Hard Time Mini Mall: Frank Relle
Frank Relle‘s photography has a haunting quality, and we eagerly anticipate his feature in Shooting Gallery‘s Hard Time Mini Mall group show, curated by the Red Truck Gallery. The artist started life as a writer, but after reading Tolstoy while working on a tugboat in the Caribbean, he realized that he “would never cut it.” His inspiration to become a photographer occurred during a more banal circumstance. He had moved back to his hometown of New Orleans, where he drove his grandmother’s 1986 Lincoln Town Car at night. He discovered that the wide, old windshield and low lighting framed the outside world in an uniquely theatrical way. Many of Relle’s photographs capture the spirit of this artificial staging; oftentimes there are several layers between fore- and backgrounds, as illuminated by the uniform, grating light. The dreamlike aura of Relle’s photography drew us in at first sight, giving a new look into both the beauty and the ruins of New Orleans.
Relle has been widely recognized for his photographs through winning the Photo Lucida-Critical Mass Top 50, and the Lucie International Photography Award. He has also been interviewed by the New Orleans Times-Picayune, as well as written up in Objects: Journal of Applied Arts.
Hard Time Mini Mall
Opening Reception – Saturday, April 13, 7-11 pm
On View Through May 04, 2024
@ Shooting Gallery (shootinggallerysf.com)
886 Geary, San Francisco, CA
More photos from Relle after the jump.