Photographs from the series Visages de Nuit by Wendy Paton will be on view at Sous Les Etoiles Gallery from March 11, 2009 through April 30, 2010. This is Wendy Paton’s first solo exhibition at Sous Les Etoiles Gallery. There will be an opening reception on March 11th from 6-9pm at the gallery.
Wendy Paton allows herself to disappear in order to let her subjects emerge from the night: “My experience is that people act differently at night. They let their guard down. They become who they really are, or they transform themselves into someone, real or imagined, that they want to be. There are seemingly no restrictions at night. Life seems to become more free flowing as opposed to how people tend to act in the light of day.” For Paton, the night is both solemn and cheerful, open to desire and mystery.
Her nocturnal portraits are both intimate and familiar. Intrigued by the mysterious and ever-changing nature of human personalities and their individual choices of expression, Paton felt compelled to focus on people. She did not plan out the details of this series in advance, but instead allowed the project to evolve.
Wendy Paton’s keen interest in photography began in 1981 while in the throes of a successful and groundbreaking career training and driving standard bred racehorses in New York. Her first "real camera," as she says, was a gift, and gave her the tool to document and share her artistic vision of the details of everyday life. Paton’s work is in private collections both in Europe and the United States.
In 2009, she was awarded the CENTER Editor’s Choice Award (Santa Fe, NM). Images from Visages de Nuit have been exhibited at the ICP in New York and were selected for the 2009 Aperture Foundation Benefit and Auction.
