The University of Maine at Presque Isle’s Reed Art Gallery has been known for having beautiful and unique art exhibitions. The photography collection “Downtown” by Heath Paley is no exception. It contains 32 pictures of downtown settings all over the state of Maine, although not all 32 are shown in our gallery. The collection shows how beautiful Maine urban areas are, even though some people might not consider the area to be “Urban.” It represents the state well and hopefully will be seen nationwide.
“It’s kind of interesting. As I unpackaged the ones, I kind of liked how they talk and have a dialogue with each other and show different regions of the state as well,” Hyrum Benson, Reed Art Gallery director, said.
Benson picked which of the 32 to display, basing it on their size. He wanted to use larger photographs and make an impression.
The collection took two or three years for Paley to complete. He has been a photographer for about 10 years and brings a unique twist to photography. “The pictures are taken in a rather unusual manner. They’re put together: they’re actually composites,” Paley said. “There are multiple shots that overlap a little bit, so that’s why the resolution is as high as it is. It’s sort of a grid, and the pictures are put together in Photoshop.”
The collection is unique compared to anything that has been displayed at the Reed Art Gallery in the past. “We haven’t really had, since I’ve been here, any urban settings for photography work,” Benson said. “I think it’s great to have this kind of intimate, urban setting that we all kind of know and understand in a way. But then we see them in different perspectives.”
This collection first appeared in the State House in Augusta as a part of the Maine Arts Commission. It was also at the University of Maine at Orono in the art department for several months. Paley was very happy to find out that UMPI was interested in displaying his collection.
The exhibition runs from Jan. 17 to March 24, 2017. The public is invited to attend the gallery reception on March 3 from 5-7 p.m. It will include a gallery talk with Paley. For more information on this event, this collection or the art gallery, contact Hyrum Benson at hyrum.benson@maine.edu.
