Kayo Gallery: Shalee Cooper and Amanda-

With her dual photography exhibit with Amanda Moore, Shalee Cooper says that they have struck “a balance” in their work exploring natural channels of photographic reality. Relay showcases both artists’ talents and explores their balance after years of working together. Cooper, now the gallery director of Alpine Art, says she is glad she and Moore—a professor of photography at Westminster College—stayed true to the art of their medium.

The show has no theme or concept to serve as a safety net. Instead, it investigates the fundamentals of black & white photography in the roots of pattern and line. The principles of design—the raw elements in photographs, taken primarily in Paris—are the motivator for Cooper’s choices for the works displayed in this show (an untitled photograph of hers is pictured). But, like Morse code, which registers meaning with rhythm, these design elements—especially as Cooper chooses them and each flows from image to image—cannot help but register emotively.

Moore also works on levels both purely visual and psychological. She captures images with paths or spaces that simultaneously lead the viewer in and shut them out. “Fuelstop” is an open space to a service station, yet the word “stop” is large and foreboding. “FLAopen” might welcome with the word “open,” yet the concrete wall is anything but welcoming. Both bodies of work explore physical and metaphorical uses of meaning in photography—one of the many balances between two exciting photographers. (Ehren Clark)