Christal
Rice Cooper 948 Words
David Rubin:
A Taste of Paris
In Images
Dallas based photographer and world traveler
David Rubin, 58, is having his work displayed in an exhibit titled Visions at the Zhen Music and Art
Institute, in Dallas, Texas from now through January 31st.
The Zhen Music and Art Institute (http://www.zmaai.com) is owned by Zhen Wu and
Summi Goodwin-Wu, and sponsors two exhibits per year in addition to teaching painting,
pottery and music classes.
Rubin’s photographs were first shown at
the Naissance exhibit at the Zhen Music and Art Institute in 2013. Most of his photographs were images he took
while traveling in France, Italy, and China.
“It was
a pretty successful show. Last year we
opened on December 5th, which was the night the ice storm came in
and totally paralyzed Dallas. Most of
the city lost power for 12 to 36 hours afterwards,; and we still had 150 people
show up at our show that night. It was
my first time to sell work in a gallery setting. The true judge of an artist’s work is if
people will buy it. It was well received
and I sold 50 pieces over the next couple of months. The success of that show led to Visions this
year.”
Having worked in the menswear retail
business for over 30 years, Rubin calls on the tools he learned when preparing
for an exhibition.
“In photography I like doing candid shots of people in black
and white. However, people are hesitant to buy pictures of “strangers” to hang
on their walls. Those sell more for
books. When I shoot black and white
street scenes, I make the people part of the scene, not the whole image. It tells a story and people seem to gravitate
to that. It is how I manage to balance
the artistic side with a more practical side of knowing what might sell.
It’s like in retail –
you see things that you like when you go to the marketplace and you see things
that you can sell and they are not necessarily the same thing.
The
first thing Rubin decided is that the Visions
exhibit needed to be different from the Naissance
Exhibit, and not simply a different version of the same show he did last year.
“One
of my most popular prints (from the Naissance
Exhibit) was one of a bicyclist traveling down a path in the Tuilleries Gardens.
I sold several of that image. I
didn’t want to have another bicyclist and I didn’t want to have another row of
trees. When you do photography everybody
gets better. That’s why I didn’t want to
go back I wanted to go forward.”
He flew to Paris and stayed for 6 days
where he met with other photographers. Spending an afternoon with a street
photographer resulted in Rubin’s image “Mystery Under The Arches” which will be
part of the exhibit.
“A
lady peeked around a column and I quickly took the shot. You only have a couple
of seconds to capture the image and you have to be ready.”
When he came back to Dallas, he had over 2500
images, but most of the work had yet to be done.
“There is just as much
work if not more on the image after it is shot. When you are doing artistic or fine art
photography or street photography you have to get a good shot but there are
lots of things that go into it afterwards.
I wanted to look for different ways to make the images I take different
more exciting.”
Making the images more exciting required
work using different editing software, where he deconstructed and then
reconstructed the image so the photo looks like it purports to be, while at the
same time, it looks quite different different.
“Some
of the photographs look like paintings.
I do not use paint software in Photoshop. In fact, very little Photoshop
goes into these image, unless I need to “remove” something or change the image
sizing.”
Once the photo is completed Rubin chooses
from 10 different labs to print, depending on the materials. For this show his preference was aluminum,
which makes the image pop, and tends to resist fading unless under direct
sunlight.
All of the images for the Visions show were shot in France this
past year. Initially, Rubin thought he
would have a Paris theme, but, instead, has an eclectic mix of street
photography, fine art photography, and landscape. Some of the images are of the Eiffel Tower,
some street scenes, and interesting faces in a crowd.
Rubin doesn’t take all of the credit for
his work, but gives a lot credit to Zhen Wu.
“I
couldn’t have asked for a better partner than Zhen. He really promotes the
artists and takes care of them. I was very fortunate that he happened to like
my stuff.”
There are a total of over 100 images on
display; one of which is a polyptic: four
of the same image with different treatments at a size of 30 x 96 “, which he
plans to sell as one piece.
There are also traditional black and
white shots on both metal and paper. Some are framed and some are sleeved so
the patrons can choose their own method of framing.
“You
spend less up front but it adds up and you have to be more cautious, but people
are coming to look (at my work) so it’s got to be right.”
Rubin shoots with a Canon 6D and no
matter how successful he is in his different types of photography, his first
love is photographing people in black and white.
“It’s
what brought me to the dance,” he quips
Photo
Description and Copyright Information
1A
David
Rubin
Copyright
granted by David Rubin
2B
Postcard
of the Visions exhibit
3C
Zhen
Art & Music Gallery sign
Copyright
granted by Zhen Wu and Summi Goodwin-Wu
4E
Image
of Zhen Wu and Summi Goodwin-Wu at the "Visions" exhibit opening night.
Copyright
granted by Zhen Wu and Summi Goodwin-Wu
5
(front)
Postcard for the Naissance exhibit
6
(back)
Postcard for the Naissance exhibit
7
(front)
Postcard for Visions exhibit
8
Advertisement
for Naissance exhibit
8a
Visions advertisement at the Zhen Art & Music Gallery
9
Visions advertisement at the Zhen Art & Music Gallery
9
Image
of the bicyclist in Tuilleries Gardens
Copyright
granted by David Rubin
10
Mystery Under The Arches
Copyright
granted by David Rubin
11
Lizzie Bailey, David Rubin, and Zhen Wu during the opening night at the Visions Exhibit
12
Postcard
for Visions
exhibit
13
Eiffel
Tower image
Copyright
granted by David Rubin
14
Zhen
Wu
Copyright
granted by Zhen Wu
15
David
Rubin
Copyright
granted by David Rubin
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