Gallery Photo
“Nighttime Green,” digital photograph, August 2014.
Chris Randall’s love affair with New Haven has gone downtown.
The co-founder, along with Jeffrey Kerekes, of the I Love New Haven website has just produced his latest photographic valentine to the city in a show of seven large-format, mainly color photographs now on display at the Atticus Bookstore Cafe until May 3.
“Dusk on the Quinnipiac,” 2012.
The ubiquitous man-with-a-camera about town is showing both work he’s displayed before, such as “Edgewood Park Duck Pond,” as well as new material like “Dusk on the Quinnipiac.”
What they have in common is Randall’s affection for where he lives.
He communicates this in the large size of the prints and the big, lingering eye of the camera that seems to say to the viewer: I’ve really loved being here, I’ve paused enjoyably at this location, by the river, by the pond, on the rooftops of our fair burg, inside its ruined factory buildings coming back to life, and you, viewer, please join me.
One of Randall’s favorite locales — and mine — is the Grand Avenue Bridge. It’s “one of my two favorite places in New Haven. I go there often. The mood is different every single time. I’m always inspired there,” he wrote in an explanatory email message.
“Jessica in Winchester.”
In the liminal moment he’s captured, with light emanating from the riverine buildings and the bridge’s lamps, you could be forgiven for thinking that this place could be a little New York, looking east toward Queens through the 59th Street Bridge.
Randall pulls the same sense of surprise from another favorite location: the Edgewood Park Duck Pond.
“One of the reasons I like this space and the Quinnipiac River is because if you aren’t from New Haven (and in some cases, even if you are), you would never expect those to be New Haven scenes.”
But photographic gratitude and the visual urging not to take our views for granted are not the only messages emerging from the show. I particularly like “Nighttime Green.”
It’s an image Randall took in the summer of 2014, from the roof of 900 Chapel Street, and he’s not displayed it before.
The racing, sci-fi, apocalyptic clouds above and the geometric walkways of the Green below capture for me the soaring, scary Puritan aspirational origins of our city, as well as its continuing struggle toward enlightenment — all those lights! — and progress.
We’re not there yet, the slightly out of focus, murky images seems to be saying, and there sure is danger, but here we still are, yet also on the move.
“Gracie in Winchester.”
Yet the first two pictures you encounter when you enter Atticus are Randall’s newer works: “Gracie in Winchester” and “Jessica in Winchester.”
His subjects appear in acrobatic poses inside his classic, crumbling factory interiors. The ruins and the fashion model poses to my eye still remain incongruous. I find myself confused, as if the two elements are competing, not complementing each other. The images combine Randall’s two big subjects — decrepit interiors and portraiture — but I think that combination hasn’t quite found its right balance.
Though maybe that’s the point.
After viewing the show, I wrote to Randall and asked him about his favorite locations and what he’s taken from his peregrinations. Do different neighborhoods “speak” to him in different ways?
This is his reply in full: “I do still love ALL of New Haven! My attention and focus does shift from time to time, but I still like all of it. When I first started taking pictures, I used to think that I would eventually run out of things to take pictures of in New Haven. I’m more fascinated and more intrigued with where we live than ever. I think my eyes got bigger over time. I love the soul of our city and the places in it. i love our history. I love our people. I’m pretty lucky that I get to take pictures of all of that, and show the world how I see and interact with it, through my lens.”
“Roger.”
We are lucky in getting to enjoy Randall's photographic musings of our city and its people through I Love New Haven. Another way, is to purchase prints of those moments of time, place and people from the artist, supporting his work and ensuring that we continue to see our city in unique and interesting ways.