Two photographers document what they saw and how they felt.
September 7th – October 8th, 2017: Kehler Liddell Gallery (KLG) presents Vanishing, an exhibition of photographs by Penrhyn and Rod Cook, with an opening reception on Saturday, September 9th, 3pm-6pm, during Westville’s monthly Second Saturdays, and a closing reception and artist talk on Saturday, October 7th @ 3pm, during City-Wide Open Studios Westville Weekend.
Husband and wife photographers, Penrhyn and Rod Cook – whose joint photography studio, PenRod Studios, is located in Bridgeport, CT – searched for a common theme to combine their distinct artistic voices for their upcoming joint exhibition @ KLG. A decision to journey to Kenya and Tanzania provided the solution. In a preface to an accompanying artist book produced by the couple, the artists write:
“African wildlife is vanishing. The reasons are numerous and manifesting themselves as if they were choreographed to occur in unison. … We are not experts on the incredibly complex issues that threaten the region and can’t speak to what solutions, if any, there are to alleviate the situation. We can only attempt to visually represent what we saw and how we felt about it.”
Rod Cook worked as a commercial photographer in New York for the first 25 years of his career. His fine art career began in 1996 with “Cypress Knees and Tupelos,” nudes taken in cypress swamps in and around Savannah, Georgia. Since then he has created his own interpretations of botanicals, landscapes, masks, mannequins and statues, often incorporating other mediums into the photographs.
Penrhyn Cook says: “A black and white photographic workshop 20 years ago opened my eyes to photography and life changed for me. Photography became a personal search for my own vision of the world. … I started with film, but now work digitally. I still do almost no manipulation other than what I could achieve in the darkroom.” For more information about the artists, please visit: www.penrodphotographs.com.