Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Two people looking at the same thing can see two completely different things. Perspective is everything.
These ideas present themselves visually in Greg Klassen's upcoming exhibition called In-Between, opening next Thursday at the Two Rivers Rustad Galleria.
"The 15 images that are called In-Between are part of a larger series that is called Liminal Spaces," Klassen explained. "Both names refer to the same concept."
There is a theoretical aspect and a practical one, Klassen added.
"In my mind the two intersect," he said. "I'm a person who tends to think intellectually a great deal about my work before I even start it. In regular communication, I've often had difficulty getting the idea across to people and I found that in my photography it works extremely well. For me, it's become a communication device that words haven't been."
The series, which is his first professional portfolio and introduction to artistic photography, started several years ago when Klassen would go out and explore old abandoned structures. When he had a family, he would bring them along until years later his daughter, Morgan, voiced her opinion. She definitely did not see what he saw when he looked at the run-down places, he said.
"Morgan started rebelling when it came to going out to do these trips, because it was boring, she couldn't see our point of view and she wanted to do her own thing," said Klassen. "So in a sense, the images in the exhibit are the discussion that she and I were having about these places. Her reaction, my reaction, the place, all put into a single image and that image then is a reflection of that in-between space that is our different reactions to that objective space. And for me that is the connection between the practical and the theoretical."
The questions arose, he said, about why doesn't she like what I like? What is happening in that space between us?
"And the next really interesting question, that really excites me as a photographer, is how do you then turn that question into an image?" Klassen said. "That's still the question that drives all of my projects to this day and hopefully until the day I die. This desire to photograph things not traditionally - and I am going to use a word here that I don't think is real - photographable. To photograph concepts rather than things and then to talk about the relationship between concept and things."
Klassen, who spent 30 years working as a research scientist, added said he's always had this sense of duality, an unresolved issue between his scientific brain and his artistic side. ,
"But about 11 years ago a variety of very personal things happened in my family that led me to realize I had to make some changes," Klassen said. "And those changes made it possible for me to explore something that was then only considered a hobby - the photography and the arts. I went with it and with the help of my family, without whom I couldn't have done any of this, jumped in with both feet and I started to learn what it meant to be an artist. "
The opening reception is on Thursday at 7.30 p.m. at the Rustad Galleria, with Klassen offering an artist's talk.
