Seeing Double: A Twin Perspective, Photographs by Geoff and Phil Van Kirk
Geoff and Phil Van Kirk
- Nov 2010
What happens when you look at paired images taken by identical twin photographers? You find yourself Seeing Double.
The photo show by that name opens at the Vermont Center for Photography in November. Geoff and Phil Van Kirk have been taking photographs for decades. As they planned the show, they concluded if one is good, two is better--there’s synergy in duos and twos.
Landscapes in color and nature shots, black and white photos, panoramas, and digital collages--their image combinations feature echoes and twin perspectives. Along with the duos, each brother will also be showing some of his favorite images on an individual basis.
A few innovations in printing and display will also be part of the show. A pair of digital photos will be printed on aluminum panels, which imparts an unusual sparkle and look to the final image. In addition a handsome catalog of some 40 images from the show has also been produced on beautiful paper stock and will be for sale at a modest cost.
Twin Geoff started taking black and white photos when he was in college. Darkroom work captured his interest immediately, and he did his first commercial job soon after. Geoff has done a range of editorial, portrait, commercial, assignments and a good deal of photojournalism since the 1970s. However, his primary work in the field has been as a photo educator. After stints in the South Pacific and Hawaii, he has settled down to teaching at the United Nations International School in New York City. During that time he has made a nearly complete transition to digital work and is not so sorry that he doesn‘t have to smell fixer fumes any more. He also spends a several months a year in Newfane Vermont and has been an exhibiting member of VCP since 2008.
Twin Phil also launched into film photography in his late teens, and found his first job in a print shop in 1974. Seeing a great image presented well was a thrill then--and has been ever since in the 37 years he’s spent working in the graphics arts. Phil bought a Mac in 1985 and has studied and embraced Photoshop’s image manipulation tools for the last ten years. Through classes and weekly practice, his understanding of how to combine multiple photos into layered compositions has grown significantly. Created with a mix of serendipity and technique, some of these collages are abstract and evocative, others are whacky and whimsical. None of them existed in his wildest imagination even a decade ago.
Seeing Double is sponsored in part by Silicones, USA.
A selection of images from the exhibit
