10/10/09 Stephanie Abraham: James L. Gonzales

This week I viewed "Pictures Without a Story," the work of James L. Gonzales. In this series he shot several photographs in a parking lot one sweltering day last July while waiting on a car repair. He used parking curbs and lines, and also geometric shapes and arrows painted on the asphalt to create abstract images. The content of the photographs is not easily recognizable because Gonzales shoots at odd angles in order to document his vision. I think it is interesting that the parking lots are not very noticeable in the picture. Once one realizes this it makes the photos more intriguing. If this was an obvious aspect to his photos they would not be worth looking at. It would be too recognizable. I also noticed that his work has a pop art appearance to them. This is probably because they look somewhat commercial and contain very geometric shapes. I think the title suits the series because obviously they do not tell a story but are about lines and shapes. Then I thought, well maybe they do tell a story. The story could be that the photographs are of everyday scenes but the viewer may have to really try to read the photo to discover this.