In Pursuit Of Magic

Nathan Lyons photos in "In Pursuit Of Magic" show at Eastman Museum
Nathan Lyons photos in “In Pursuit Of Magic” show at George Eastman Museum

When you look at a photo do you respond to the content of the photo or the decisions the photographer has made in presenting this representation of the subject matter to you? Nathan Lyons lets you have it both ways in equal measure. And on top of that he arranges playful pairings, note-perfect in composition, improvisation, texture and subject matter. Furthermore he sequences his photos so the narrative carries forward.

Nathan Lyon’s show, “In Pursuit of Magic,” opened tonight at George Eastman Museum. Lyons was a director there a half century ago and he had a show there called “Riding First Class On The Titanic” in the first part of this century. We bought the book and lent it to someone. Can’t remember who so I may have to buy it again. I remember the photos in the book were bigger than the 5×7 prints in the show. His black and white prints are super rich and when he switched to color, late in his career, they are still small but only got richer.

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Riding First Class On The Titanic

Nathan Lyons at Spectrum Gallery in Rochester, New York
Nathan Lyons at Spectrum Gallery in Rochester, New York

I took this photo of Nathan Lyons a few years ago. He had some work in group show at Lumiere Gallery. I’ve been a fan of his for a long time. He used to teach a summer workshop at Visual Studies and I toyed with taking that for years. I heard him talk at his most recent book release and I was kicking myself for never taking his workshop. He brought so much more to the table than what meets the eye with his work. He used his photos to tell bigger stories than the image by constructing diptychs and series and uniting whole collections in books that read like great American novels. Somehow I thought this kindred spirt would be around forever.

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Visual Study

Bill Edwards introduces Nathan Lyons at Spectrum Gallery in Rochester, New York
Bill Edwards introduces Nathan Lyons at Spectrum Gallery in Rochester, New York

Nathan Lyons is a Rochester luminary as well as internationally renowned photographer. He spoke tonight for about an hour with very few notes at the closing party for his current show at the Spectrum Gallery in Rochester. Once you’ve seen a lot of his photos it’s easy to picture him wandering around urban areas and grabbing the “Nathan Lyon shots.” They are just out there waiting for him to click but there is much more to his work and it was a joy to hear him talk about it. And that’s the thing, it doesn’t need any explanation. He is stimulated by poetry and sees all sorts of metaphors and connections in images and develops thematic groups ofthem as books. I love his keen cultural observations but often I just love the photo the way I love a painting.

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