Royal's Photographs Lack Depth

This collection of twenty-four photographs by artist Nancy Royal is arresting for the first eight or nine pictures but redundant after 15 or 16. Any students with some spare time over spring break should trot along the balcony and gaze at them, but those seeking exhibits with depth should go elsewhere.

The photographs in the exhibit are organized in two series: the "Individual in a World of Structure" and the "Grand Jatte' Series." To be honest, were it not for the sparcity of figures in the former series the viewer would not be able to determine where one series ended and the other began. The confusion is compounded because in both series Royal frames construction and industrial forms, and the way humans interact with them.

Royal's photographic style is characterized by clarity and contrast. She untilizes extreme forcus in all areas and emphasizes the distinctions between light and shade. For all their technical clarity, these pictures are anything but immediately readable.

The compositions are often highly ambiguous, as in Charlestown Glassman. What this picture depicts is not quickly apparent. Only after inspection does one realize that half the picture is in fact a reflection in a broken mirror and that what we see above is the truck upon which that mirror hangs.

The ambiguity is heightened by blocking off the people's faces, one cut off by the edge of the mirror and another obscured by a railing on the truck.

According to this picture, one would suppose that the "individual in a world of structure" is an individual eclipsed by the world of industrial forms. But other pictures in Royal's series tell of a different relationship between people and the objects around them.

For example, Charlestown Fisherman captures a man, pensive and alone, deside a curved railing which separates him from the water. He turns away from the photographer and audience while he puts bait on his fishing hook, underscoring the privacy and calm of the scene. Here the man is not in opposition to the railing, a barrier between him and the ocean, but acts alone beside the metal structure.

While the "'Grand Jatte' Series" also shows many images of people in the context of modern, industrial structures, most of these pictures downplay the importance of the surrounding elements. Instead, many explore the distorting effect that Royal's hyper-focus has upon the sense of space. In many of these images, the dimensions of the space are unclear because the background which we would normally expect to see blurred is as detailed and precise as the foreground.

One laudible photograph of this style is Tsumago Children, In which the extreme focus of the background makes it appear entirely flat. Thus the position of the young girl is disquieting--she seems suspended in an awkward pose above the boy. The bent pipe which runs the length of this picture and the odd stance of the boy heighten the uncomfortable depiction of an impossible space.

Royal's photographs are valuble because they remind us that the camera does not directly record "reality." The camera's technological capabilities can be used equally to distort and manipulate the "reality" the lens captures. This dynamic is interesting, but in general the exhibit is dull. Royal needs to add more depth to her photographic work by varying her subjects and technique.