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Tim Brumbeloe: Pentimento

Photographer’s “A Different Space” show opens December 3

By Dan Swartz

Fort Wayne Reader

2009-11-24

Photography is a tricky thing to judge the quality of. Since its inception in the late 1800's, photography, in one form or another has become nearly ubiquitous with modern human culture. We have become visual creatures because of it. We think photographically, and communicate with them constantly. Its universality and technological capacity make it difficult to judge. Because of this, the conceptual nature of photography has taken the forefront in fine art as its qualitative benchmark.

By day, Tim Brumbeloe is the owner of Tim Brumbeloe Fine Art Photography, one of Fort Wayne's most successful commercial photography businesses. Brumbeloe's business savvy has allowed him the opportunity to pursue his fine art as well. This pursuit has also been very successful, being collected by many people in the region, having past representation with a gallery in Sante Fe, and exhibiting his work throughout the United States, so it is safe to say that Brumbeloe is familiar with all of these aspects of the medium which he uses. Being on both the fine and commercial sides of the spectrum, Brumbeloe necessarily understands the viewers relationship to the images. This process and ability has allowed him to develop his newest body of work, "Pentimento", which is both a culmination of, and journey from his past work.

In Brumbeloe's "Pentimento" pieces, he began with images of people walking through a city, keeping to themselves, but with ghost-like images surrounding them. This literally and figuratively represented the way that people tend to keep people with them, haunting themselves and bringing the "ghosts" of others with them. "Pentimento 1" illustrates this, with commanding architecture populated by an elderly woman, strolling through with beautiful gestures, glancing into the viewers space, with the "ghost" image of a younger man headed in the opposite direction in her periphery.

After the series was initiated, Brumbeloe changed his focus from the way that people bring others into spaces, and began focusing further upon the spaces themselves. The result of this experiment began to take the form of intricate architectural still-lifes which are equal parts truth and fiction. Brumbeloe creates the finished product by collecting hundreds and sometimes thousands of raw images — shot without a clear purpose beyond being eye-catching — editing these images down to a handful or more, and then elaborately collaging them together digitally. This method allows Brumbeloe to create a near tremendous variety of locations, but all keeping a similar feel. Part of this similarity is due the forced perspectives created by fusing multiple photos together. All of the vantage points are correct, but because they have been created, register with a residue of falsehood. In "Pentimento 15", Brumbeloe collaged a number of photos together to create an old world, Venetian space, where multiple alleys converge on the beginning of a canal. The perspective in the final piece shifts from section to section as archways, seemingly next to each other tilt, and walls angle in and out as depth is both represented in the original pieces, and created through the collage.

Brumbeloe's work, at first inspection, seems somewhat docile, meditative, and unassuming. Once the viewer gets drawn in further, they become engrossed in the compositional intricacies and art historical references that pour out of these Pentimento pieces. While simultaneously referencing George Tooker-esque complex, emotionally charging compositions, and being as soothing as a Hiroshi Sugimoto seascape, Brumbeloe's "Pentimento" series is a true accomplishment.

"Pentimento 16" is the best example of Brumbeloe's wide-reaching aesthetic in this latest series. Like other pieces, "16"'s composition can be roughly segmented into three "zones." The space on the far right draws the viewer deep with the picture plane, as the eye is drawn along a wall in an extreme perspective down a narrow space littered with remnants and lit in distance. As the eye escapes this little event horizon and travels forward and then up, they are pushed into the foreground and enter the middle area of "16" and focus on a decrepit old wall, populated by curious objects mounted onto a public wall, and a closed window, being flanked by a small fountain or spigot on the indented ground. Being the natural area of the rest, the middle section also acts as the perfect "rebooting space" as the eye travels back and forth through Brumbeloe's space.

This movement in and out of the space is rewarded in the far left section by a truly beautiful wall of graffiti, depicting a stylized koi, a large spiral, and the silhouetted head of a person (or better yet mannequin) adorned with an X. The number of compositional sparks, foils, and characters are impressive alone. The near cubistic treatment of the original photographs is innovative, and the end result is nothing if not refreshing, entertaining, and classically beautiful.

His newest exhibition, "A Different Space," will contain pieces from all of Brumbeloe's current bodies of work, including these "Pentimento" pieces. This will be the first show in a short hiatus for Brumbeloe as he re-examined his practice and constructed the framework for his new work.


" A Different Space" opens December 3rd, from 7-9pm at Tim Brumbeloe Fine Art Gallery, 1301 Lafayette Street.