Featured Artist in the Alcove: Ralph Gabriner

The most important part of the Arts’ Alcove is, of course, the artists. Our goal is to tell you all a little bit more about them through their artwork and podcasts. Through the Arts’ Alcove, you can view their submissions, find links to see more of their work, and support them by donating.

As always, we are excited you are here and grateful for your support. It’s because of viewers and listeners like you, Off the Hook Arts can feature and support so many talented artists. Thank you!

This week, we are taking a look back at one of previously featured artists in the Alcove, Ralph Gabriner. Ralph is a photographer whose skill is certainly well seasoned, yet his inspiration comes from “searching for a new way to view the world.”

One of our Off the Hook Arts interns, Dominic, sat down with Ralph Gabriner to talk about the ways he sets out to capture his particular view. “The world is constantly being shifted and re-shifted, and my goal is to kind of capture that shifting,” Gabriner explains.

“They have the effect of overpowering the eye.”

In his series of Photographs from India, Gabriner explains that it’s easy to feel overwhelmed in places like that, “they have the effect of overpowering the eye,” as he puts it. When you look at his photographs, it’s easy to see how the bright saturated colors and the overflow of life onto the streets, could make one feel that way.

But, as Gabriner explains, those very combinations of elements that feel like an assault on the senses, are the very thing that create the everyday surprises that produce “even a momentary sense of satisfaction,“ necessary in choosing what to capture.

Gabriner views the mystery of photography, to that of painting—how he, as an artist, has to establish his own “recombination of elements in the world” to help the viewer see the surprises that inspire him.

It’s easy to see this surprise and excitement in his work. The photojournalistic quality of his work, combined with the playful representation of the human/animal duality, give Gabriner’s photography immediacy, yet also a sense that we are getting a peek inside mysterious worlds that only his particular skill enables us to see.

You can hear more of Dominic’s interview with Ralph Gabriner on the Off the Hook Arts podcast episode called, “A Photographer’s Guide to Shtick and Surprise.” While you’re there, check out some of our past episodes highlighting many of our talented artists supported by Off the Hook Arts, and listeners just like you.