NY Tales by LUKE DRATWA
Kasia Kay Gallery
215 N. Aberdeen St.
Chicago, IL 60607
Luc Dratwa is best known for his “Window” series of photographs taken from the 65th floor of Rockefeller Center with a view of the Empire State Building, as well as the “Subway” series, both taken at the New York City subway. Dratwa captures familiar imagery and contextualizes his subject matter within a fragmented realm of New York City. In essence, he constructs a vision that is his own unique rendition of the city.
In the “Window” series of photographs, the artist catches people as they gaze at the astonishing cityscape. Through Dratwa’s framing, the audience is granted a perspective of view that becomes timeless.
The “Subway” series illustrates Dratwa’s concern for the perfection in construction which leaves nothing to chance. As the fruit of long hours of watching and waiting before the lens shoots that one image, “Subway” captures an underground world from which man is physically absent most of the time. At the same instance, Dratwa captures a reality magnified by the poetry of the detail, a reality that generates a perfect balance, a harmony of lines, forms, rhythms and contrasts that is nothing short of faultless. This is driven by a total vision which proves that beauty is everywhere, even in the metal framework of a train carriage, the perspective of a tunnel and the light of a deserted platform.
For Luc Dratwa, every subject he tackles is as much a story as it is a photographic work. “I write stories, where others would translate them into music, poetry or novels. I tell my stories on photo paper”.
Dratwa received three awards for the above series, including the Gallery Award and two “Art Lovers” Awards in 2011. He has been featured in exhibitions in Rome, Paris, Tokyo and New York. “NY Tales” is his first solo exhibition with Kasia Kay Gallery. The artist resides in Belgium.
