Brigid Gallagher
Artist's Statement
I have always enjoyed photographing museums -- art museums especially. They're inspiring environments for obvious reasons, and consequently ideal spaces to not only appreciate, but create, art. So choosing to exhibit images I'd taken in art museums didn't seem like a far stretch. Plus, it gave me an excuse to revisit those spaces; to make more art from Art.
As I began sifting through my photographs, two undercurrent themes seemed to surface.
The first was a pestering insistency to showcase the museum buildings as works of art. The buildings I photographed in -- the Art Institute of Chicago, the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Milwaukee Art Museum, 21c (Louisville, Kentucky) and the Tate Modern (London, England) -- all have their own personalities, and watching people interact with those personalities almost became more interesting to me than watching people interact with the art. The aesthetic vision of the museum's architect is something to be reveled in, as is the art that furnishes it. For that reason, it seemed fitting to name certain images after the architects themselves.
The second theme I found suddenly apparent in the photographs is the self-reflexive relationship between art and its viewers. Ansel Adams said that "There are always two people in every picture: the photographer and the viewer." I believe he's correct. A work of art will always possess both the artist's intention and the viewer's interpretation. And in images such as "'Ajay' and Susan," the viewer is captured at a moment when she is internally processing the work before her -- thus embedding it with her own meaning -- while simultaneously becoming the unsuspecting subject of my own artistic vision through the click of the shutter.
I hope you enjoy your experience viewing my photos as much as I did taking them. But mostly, I hope that you share your interpretations with me, for it is through listening to multiple perspectives that one can truly come to a more complex and comprehensive understanding of a given subject.
I would like to express my deep gratitude to LeJean Easley and Richard Stromberg's Chicago Photography Classes for making this opportunity possible. This has been an incredible process. I would also like to give special thanks to my parents, Bernie and Mardee Gallagher, Susan, and my family and friends for their love and support.
