Repair & Shine: Photographs by Lindsay Blatt
Thursday, October 30th, 2008 kimbo
The Rabbithole Gallery in Brooklyn, New York, is pleased to announce the opening of Lindsay Blatt’s “Repair & Shine,” a solo photographic exhibition featuring large-format environmental portraits and still lifes of neighborhood shoe repairmen and their shops. The show will run from November 6 to November 30 at the gallery, which is located at 33 Washington Street in DUMBO, Brooklyn. Please contact the gallery for hours, 718.852.1500. Opening reception on Thursday Nov. 6th from 5:00-9:00 PM, with live music by Hang the Lights and Giancarlo Vulcano.
In our throw-away world teeming with molded plastic products, Lindsay pauses to celebrate the tradition of skillful repair carried out with age-old skills and time-honored tools. Little removed from their traditional roots, the shoe repairmen in Lindsay’s photos mend footwear in a manner that has not changed for decades. Enter these photographs and you smell the tanning solutions, the scent of leather, the sweat of honest labor. In a world of assembly lines and blister packs, Lindsay reveals an unseen realm where practiced hands refurbish, resole, and breathe new life into shoes that have lives of their own. She celebrates the dedication of these men who persevere generation after generation in tiny shops filled with spinning brushes, leather stitchers, and shoe forms. With the detail of a 4×5 view camera- itself an anachronistic instrument in a digital world- Lindsay’s work, too, is a labor of love.
Lindsay Blatt specializes in large format photography, focusing on environmental portraiture and still life. She earned a BFA in Photography from Pratt Institute, and was honored with their Outstanding Merit in Photography award. Lindsay has exhibited her photographs at the Steuben Gallery, the Hammerstein Ballroom, Slideluck Potshow V, and the 2006 Rider Project. She co-curated the Rider Project’s 2006 “Neubees” exhibition, a mobile show installed in the back of a moving truck that traveled throughout New York City. The Brooklyn Arts Council awarded Lindsay a 2008 grant in support of her large-format photo essay on Brooklyn’s shoe repairmen. Her work is in the collections of the Benjamin Cardozo School of Law and 826NYC. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.
For more information, please visit www.lindsayblatt.com or call 718.813.1952.