night fall

MODshop Gallery

As I walked into the Modshop gallery I was firstly greeted by some architecturally ravenous furniture, enthralled I took a seat in the slinky chair only to whirl around and be met with an immense, masculine, color print of someone else’s home from the inside looking out. Outside there were scattered people looking as though they were all on their own secret mission; hunting for bargains, in search of another mans trash to become their own treasure. With a tilted head I look again, these are not just scattered people after all, they are all looking for something to call their own, but they have even more in common. On top of almost every head in the crowd is a black sort of hat; coupled with the beard and the hair, instantly the Amish culture pops into my mind. But why are all these Amish gathered at this one place, this particular home, sorting through valuables on this side lawn?
I have entered this new little gallery in downtown Dallas, I only know of it from some UNT graduate friends who have recently finished their MFA and now are showing at this site.  Three graduates are showing, Julie Barnofski, Angela Patterson, and Tom Leininger. I’m interested in Tom’s work mainly because it was what I was first confronted with when I walked into the gallery, and because I have heard mish mesh of stories and information about this one artist in particular. I wanted to see if his work matched his description by other people. All I knew about Tom before walking into this gallery was that he was a straight shooter, no B.S. kind of guy. I knew he did documentary type work and that he was a former hard-ass graduate student from UNT, who made critique brutal for his peers.

Interested in where this view from this house would take me I continued down the gallery wall. However, the photographs that follow left my questions unanswered, more interior shots of this mysterious person’s home. Some worn down calendar strung up on a dirty wall, a remnant left behind on the stained carpet of the left over house, and one Amish man hauling a pile of treasure away so great, he needed a forklift. The prints are easy to look at, they are a large 44’ scale and the subject matter is always straight on, much like many documentary pieces -much like I have heard about this artist- except I cannot make out what exactly is being documented. Is it about the cleaning of this house, or maybe the Amish culture? Maybe that is not an important question, but when I hear “documentary photographer” I think the importance of the photographs subject matter is vital.
This is when my background knowledge is referenced, I know Tom’s family is connected to the heritage; and as he says when one Amish member dies their house is cleaned out and auctioned to the community, as in Tom’s pictures of his grandmother’s home. I think without this prior knowledge I would be a little lost in his work shown at the gallery.

Tom’s photographs do display a clean straight shot, but I think that there are some pitfalls through his work. Walking through the gallery his work does stand out because it is large, but that I do not think is always effective. These images are so private and they are just displayed in a large informal manner. I also think that there is some details missing in the pictures themselves, some of them have a single focus spot and then it falls off. This usually looks o.k. but does not match the straightforward manner he is shooting in; for example the photograph of a vintage wallpapered wall, an opening to a bathroom with a light on, and Jesus’ portrait next to the bathroom door, nothing is in focus except the vintage wall. Almost everything in this picture is on the same plain, but why did he choose to focus there? This type of “tunnel” focusing makes the photograph seem to be more about that wallpaper, than the emptiness of this gutted house. I also have to question whether or not the full explanation of this event is captured here in these five shots? If I knew nothing about the artist before hand I think I would leave unfulfilled about the event I just witnessed, I think the audience would like to see more shots. If this documentary is about the auction of the artifacts in this home, it is just as equally important to display these Mennonite individuals with their pieces or bidding on pieces. Printing more intimate might allow the artist to show more shots, and more pieces of this story. I know it is the obligation of the artist to edit what they want to show to the audience, but as a documentary photographer it is also their duty to show the full story portrayed accurately; which brings up another discussion about the reality of documentary photography, (which is a large topic for discussion at a later time).

There is always going to be a difference in the viewers translation of the artist work, but overall I think a stranger to this artist one would be curious in not only seeing more images, but possibly seeing them shot more meticulously than just a 35mm negative. In my opinion, documentary is clean, straight shots, but the tiny details captured in the image are the most important. I would have liked to see this work done with a larger format, to really convey this crisp, detailed images he is trying to attain. In this event seeing Tom Leininger’s work I can say that I was interested, but left unsatisfied.