Forest Gallery NY and Beyond New York, A-Forest Gallery Japan (2006).

Saddler’s interest in architecture developed in Chicago and less than ten years later, Manhattan architecture became her subject matter. VERONICA SADDLER: PINHOLE PHOTOGRAPHS showcases an altered perspective of some of Manhattan’s classic buildings and vistas, including structures that no longer exist. Through Saddler’s vision New York becomes an enigmatic city devoid of movement and human form. “Because of the long exposure time, people and traffic disappear. Bodies of water appear to have turned to glass” (Waterfall).

Pinhole images present an infinite depth of field, but wide-angle images remain rectilinear. The Flatiron Building (1985), which she considered her first successful Pinhole, marks her interest in geometry, geometric structures and geometric volume. In the series, Saddler photographed a number of landmarks because of their historical, cultural, or aesthetic value. Images of The Dakota, The Cathedral of St. John the Divine, The Ansonia Hoteland MetLife are included.

Her interest in geometric motifs and triangular buildings is also reflected in Village Cigars, the Northern Dispensary (1987), and Riviera Café(1987). Triangular configurations in painted street pavement, the design of actual pavers; and double triangle compositions are mirrored in legendary destinations like Times Square.

The photographs present her interest in circular elements, as in the coil of the Guggenheim or the City Hall Fountain, and in curved, rounded corners and edges as the entrance of Delmonico’s. Saddler’s work offers a combination of concept, form and technique. She documents the Ornamentalist traditions derived from the Moorish architecture of the Alhambra. She sees spires, the steeples of ancient fertility or the joining of heaven and the worlds. Skyscrapers, Flag Poles, Lampposts, Arches and Bridges like the Brooklyn Bridge (1996) are in this tradition.

Of her images Saddler states: “Seeing New York without people and traffic has an almost unsettling effect. Without the distractions, you see the buildings and the streets on a much more personal level.” Kenkeleba wishes to acknowledge the invaluable contribution of Amir Bey in loaning photographs to the exhibition and to thank him for his assistance.

Kenkeleba programs are funded in part by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and many generous friends.

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