Seen

FEBRUARY 03 – MARCH 10, 2007

Lely Constantinople and Antonia Tricarico

ABOUT THE EXHIBITION

With Seen, Transformer presents an installation of photographic work by DC based artists Lely Constantinople and Antonia Tricarico that explores their use of photography to bear witness, journalize, document, make connection and homage to people, places and things seen through travels and everyday life.

"I get close to people when I photograph them on the street," states Constantinople, "I ask them how long they've lived here, where they are from, what they're up to that day. They often ask me the same questions. I get their address and send them copies of what I take, but usually I never hear back. I once heard from a man in Jamaica -- he sent me a letter months and months after I'd met him thanking me for the portrait and wrote that he'd put it up in his house. Otherwise, the meetings consist only of a brief conversation."

"The streets with their infinite spaces embrace everybody; the faces I see contain the common stories of people - even of people who may walk the same street but don't touch, don't speak, and sometimes don't even look at each other," states Tricarico, "...the expressions of joy, of boredom, or of nothingness will cross mine and the journey of solidarity begins by holding onto those eyes forever."

Delighting in the simplicity and honesty of the world around them conveyed through images of people, signs, sites, and more, Constantinople and Tricarico attempt to relate to others while better understanding their own humanity through their photographic process and its outcomes. Utilizing a wide array of cameras to capture specific moods of the day, light, and or subject, including: 120 Yashica box cameras, Polaroid Land Cameras (several models), WOCAs (plastic camera -- sister to the Holga), as well as a 35mm Canon AE 1 using a 24mm wide angle lens - these artists share a distinct sensitivity to the art of photography and the use of film that is often lost in the quick, and easily manipulated digital process.

Both Constantinople and Tricarico have worked with and been inspired by renowned Washington Post photographer Lucian Perkins, and have exhibited in group exhibitions within Washington and abroad - including the exhibition Itinerent that traveled from DC to Baltimore to Italy. They each have photographs within the collection of the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History. Further biographical information is available at Transformer and upon request.