Buffalo Rising Online

Jan 26th 2007, 12:23pm By Anna Miller

The sky shines a brilliant blue reserved for the most wholly alive days of the year, the normally white concrete glows yellow in the midday sun, and the red letters seem to jump out of the print. This photo brings the normally mundane Elmwood Avenue building to life. It embraces the beauty and vibrancy that exists in even the most ordinary aspects of life.

Tammy Wetzel's photo of the Regal on Elmwood is part of an exhibit at Gallery141B that encourages its audience to see life through a moment trapped in time. Her images on display at the gallery celebrate the life and energy that pours out of the simplest things - fallen leaves strewn on a lawn, a boat in port, the stoop of an old home.

The photos display a new art form never before displayed in Buffalo, High Dynamic Range photography. By introducing new techniques to traditional methods, Wetzel is breathing new life into the art of photography and the possibilities of what it can be. HDR photography uses new methods of exposure to highlight the fine detail that exists, in every image, in both the brightest areas and those in the shadows.

Gallery owner Jim Collins described Wetzel's work as seeing through the universal aspects of life, and bringing them back to the audience in a very personal expression. "This girl is kicking it in the bit," he said. "She went there. She's doing it."

The show also displays Wetzel's work with a new form of Chromadepth 3D technology, where viewers use clear glasses to view the artwork, which seems floats from the page in brilliant colors. The 3D work is an experiment and an attempt to pull you into another space, beyond the flat media you see before you, in a sense of ceaseless discovery.

The entire gallery show also features mixed media work by Greg Sobczak and Chris McGee. Sobczak's canvasses and water colors are an exploration of visual perception and interpretation, that challenge the viewer think about the world displayed before them. McGee's pieces are experimental visions of this life and (his words say it best) cast a darkly humorous light on the human condition.

Video profiles of each of the artists and their artwork are available at Gallery 141B, which will be open tonight for the Gallery Walk, featuring music by the Draconions.