This November dnj Gallery will present two exhibitions with strong ties to France. "La Famille" by Alain Laboile, a French photographer, will be in the main gallery. Dale Johnson's "Paris Portfolio" will be in Gallery II. Both exhibitions will be on display from November 2, 2013 through January 4, 2014.
Childhood is the central theme in Alain Laboile's series. Using his own children as models, he seeks to evoke the universal yet fleeting qualities of childhood, including freedom, curiosity, and a lack of inhibition. Similar to the American photographer, Sally Mann, Laboile records a combination of spontaneous moments of childhood repose, revealing striking pictures of imaginative play. He explains: "Though my work is deeply personal, it's also accessible, addressing human nature and allowing the viewer[s] to enter my world and reflect on their own childhoods."
Laboile is the father of six and lives with his children and his wife, Anne, in Arbis, France. Laboile was a sculptor for many years before turning to photography in 2004, first as a means of preparing for and documenting his sculptural work and then as an artistic pursuit. His photographs have been exhibited in France, Cambodia and Japan. "La Famille" is his first exhibition in the United States. He is scheduled to publish a collection of his images with Steidl Verlag next year.
In her "Paris Portfolio," Dale Johnson was inspired by her own family roots in the city and her family members' connection to the arts there in the nineteenth century. She "wanted to 'draw' the 'Old Paris' - the City in its various facets; narrow lanes, old buildings, busy cafes and shops with their window displays." She employs the method she has developed of shooting with a plastic camera lens on a sophisticated digital camera to give her images a soft and grainy effect, which she further enhances with an additional layer of texture.
Johnson was raised in Buenos Aires, Argentina and Sao Paulo, Brazil and currently splits her time between Carmel, CA and Santa Fe, NM. Johnson earned her B.F.A. in graphic design from the Art Center in Pasadena. In 2008, she began experimenting with photographic lenses that would allow her to combine the aesthetics of her painting style with the immediacy of a photograph. She has exhibited her photography across the country. In 2010, Johnson's photographs were published in "Color Magazine," Special Issue #10, and "Urban Country Landscape," The Worldwide Gala Awards. As a winner in the Emerging Focus Photography Competition, her work was exhibited at photo l.a., 2012. This is her second solo exhibition at dnj Gallery.