Opening Reception: Friday, March 2, 5:00 – 7:30 pm
Schneider Gallery is pleased to present the work of Xavier Nuez and Valerie Oliveiro. Though veritably different in style and technique, these two photographers reveal places under night light.
In his 20’s, Xavier Nuez began his career in Canada as a commercial and architectural photographer. He spent time with friends behind the buildings he was shooting during the day, looking for adventure and disorder. Today Nuez occupies all hours of the night roaming run down alleys in metropolitan cities around the country taking photographs and “painting with lights”. Using this technique, Nuez uses strobe lights (with colored gels over the bulbs) to illuminate different parts of scenes during long exposures to create mystifying places where most do not dare to wander.
During a road trip to Louisiana, Valerie Oliveiro was passing through Mississippi listening to a local radio station reporting on Waveland. Waveland was one of the many cities that were devastated by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Interested in spaces and landscapes that are in transition, Oliveiro was immediately intrigued. The sites in her photographs depict the empty yet maintained residential zones that patiently wait while their owners contemplate the decision to rebuild.
From gritty alleys of major cities around the United States to dormant landscapes of the South, these two photographers give life to unknown and forgotten places.