Peony White
On a jaunt to the Winchester Library, I wandered into a small room reserved for quiet meetings and, apparently, art exhibits. Photographs by Maggie Hsu (W.W. King) hung on the walls. The first one that struck me was of a White Peony (above), in part because peonies are among my very favorite flowers (they are so rich, highly scented, and "overdressed"), and because I drawn to the photograph's bold detail. Maggie Hsu rendered her flower as Georgia O'Keefe did hers: up close and massive. At the same time, the image has an abstract quality to it; it could almost have tricked me into believing it represented erupting ice floes in the Arctic.Maggie Hsu began taking photographs in earnest around 2001. She likes to make " a good image that's different;" depicting a flower, in black and white, from this perspective certainly is different. The effect is lavishly painterly. Her technique is digital; she feels it allows her to be more creative.
Red Barn (above) is, not surprisingly, a prize winner: the New England Camera Club Council awarded it a medal for Best New England Entrant in its 2008 Color Projected Image exhibition. The impact of this photo stopped this viewer in her tracks. Reminding me of those threads of sugar that master bakers create (though I associate this with a cool, rather than sweet, taste), the snow provides an outline for the barn, which appears precariously nestled against the trees.
I've always loved the irony of a photographer photographing another photographer. That's what we've got in Two Photographers, above. With its stark contrasts, the photo conveys a sense of absorbed, expansive isolation.
This photograph of Burano, Italy (near Venice), is a nocturnal version of a watercolor that hangs in my living room. It's interesting that there's a place in Italy that resembles what might be some secret corner of a Caribbean Island, because I didn't expect colorful houses in Italy. The reflections on the canal water are beautifully eerie. And the shapes of the boats and their reflections carry the eye to the back of the photo. This is a lovely work by Hsu; trust me: the reproduction here doesn't do it justice.
Maggie Hsu has many photos, and they are worth seeing in the flesh. Her work will be exhibited at Holyoke Center at Harvard University in Cambridge from July 24 - August 26, 2009, and during October at Lincoln Library in Lincoln, Massachusetts. Go take a look.
You can contact Maggie at hsuemail@yahoo.com.
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