The swirling, sweating, intense world of fighters training and sparring at Gleason’s Gym in Brooklyn forms the material for artist Susan Bowen’s latest set of swirling, intense, multiple exposure, controlled chance, panoramic photographs. “In the Ring” a unique installation at Safe-T-Gallery, will include both Bowen’s characteristic roll-long multiple exposure photographs along the walls and a 7-foot wide “Ring” suspended from the ceiling, which viewers can enter to experience the tilting and swinging boxers world from the “inside”. The exhibition opens on September 27th with a reception for the artist from 6 to 8, and will run through October 27th at the gallery. “In the Ring” is expected to be one of the more popular destinations for visitors to the Dumbo Art Under the Bridge Festival which runs from September 28th through the 30th.

  Bowen creates her characteristic multiple exposure photographs on film in the camera as she shoots. By only partially advancing the film between shots, the compositions become defined primarily through her visual and visceral reactions to the changing circumstances -- chance is always a participant in her work. In the digital darkroom she then selects the lengths of film that capture the emotions of the moment, typically selecting about a half of a roll of film as a single image. Because of the intensity of the images captured at Gleason’s in this installation there are as many as two entire rolls in a single image.
Bowen shoots fast and intensively regardless of her subject matter; motion and speed are emblematic of her style. She writes, “I just couldn’t find a more exciting locale than Gleason’s for shooting the way I like to shoot. While shooting I’m in a bit of a frenzy, jumping around as much as the fighters… kneeling for a more interesting vantage point, shooting between the ropes, hopping around between those training on the punching bags. When I am shooting I am recording both the subject and my experience of the subject. My emotional response is the true subject of all my images.” You do not need to have an interest in boxing to appreciate the poetry expressed by the images she produces.

  Susan Bowen received a BFA from the Corcoran School of Art and has studied industrial design at Pratt Institute. Since taking up photography in 2002, she has had shows around the country. Her photographs have recently been published in Photo Techniques and Light Leaks magazines, and she has four images in Plastic Cameras: Toying with Creativity, a book by Michelle Bates. Since 2006 she has been awarded public-art commissions for installations of her photogaphs in New Haven, Connecticut and St. Cloud, Minnesota. “In the Ring,” will be her first one-person show at Safe-T-Gallery.