Water Mill photographer Gary Beeber is exhibiting a selection of his architecturally-based photographs at Dodds & Eder in Sag Harbor. Titled Beauty Is in the Details, the show collects pictures from Beeber’s travels abroad, to places such as Rome, Florence and Marakesh, as well as images from American locales, including Arizona, New Orleans, Miami Beach and Coney Island in Brooklyn.
More often than not, the work pushes in close and captures architectural details, bringing a unique perspective to already compelling places and things. Further, Beeber’s exhibition, curated by Lisa Freedman for Zeiger Arts, plays with interesting juxtaposition, revealing similarities, and repetitive shapes and patterns among the images, as well as startling hues—purple, yellow and blue, deep browns and stark white.
For the Coney Island shots, Beeber draws the camera back a bit, showing recognizable landmarks, like the Cyclone roller coaster, and signage that immediately pull at the strings of nostalgia and reflects a magical yet fading time in the great story of New York City.
Beeber is perhaps best known for his human stories—pictures and award-winning films about the burlesque revival, transgender New Yorkers and nightlife personalities, clowns and carnival performers—but his images of buildings and places also look to the fringes for more fascinating subjects. As such, he has turned his lens toward graveyards in New Orleans, the Dachau concentration camp in Germany and other areas rich with history and narrative.
“I’ve always been interested in art history and particularly came to admire the work of Edward Hopper, Eugene Atget and Diane Arbus,” Beeber says, acknowledging his interest in photographing outsiders and those living life on their own terms, beyond acceptable, mainstream constraints. While taking pictures of New York’s burlesque scene, Beeber became so enamored with his subject, he ended up producing Gotham Burlesque, an off-Broadway burlesque/variety show and one of the top nightlife shows in New York City, from 2011-2014.
“I believe that each phase organically leads to the next,” Beeber, who started his art career as a painter, says of his move from photography to burlesque producer, to filmmaker. “I feel that producing the films and the show made me look at photography differently. It made the work more theatrical and cinematic.”
Beauty Is in the Details shows just one more facet of Beeber’s very personal and dedicated look at the world around him.
The show is on view now through Sunday, November 1 at Dodds & Eder (11 Bridge Street) in Sag Harbor. An opening reception is scheduled for Saturday, October 10 from 5–7 p.m. For more info, call Dodds & Eder at 631-725-1175 or visit doddsandeder.com.
To see more of Gary Beeber’s work or find our more about the artist, visit garybeeber.com.
