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New York City's dizzying daily kaleidoscope of color and light - reflected in office building windows, street puddles, passing cars and much more - provides the inspiration for New York photographer Joe Rubin's new show "Reflections," continuing through July 9 at the Good News Cafe and Gallery.
An attorney by profession who describes photographic art as his life's passion, Rubin has developed his intensely personal style of photography in a series of works taken around the world over the past 25 years, expressed in a visual vocabulary closely related to painting.
"I tend to see the world in terms of its visual aesthetics - colors, shapes and patterns," Rubin explained. "I try to 'paint' my impressions using a camera rather than a brush. My aim is not to 'capture' a moment or scene in reality, but rather to arouse or re-create in the viewer the emotions generated by that scene or action. I use composition and lighting effects to highlight the visual elements that moved me to take the photograph."
Rubin's current exhibition at Good News Cafe features selections from his photographic journey over more than two decades, with special emphasis on a series of reflected images of his hometown, New York City. The New York photo series also will provide the basis for his soon-to-be-published book "Reflections of New York."
"My collection of 'reflections' was inspired by walking around New York City one day and looking at the fantastical, colorful reflections in office building windows, storefronts, shiny vehicles, puddles in the street, and the lake in Central Park," he explained. Titles from the Good News show such as "Citicorp," "Forty-fourth and Lex," "Lever's Windows," "Gaudi on Fifth," "Park Avenue Cubic" and "Urban Whirl" offer a sense of his photographic wanderings through the streets of Manhattan.
"For an exciting visual experience," Rubin observed, "we have only to pause for a moment in our busy, preoccupied lives to look around at the countless, ever-changing reflections that surround us, and allow our imaginations to take a little diversionary romp before returning to the mainstream of our daily routines. Everyone should give it a try!"
Rubin grew up with a lively interest in the arts, participating in musical and dramatic performance as a student. He traces his beginnings in photography to his studies under noted professionals including Emanuel and Morris Warman, Galen Rowell and Frans Lanting, and to his early work as a staff photographer for Columbia University.
As he has built an increasingly broad collection of professional work, Rubin has exhibited his photographs at a wide range of venues in the eastern United States, Latin America and Europe. He has participated in shows at Columbia University, Long Island University, the Pan American Gallery in New York, the Inter-American Gallery in Guatemala, and the "Brazil Today" show in Rio de Janeiro. A collection of his images recently was accepted for permanent display in the Ixchel Museum in Guatemala. Limited-edition prints of Rubin's photographs have been purchased for private collections, and have been sold at the prestigious Aguttes art auction house in Paris.
In addition to his present show, Rubin plans a busy schedule of exhibitions through the end of 2008 that will bring his photographic works to Italy, Mexico and China.
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