The Same Is Not the Same: Irene Imfeld
Sunday September 8, 2019
11:00 AM - 5:00 PM

Irene Imfeld, a noted Bay Area photographer, and previously co–owner of PHOTO gallery in Oakland, now
focuses on the worlds of plants and birds. Inspired by some of the earliest photographic images of botanical
subjects, she joins the ranks of photographers with both scientific and poetic inclinations — and
sometimes both. Her relatively ‘straight’ portrayals of mushrooms (albeit magnified, and composed
with an eye to abstraction), and the sharply rendered bird plumage of the 2014 Vacant Nest series,
fall nicely within the 150–year tradition of fine–art nature photography. However, Imfeld’s
lyrical abstractions made possible with digital technology — duplicating, reversing, superimposing,
altering color palettes — are impressionistic, subjective, and decidedly contemporary.
Her With a Crane’s Eye series may derive from photographs of plants and grasses, but she
transforms them into pyrotechnic calligraphy like the paintings of Jackson Pollock, spatially flat, infinitely
deep, and perhaps even visionary. Imfeld’s photographs remind us of John Muir’s advice to anxious
urbanites: not to ‘hike,’ but to ‘saunter reverently’ in nature.
The exhibition runs through October 6, 2019.
Sunday September 15, 2 pm
Q&A Artist Talk with Charles Anselmo and Irene Imfeld
Photo: ©Irene Imfeld