Architecture is an amazing combination of science and art. Balancing feats of concrete, steel and glass, brick and mortar, asphalt and cobbles, structures rise up around us. So many take for granted the structures that keep us safe, working, moving and shelter us from coming storms. Kathleen DeCarlo-Plano took to the streets to mix architecture, humanity and abstraction to create images combining organic and rigid texture, people and place in her series Urban Awareness.
Urban Awareness
I’m fascinated with the inherent beauty and geometry of the city. However, what is even more intriguing is how we, as humans, can lose ourselves within our own minds dreaming of either the future or the past and transport through this beauty without noticing the subtlety around us. The texture, strength, arrangement, thought, and soul left within the structures by their creators is so pervasive…yet often unnoticed. With camera in hand, I strove to capture the incredible dichotomy within this human condition first-hand. It is in studying closely individuals in this state, that allows me to strive to transcend this condition and simply appreciate the incredible beauty of our surroundings within the moment. Urban Awareness is a call to awakening to the here and now, the beauty of the moment.
I feel passion for blending scale and geometry, while using available light, shadows, and leading lines to draw the viewer into looking at a city in a more deliberate manner.
We asked Kathleen about her experience with the Atelier –
What do you hope we as viewers take away from viewing your work?
To see the calm and beauty of a cityscape that is often not observed by the individual immersed in that environment.
How the Atelier has helped hone your vision as an artist?
I have always deeply loved photography but was busy with another career and family life. The Atelier is my first step in honing my artist perceptive. It gave me the opportunity to step out of my comfort zone and showcase my first exhibit. It also gave me the opportunity to learn from a wonderful teacher and group of supportive colleagues. I plan on continuing my artist development though the Atelier in the fall. Presently, I photographing my family and neighborhood daily as social distancing is now our new normal.
About Kathleen DeCarlo-Plano
Kathleen DeCarlo-Plano is a street photographer whose graphic images capture the beauty and spontaneity of the human experience in the city.
DeCarlo-Plano’s photography is informed by her work as a psychologist. She finds inspiration in observing, interpreting, and photographing how people relate to one another and to the environment.
Her work will be exhibited at the Griffin Museum of Photography in Winchester, MA, in the spring of 2020. DeCarlo-Plano has studied at the New England School of Photography in Boston, MA, and the Griffin Museum of Photography.
Find Kathy on Instagram – @kathydecarloplano
