Self-proclaimed “weather geek” and inveterate “storm chaser,” photographer David Mayhew pursues “weather events” in the SUV that he has turned into a “storm center” and that serves as his base of operations as he mounts forays to shoot the sublimity of cataclysmic skies in gleaming digital color. Although Mayhew mainly sticks to the straight photographic path, he is not above succumbing to the temptation to tweak his images in the computer to heighten contrast; it is his way of depicting the “perfect storm” that never quite arrives to transport us into awe. Filled with bold contrasts of exotic colors, Mayhew’s images arrest attention and transfix it. You will see why Mayhew contracted his addiction in his signature shot of a night sky, showing every variation of the purple scale, ripped apart by sinuous, jagged and branching white lightning bolts enacting a drama over a panoramic Chicago skyline dominated by the Willis Tower and dotted with glowing office lights radiating orange, yellow and glaring white flashes. (Michael Weinstein)
Through September 26 at Jackson Junge Gallery, 1389 North Milwaukee.
Opposites Attract: A Review of Nancy and David Bechtol at ARC Gallery No two artists could be farther apart in concept and style. While David’s long, long panoramic images are breathtaking in their portrayal of North American landscapes, Nancy’s wild, erratic and excitingly dynamic work is at the other end of the photographic spectrum.
