Style (stil) n. 1.The way in which something is said, done, expressed, or performed. 2.The combination of distinctive features of literary or artistic expression, execution, or performance characterizing a particular person, group, school, or era. 3.Sort; type. 4.A quality of imagination and individuality expressed in one’s actions and tastes.
That’s
a dictionary’s attempt to define style. The photograph here, shot
by Hungarian-born Sylvia Plachy, is part of a broader, more multi-dimensional
effort by this year’s Penn Humanities Forum to define that elusive concept.
Forty-seven of her works are now on display at the Arthur Ross Gallery—including
“Repros,” which is the title of both the photograph and the exhibition
itself.
According to Dr. Dilys Winegrad Gr’70, the gallery’s
director and curator, Plachy was invited to select her own works for the
exhibition in conjunction with the Humanities Forum, and her “whimsical
images capture the many ways we as humans impose and reflect style and
styles in the world around us.”
Plachy’s “Unguided Tour,” a column of photographs
without commentary, ran for many years in The Village Voice, where
she is staff photographer; her 1990 book by that name won the International
Center for Photography’s Infinity Award for best publication. Her other
books Red Light (1996) and this year’s Signs & Relics,
which prompted filmmaker Wim Wenders to write: “I finally put Sylvia’s
book down and realized in amazement that photographs can cover all the
good word territories.”
“Repros: Photographs by Sylvia Plachy,” runs from Sept. 5 through Oct. 29 at the Arthur Ross Gallery.
