PHILIP PERKIS at 70 Written by Wendy R. Williams Photographed by Mary Blanco Photo scans of Mr. Perkis’ work are courtesy of Alan Koltz Gallery
	Unionville, New York 72

PHILIP PERKIS at 70
Recent Work
November 15, 2005 – January 14, 2006
Alan Klotz Gallery
511 West 25th Street (Between 10th and 11th) Suite 701

West Canada Creek, NewYork 72

On Tuesday, November 15, 2005, Mary Blanco and I attended the opening reception of a photography exhibit entitled “Philip Perkis at 70.” On display were around forty black and white traditional gelatin silver prints, all of which had been created in the past three years (thus the subtitle Recent Work). The collection consisted of stunning but bleak photographic portraits of rural landscapes: a road to seemingly nowhere, a field denuded of its crops. But there was something about all of these places that caught Perkis’ eye and made him want to stop and “take the shot.” And in my humble opinion, that is the art of photography; the vision that makes an artist stop and take out his camera, while many other casual viewers speed by, never seeing what was in front of them. And there is the other half of the “art” – the gallery viewer who looks, admires the photograph and wonders just what made the artist turn his camera there?

North Dakota 72

Here is a quote from a press release for this show (http://www.photocollect.com/newsletter.php):
“This new work, done in his 70th year, after nearly 50 years in photography, is a medley of soft spoken observations, printed in Mr. Perkis’ almost endlessly long tonal range, so characteristic of this master printer. The photographs are not about the Wagnerian grandeur of an Ansel Adams, but rather they are subtle, elegant intimations about the almost invisible patterns which hold the world together and connect us to it, physically and spiritually.

Pine Island, New York

“It is the profound recognition of that connection which Mr. Perkis knows so well and gives us in each of these images, lovingly and darkly wrapped in his exquisite grays. At a time when photography virtually assaults us with size and color and “concept”, these deftly formed and deeply felt images lure you in, demanding that you meet them halfway. They ask us as viewers to do some work while looking, but then reward us with fresh insights, beautifully crafted. They are pure visual poetry seen at the end of the photographic era.

Philip Perkis

”Philip Perkis started photography in 1957 while serving as a B-36 tail gunner in the Air Force. He spent hundreds of hours looking out the window of the airplane. Following that, he studied with John Collier Jr., Dorothea Lange, and Minor White. Since that time, he has been photographing pretty much in the same way, using small and medium format cameras, black and white film, and producing un-manipulated prints.

”Mr. Perkis’ work can be found in the collections of many museums as well as private collections. He received two NY State Council Grants, two National Endowment Grants, and is a Guggenheim fellow. His monograph, Warwick Mountains Series was published by Nexus Press in 1978 and his prose book, Teaching Photography: Notes Assembled, was published by OB Press in 2001 and is now in its fourth printing. Mr. Perkis has been teaching photography at the college level since 1964 and chaired the photography department at Pratt Institute for eight years. He currently teaches at the Tisch School of the Arts, New York University, and the Graduate program at the School of Visual Arts.”