Cassilhaus: Dan Gottlieb

With New-Years-Resolution-Fervor I am making a post within 24 hours of an event. Woohoo! I have known Dan Gottlieb for a good long while but I am embarrased to say that I did not know he was a photograher. I know him in his role as Director of Design and Planning at the North Carolina Museum of Art. About 8 months or so ago I got an email about a photo exhibition of Dan's work at Sam Reynolds Design Gallery in Asheville. I loved the work and immediately contacted Dan to see when he was going to have a show in the Triangle because I wanted to see the work in person. He said he didn't have a venue for a show and I told him I thought we could solve that problem. The Aldwyth Cigar Box show was already up in the center of the gallery and I wanted to leave it up for a while. As odd as it initially sounded, we talked about putting up Dan's show on the perimeter of the gallery and having both shows up at once. I went over to Dan's place and we talked about which work to include and came up with a set that we both thought would work. At the end of the day I think his show and the Aldwyth work were absolutely great together.

The thing that I really love about Dan's photography is that it doesn't look anything like photography. He tells me his images are long exposure (4-8 seconds) digital images made entirely in-camera with no manipulation or post production in PhotoShop etc. To look at them you swear you are looking at a pastel or a painting. If I didn't know Dan better I would think he was actually bending the truth.

(Eno River State Park 2, North Carolina 2010)

(Basilica Cistern, Istanbul, 2010)

(Derinkuyu Underground City, Cappadocia, 2010)

The images are dreamlike and completely draw you in. When asked about what the pieces are about he says they are not about anything--just his feelings and interactions with his subject. I came up with the title approach for the show as it seemed to capture that special approach and dance he has with his subjects.

Many of the pieces were shot on a 3 week trip to Turkey in 2010 including my favorite from the show:

(Burqas, Sultan Ahmet Parki, Istanbul, 2010)

One of the most haunting images in the group is Roman Head I taken at the Archaeology Museum in Istanbul.

One of the things that made for such a beautiful presentation of the work was Dan's own custom designed and built frames. He has even applied for a patent for this unique frame that has the print mounted to Sintra board and then floated on another piece of Sintra, surrounded by a deeply bevelled wooden surround and then faced with a special etched plexiglass. Dan's design expertise was clearly on display with these precise and elegant frames that transform his prints into three dimensional photographic objects.