Represented by ModernBook Gallery

49 Geary Street, 4th Floor

San Francisco, California

(415) 732-0300

http://www.modernbook.com/richardstultz.htm

Urban Constructs and Choices can be seen at Modernbook Gallery.

About the photographs

Choices

When we shop, we are presented with aisles of thousands of different products.  There are shelves with an endless variety of similar items, often just a variation on the ones next to them. Other shelves display large quantities of identical products.

We may find 50 types of beer, dozens of ways to soothe an upset stomach, or 14 types of Pop Tarts.  There are cans of dog and cat food with descriptions that sound as appetizing as anything we might cook for ourselves.  There are so many shades of hair coloring that we can’t distinguish between many of them.

Beyond the astounding quantity and selection, retail displays are often visually interesting with striking design elements, color, and repetitive patterns.  But as we shop and try to find the perfect product, we often don’t see the perverse beauty of these choices.  The urban landscape with its man-made structures confronts us all the time. We live, work, and play in it, but it’s so ordinary that we often don’t really see it.  Our eyes take it in, but nothing registers internally, perhaps because the urban landscape seems rather unremarkable. With so many of these urban visual images continually flowing through our consciousness, we don’t see that there is more there. My interest is in making the unremarkable remarkable.

Urban Interests

What a fascinating place the urban landscape is, with its intersection of architectural shapes, light, and color. Using these elements, I strive to create a structure within an image that’s especially satisfying. Sometimes the scene is mostly geometrical, consisting of trapezoids, rectangles, triangles, and circles. Sometimes it’s sweeping curves punctuated by straight lines and smooth gradations of light.

The interplay of these forms moves the eye to sense the interrelatedness of all of the shapes. The repetition of identical elements points, consolidates, and directs the eye toward other interesting elements. The shapes all vie for position, all want to take center stage, yet are unable to move. But the eye can move, the eye can see the relationships, and the eye can pull the image together into a satisfying whole. 

About Richard Stultz

Richard Stultz has exhibited his photographs in solo and group exhibitions in the western United States. His work has been published in numerous magazines and is held in public and private collections.  He is represented by Modernbook Gallery in San Francisco, California.  He operates a commercial architectural photography practice in the San Francisco Bay Area.