Safe-T-Gallery
will be the venue this October and November for the first one-person
show in New York of photographer Corey Armpriester.
We will be presenting Armpriester’s stunning series of
black and white portraits of men and women who have allowed him
to photograph them openly weeping. “A History of Tears,” is
a unique series of personal moments presented with sensitivity
and insight, and marks an auspicious introduction of a
skilled photographer to Brooklyn and New York. The show
runs from October
19th to November 18th at our Dumbo Gallery. There will
be a reception for the artist on October 19th, from 6 to
8 PM, to
which all
are invited.
The
almost ubiquitous request of American photographers to “smile” for
the camera is inverted in Corey Armpriester’s series of
photographs of men and women who are asked to “cry.” The
response to the request is usually a flustered inability to evoke
this most personal of emotions -- even among models who were
prepared for the request. (Armpriester has resisted using trained
actors, who may have ‘practiced’ crying
over the years.) There are only a few sitters who actually
weep, but
the photographs of those who are able to summon this
emotion are
stunning. The viewer may initially feel elements of
voyeurism
and wonder at seeing people at such a vulnerable moment,
but these feelings soon become subsumed to the most
human feelings
of empathy and compassion. One begins to realize that
although this person is sitting in an impersonal studio
surrounded
by lights and cameras, the tears have come from deep
within. Each
tear is but the last in a history of tears for each
man or woman.
Corey Armpriester is a photographer who studied at the International
Center for Photography, the Fashion Institute of Technology,
the School of Visual Arts and interned with fashion/erotic
photographer Tony Ward.
We will be hosting a studio session for the crying project
on Saturday, October 21st from 3 to 7 PM, anyone willing
and able
to cry before the camera is welcome to drop by for a free portrait.
