David S. Allee’s series, “Chasing Firefly,” which is on display at Morgan Lehman Gallery in New York, is aptly named. In it, the photographer creates images like the lightning bug catcher the title of his work suggests — a kind of exuberant wanderer, moving through the darkness in search of light. Much like that classic childhood pastime, Allee’s work is mildly saccharine, yet undeniably magical.
At their most electric, the nocturnal photos in the gallery, which largely use available, artificial light to reveal nocturnal scenes, remind me of Markus Henttonen’s in “Silent Night.” That series uses the same kind of light to capture a dark world —in this case, homes in L.A. covered in luminescent Christmas decorations—but the effect there is more eerie than enchanting, creating a sense of tension and disquiet amongst the stillness.
In Allee’s, meanwhile, the aesthetic is often more surreal but its overall impact on the senses tends to be a bit more ambiguous. Understanding, for one, depicts a grungy wall in its lower half. Peaking just above it, one sees the artist Martin Creed’s revolving neon sign, situated by the East River for a time, which spells the word “Understanding.” Captured with a long exposure, the letters expand into a radiating red blob, perhaps complicating the already obscure meaning of Creed’s instillation. In Wind Along the River, Allee also uses motion to his advantage. Here, the subject is a single tree, whose windswept, leafy branches take on an otherworldly, whimsical look when blurred.
Allee’s background in urban and environmental planning is evident in his complete body of work, which frequently takes the built environment as its subject. His 2006 series “Cross Lands” seems to most closely resemble “Chasing Firefly,” with its nighttime landscapes featuring man-made structures.
The locations depicted in “Chasing Firefly, the gallery’s press release notes, are chosen for their connections to Allee’s past in New York and the Berkshires. But their individual meaning will remain a mystery to visitors of Morgan Lehman Gallery. Titles that more descriptively evoke the artist’s experience of these places would be useful. Without such context, some of these photos could leave the viewer cold. A photo of Saperstein’s department store, for example, could double seamlessly as a promotional photo for the business it depicts. Riverside Salt, meanwhile, may have some special significance for the photographer, but to the layperson it looks like a banal and not especially photogenic industrial site. Practice Field Below shows a bridge with the aforementioned field beneath it. There’s no one on it and no sign that anyone has been on it previously. The impression is one of sterility.
Other photos, however, more obviously evoke childhood memories, wrapping the viewer in the warm if not exactly illuminating embrace of nostalgia. In Fireworks, clusters of individuals sit on blankets and folding chairs on a sloping lawn. They gaze, presumably, at a pyrotechnics display, though we don’t see it in the photo. This scene will be immediately recognizable to anyone who grew up in a suburban or rural area, and for me it recalls summer evenings that come packed with their own powerful sensory and emotional associations. Ball Court, meanwhile, focuses on a worn handball court, whose peeling surface stands as a testament to the thousands of games that have surely been played there. In Long Building, a car’s lights stretch into streaks of orange and red, as above, windows seem to extend into infinity.
My favorite of these, though, is Swimming Area, which sticks out in the exhibition, as it’s the only photo that doesn’t use any visibly artificial light. This photo was taken at dawn, and the press release notes that it’s the place where Allee learned to swim. One can readily imagine a young Allee, some years earlier, playing there as a child, perhaps at camp, or out with family. The sense of time here, and memory, is palpable, making it the most genuinely moving photo of the set.
Jordan G. Teicher
Jordan G. Teicher is an American journalist and critic based in Brooklyn, New York.
David S. Allee, Chasing Firefly
January 5 – February 11, 2017
Morgan Lehman Gallery
534 W 24th St
New York, NY 10011
USA
Book signin on February 2nd at 5:30pm-7:30pm at Morgan Lehman Gallery.
