Plain visions of Buffalo

It's hard to tell if the 100 prominent Buffalonians featured in the CEPA Gallery's "Visions of Greater Buffalo" have ever taken a photograph before.

The exhibit commemorates CEPA's 30th anniversary, and opened Sept. 16 as part of "Curtain Up!" Buffalo's official opening of the theater season. The showrooms are open to the public in the Market Arcade Atrium on Main Street until Oct. 8, concluding with a silent auction and gala celebration.

Unfortunately, the photography is mediocre at best. The photographers seemed to have nothing to expend their film on besides plain and uninteresting subject matter.

The pieces occasionally lack basic photographic technique like perspective and lighting. In addition, certain photos in which different perspectives were explored just didn't work.

Where ordinary photos of dusty roads in midday lighting seem to be lacking substance, a title would have helped shed light on some of the ambiguous pieces.

Each photo was accompanied by a sticker below that had the artist's name, lot number, and with a silent auction sheet.

CEPA chose a "Yankee Style Auction" where the highest two bidders both win. The highest bidder wins a signed and framed piece, while the second highest bidder receives an unsigned, framed photograph. Bidding for the majority of the photographs began at $75, while enlargements of specific pieces began as high as $250.

Although the display of the exhibit was rather lifeless, no argument can be made that there was any distraction from the photography. Every photo had white matting and thin black frame, with appropriate and clear light throughout the room. A single light on a strip that hanged only a few inches from the ceiling accented almost every photo.

With 100 different artists submitting work that displayed a varying multitude of themes and settings, it is difficult to find an underlying theme despite the show's title "Visions of Greater Buffalo." However, amongst the lack of uniformity and a wall's worth of lackluster photos, there were several pieces worthy of an "honorable mention."

Among the more aesthetically pleasing were the colors captured in Jim Anderson (Lot #3) and Lance Diamond's (Lot #23) sunsets and the clarity of Lauren Tent's (Lot #90) reflection of the sky at the edge of a lake.

In keeping with the "Visions of Greater Buffalo" theme, some of the more enjoyable photos captured some well-known landmarks of the Buffalo-Niagara area.

One of the most interesting photographs was Mark Yellen's (Lot #94) photograph of a woman gazing out over nearly all of downtown Buffalo.

There were also a number of images that captured sights like the Peace Bridge, Shea's Theater, Deleware Park, and the arches of Main Street's theater district. These familiar sights were captured by artists Gail Johnstone (Lot #43), Gerald Lippes (Lot #101), Muriel Howard (Lot #104), and Ken Neufeld (Lot #67).

In opposition to the notable artwork, there were some pieces that could even be considered bad, by the general standards of clear and interesting photography. But then again, the definitions of art have been stretched so far, especially in referencing modern art, that some terrible photography could be considered an adventurous artistic venture.

"Visions of Greater Buffalo" is not a cutting-edge photography exhibit looking to push the envelope. On most accounts, even at its best points, it's average photography featuring the average aspects of Greater Buffalo.