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All Photographs Copyright 2024 Christopher Keeley
Greek Gothic
Portraits of Sifnos Island
(The Washington Post)
VISUAL ARTS
On Film,
Portraits
Of Sifnos
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
By Mary McCoy
Special to The Washington Post
Thursday, October 21, 1993
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Photographer Chris Keeley has spent most of his time behind the
viewfinder making portraits of people with problems, capturing the life
struggles etched in the faces of homeless people, youngsters with
emotional problems and drug addicts and giving them a voice.
A trademark of is work, which has garnered numerous awards and exhibit
forums in Washington, is his use of quotes from his subjects as
captions.
Now comes a new show, this time on this 36-year-old photographer's
other favorite subject: the landscape of the Greek island of Sifnos,
where he has vacationed for more than half his life.
The exhibit, at the Charles Sumner School Museum and Archives, is a
collection of photographs of whitewashed churches and villages; it is a
very different venue and voice for Keeley. Still, it displays his talent
for moving in on his subjects to achieve the same sort of intimacy with
architecture that he captures with people.
The deeply set doors and windows of a domed church, for example, invite
the viewer to look closely at the thick, chalky walls rising to the
barrel-vaulted roof and to notice the shadows that fall at gentle angles
below. In the clear Grecian sunshine the church seems to gleam with
ethereal light.
Keeley was still in his teens when his parents bought a summer home on
the island, which is in the Greek Cyclades south of Athens.
"I feel like I belong there," he said. "There are certain isolated
parts of the island where I feel at home, special parts where no one
else goes."
Five years ago, he began to photograph in brilliant Cibachrome and
printing in gentle sepia.
It's "more fun photography for me, " Keeley said of the 25 photographs
on view through mid-November. "My other work is like an obsession. This
work is more relaxed."
Keeley sees himself primarily as an artist, although he works full time
as clinical director at the Washington Counseling Center for
drunken-driving offenders, where many of his portraits line the walls.
But compared with these worn, stormy faces, Keeley's photographs from
Sifnos are peaceful and radiant. There is a reverence for antiquity in
his handling of rugged stone walls, a feeling echoed in his views of
villages that wind up hilltops as if they are an extension of the rocky
slopes themselves.
The charm of Keeley's photographs is their hint that the stark white
walls of his churches shelter hidden treasures. In a sprinkling of
interior shots, he reveals the jewel-like colors of the painted icon of
the Virgin and Child and an entire wall lined with saints resplendent in
look-alike halos.
And in an aside, as if he can't help himself, he includes two wonderful
shots of Sifnos islanders.
The best is "Sifnos Gothic," a portrait of an elderly island couple
that won second prize in the 1988 Polaroid Professional Chrome Contest.
Posed much like the familiar farmer and his wife in Grant Wood's
"American Gothic," the twosome shows Keeley's real affection and eye for
people whose life story is clearly mirrored in their stance and
expression.
This is a show worth seeing as much for Keeley's deft use of lighting
and nuance to bring out the character of architecture and people as for
its invitation to explore a beautiful island through the lens of a
talented artist.
The show continues through Nov. 19 at the Sumner School, 1201 17th St.
N.W. Hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. For information
call 202.727.3419
Photographs
Art
- Daily DreamTime
Sifnos Island Photographs 2007
09.3.2007
Sifnos Island Polaroids
- Art Resume
- Work Resume
- Photographic Memories
- Addict Review
- Sifnos Review
- `POWERLESS HOMELESS'--
PHOTOGRAPHER CHRIS KEELEY'S CAPITOL HILL ART EXHIBIT
-- HON. TOM LANTOS ( November 02, 1990)
- Samantha's story
super cool links
Chris keeley's resume
secret surrealist society artwork
dead friends
newest sss art
Chris keeley's art galleries
rationalize,minimize and denial statements
the Intervention Organization
five and ten press - consulting iconoclast
Chris Keeley's Social Documentary Photography
activism
Art links
Big brother
Blinded by Science
Darkside / Gothic
Dharma Road
G E E K
Maul
Music
Pirate
radio
W E I R D O
What's Mailart
Mailart List
Scanner Links
Drugs
Photographs
Art
Out of the Dark
Art
In to the Light
Art
Collage DaDa
Art
Send me email!
Return to Intervention Organization
All Photographs Copyright 2024 Christopher Keeley
Greek Gothic
Portraits of Sifnos Island
(The Washington Post)
VISUAL ARTS
On Film,
Portraits
Of Sifnos
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
By Mary McCoy
Special to The Washington Post
Thursday, October 21, 1993
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Photographer Chris Keeley has spent most of his time behind the
viewfinder making portraits of people with problems, capturing the life
struggles etched in the faces of homeless people, youngsters with
emotional problems and drug addicts and giving them a voice.
A trademark of is work, which has garnered numerous awards and exhibit
forums in Washington, is his use of quotes from his subjects as
captions.
Now comes a new show, this time on this 36-year-old photographer's
other favorite subject: the landscape of the Greek island of Sifnos,
where he has vacationed for more than half his life.
The exhibit, at the Charles Sumner School Museum and Archives, is a
collection of photographs of whitewashed churches and villages; it is a
very different venue and voice for Keeley. Still, it displays his talent
for moving in on his subjects to achieve the same sort of intimacy with
architecture that he captures with people.
The deeply set doors and windows of a domed church, for example, invite
the viewer to look closely at the thick, chalky walls rising to the
barrel-vaulted roof and to notice the shadows that fall at gentle angles
below. In the clear Grecian sunshine the church seems to gleam with
ethereal light.
Keeley was still in his teens when his parents bought a summer home on
the island, which is in the Greek Cyclades south of Athens.
"I feel like I belong there," he said. "There are certain isolated
parts of the island where I feel at home, special parts where no one
else goes."
Five years ago, he began to photograph in brilliant Cibachrome and
printing in gentle sepia.
It's "more fun photography for me, " Keeley said of the 25 photographs
on view through mid-November. "My other work is like an obsession. This
work is more relaxed."
Keeley sees himself primarily as an artist, although he works full time
as clinical director at the Washington Counseling Center for
drunken-driving offenders, where many of his portraits line the walls.
But compared with these worn, stormy faces, Keeley's photographs from
Sifnos are peaceful and radiant. There is a reverence for antiquity in
his handling of rugged stone walls, a feeling echoed in his views of
villages that wind up hilltops as if they are an extension of the rocky
slopes themselves.
The charm of Keeley's photographs is their hint that the stark white
walls of his churches shelter hidden treasures. In a sprinkling of
interior shots, he reveals the jewel-like colors of the painted icon of
the Virgin and Child and an entire wall lined with saints resplendent in
look-alike halos.
And in an aside, as if he can't help himself, he includes two wonderful
shots of Sifnos islanders.
The best is "Sifnos Gothic," a portrait of an elderly island couple
that won second prize in the 1988 Polaroid Professional Chrome Contest.
Posed much like the familiar farmer and his wife in Grant Wood's
"American Gothic," the twosome shows Keeley's real affection and eye for
people whose life story is clearly mirrored in their stance and
expression.
This is a show worth seeing as much for Keeley's deft use of lighting
and nuance to bring out the character of architecture and people as for
its invitation to explore a beautiful island through the lens of a
talented artist.
The show continues through Nov. 19 at the Sumner School, 1201 17th St.
N.W. Hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. For information
call 202.727.3419
Photographs
Art
Sifnos Island Photographs 2007
09.3.2007
Sifnos Island Polaroids
PHOTOGRAPHER CHRIS KEELEY'S CAPITOL HILL ART EXHIBIT
-- HON. TOM LANTOS ( November 02, 1990)
super cool links
Chris keeley's resume
secret surrealist society artwork
dead friends
newest sss art
Chris keeley's art galleries
rationalize,minimize and denial statements
the Intervention Organization
five and ten press - consulting iconoclast
Chris Keeley's Social Documentary Photography
activism
Art links
Big brother
Blinded by Science
Darkside / Gothic
Dharma Road
G E E K
Maul
Music
Pirate
radio
W E I R D O
What's Mailart
Mailart List
Scanner Links
Drugs
Photographs
Art
Out of the Dark
Art
In to the Light
Art
Collage DaDa
Art
Send me email!
Return to Intervention Organization