CRITICAL REFLECTION
Elliott McDowell—New Mexico Photographs: 1975-2015
Webster Collection
54½ Lincoln Avenue (on the Plaza), Santa Fe
“To compose a subject well means no more than to see and present it in the strongest manner possible.”
—Edward Weston
AROUND 1964 ELLIOTT MCDOWELL BEGAN MAKING PHOTOGRAPHS OF HIS FRIENDS
using a Polaroid Land Camera. Several years later he began to do serious photography.
while pretty much abandoning his black-and-white work. This body of work—represent-
His subject matter at the time was decidedly direct: a lone cactus in the desert, the fins
ed by just one photograph in the exhibition—gave visual form to McDowell’s thoughts,
of a 1960 Fleetwood Cadillac, and powerful portraits of the many characters that peo-
feelings, memories, dreams, and fantasies. Although attractive, colorful, thought provok-
pled the streets of Santa Fe and Taos in the seventies. His photographs were immaculate,
ing, and technically excellent, it lacked the potent presence of the earlier work, with its
thoughtful, and displayed an unmistakable crispness. His compositions were formal and
melancholic whites and dark, moody blacks.
pure. McDowell was not a snapshot shooter, nor a photographer who made hundreds of
The exhibition at the Webster Collection is a showcase of stunning works by Mc-
exposures to get the shot. He took the time needed to investigate his subject matter, to
Dowell—photographs that focus on artists and landscapes, and span more than forty
carefully look, and then compose before taking his picture. He was not one to depend on
years of image making. His portraits of artists—R.C. Gorman, Tony Price, Fritz Scholder,
luck or the happy accident. Instead he trusted his eye, his intuition. Many of his portraits of
to name but a few—capture the essence of each subject, which is the main objective
artists are downright iconic. And his print technique was always impeccable.
of portraiture and also its main difficulty. Gesture and refinement are characteristically
McDowell’s source of inspiration was the work of Edward Weston. He studied
present in each of McDowell’s portraits. Included in the show are his marvelous Boots and
Weston’s photographs and read his books. He was also, as were many photographers,
Wurlitzer and Moonrise Over Rolls Royce—a play on Ansel Adams’s famous 1941 Moonrise,
influenced by Ansel Adams’s approach to black-and-white photography—the zone sys-
Hernandez, New Mexico. Other standout photographs in the exhibition are too numerous
tem, which, simply stated was that there is just one color in black-and-white photogra-
to mention. If one enjoys the sheer beauty of the gelatin silver print, this is one exhibition
phy that is interesting: gray. Black is the darkest gray tone, stripped of all light. White is
not to be missed.
the lightest gray tone, pure light. There’s just one pure black tone and there’s only one
—Veronica Aronson
pure white tone, but there are two hundred and fifty-three shades of gray. Therefore,
gray rules and dominates black-and-white photographs. “Gray rules” became McDow-
Left: Elliott McDowell, Tony Price: Yucca Flats, gelatin silver print, 16” x 16”, 1982
ell’s photographic mantra.
Right: Elliott McDowell, Boots and Wurlitzer, gelatin silver print, 20” x 16”, 1977
It was in 1996 that McDowell took a detour from straight photography. He discovered and fell madly in love with Photoshop, with the world of digital photography, and
with Surrealism. In the darkroom, he used various printing techniques to create images
that resembled a cross between a watercolor and a photograph. He experimented with
layering of images, double and triple exposures—making dreamlike montages in color,
NOVEMBER
2015
THE magazine | 43