FREEwilliamsburg: "The Noir A-Z": Photography Packs Glamour and Grit

L is for Lascivious.jpg

Housed in a wedge-shaped Meatpacking District building with a checkered past -- former tenants include a Civil War Hospital and three S&M bars -- the Ivy Brown Gallery provides the perfect backdrop for photographer Julian Hibbard’s show, “The Noir A-Z,” on display now through April 16th. The exhibit features ten limited edition photographs laced with enough impending peril and shadowy intrigue to transport the audience to the seedy underbelly of life. Populated by classic archetypes come to life from the pulpy pages of hard-boiled detective fiction, we’re introduced to a world filled with seductive femme fatales and faceless calculating killers.

The narrative aspect of the work is driven by solitary words that accompany each photo and correspond to a letter in the alphabet a la Edward Gorey, except here the sentiments are often equal parts dark and provocative -- “E” is for Equivocal depicts a masked nurse toting a menacing pair of shears while “L” is for Lascivious hints at libidinous escapades off in the bushes. Further deepening the mystery of each image is the absence of any specific reference to time or place. We can imagine these scenes being vaguely familiar, but at the same time, impossible to identify -- each moment could easily be unfolding as we speak, glimpsed from a fourth floor apartment window located in Anytown, USA -- inviting the viewer to fill in the blanks as the stories unravel out of view.

While New York City's kinder, gentler image might no longer hold the same dangerous allure of its seamier past, spend enough time inhabiting Hibbard’s dreamlike landscapes and you just might find yourself compelled to look over your shoulder a bit more as you wander the lonely streets home at night. And for the beauty getting ready to leap from the ledge in "J" is for Jeopardy -- please don't jump, I want to buy you a drink.

"The Noir A-Z"
March 5th - April 16th
Ivy Brown Gallery
675 Hudson St. #4N
b/w 13th and 14th St.