“Freefall,” Photography by
College Professor Dr. Erica Polakoff
March 27, 2003, Bloomfield, NJ – Freefall, a photography exhibit by Dr. Erica G. Polakoff, Bloomfield College Associate Professor of Sociology, will be on view March 24, through April 29, 2003 at the Westminster Art Gallery in Bloomfield College’s Westminster Arts Center, corner of Franklin and Fremont Streets in Bloomfield, New Jersey. An opening reception will be held on Thursday, March 27 from 4 to 6 p.m.
The photographs, part of a series taken primarily in the Finger Lakes Region of New York State, is Polakoff’s first exhibition to include full-color photography. Often perched at dizzying heights peering into gorges of the region’s state parks, the photographer challenged herself to literally explore new heights and let go of past constraints. Her feelings about the exhibit are found in the following excerpt of the artist’s statement:
Freefall: Waterfall. Falling free. Letting go.
A flight through fear…
Fear of heights. Fear of drowning. Fear of slipping to the other side.
Over the edge.
Going mad. Losing sight. Dying.
Freefall: Freedom and risk…
Freefall: another beginning. Seeing through another lens. Feeling the motion of light on water. Conjuring faces carved into slate. Transforming millions of crystalline droplets into a silken sheaf. Changing speed. Slowing down. Changing distance. Moving in-and-out-of-focus. Ten thousand feet above sea level descending to the forest floor.
Polakoff spent 12 years in the Finger Lakes Region while attending Cornell University, but says she had to get away from the beauty of the region before she could really appreciate its magic; her previous work consisted of black and white portrait photography of the people of South and Central America. “Being away from it, the everyday became exotic. I was too busy looking out, not in, south, across the border, instead of at what was all around me,” she noted.
Polakoff wishes to acknowledge her partner in art, Thomas Freeman Slaughter, for his inspiration and encouragement, and her teacher, Susan Kleckner who she says, “shook me out of what I was doing and made me stretch.”
The show is dedicated to Polakoff’s beloved companion of 15 years, Buddy (ne Rambo’s Rocky, sired by Regency “Kit” Nightrider, Ch.), and to the late Bloomfield College Professor Dave Kilbourn, who she says, “ had a passion for photography and the physics of everyday living.”
Gallery hours are 1 – 4:30 p.m., Monday through Thursday, Friday 11 a.m. – 2 p.m., or by appointment. For more information call 973-748-9000, x 343 or visit www.bloomfield.edu/about/location.htm.
