MICHEAL MCLAUGHLIN
JET LAG

November 14th through December 23rd
Opening Reception: Wednesday, November, 14th, 5:30-8:30

The Robin Rice Gallery is pleased to present Micheal McLaughlin's latest exhibition, Jet Lag.

This is McLaughlin's fourth solo at the Robin Rice Gallery, and the first time he'll be showing his film-based, digitally printed color photographs.

Jet Lag reveals the insightful musings of a reportage photographer working on both fine art and commercial projects. While traveling the world, McLaughlin has captured seemingly uneventful moments that bind very different cultures together through life's routines. “When you travel a lot,” McLaughlin explains “you get a sense of the commonality throughout the world.” His series of twenty photographs, provides both seasoned explorers and arm chair travelers with the opportunity to better understand and embrace our shared humanity.

Rather than try to manipulate the situation, McLaughlin's “poetic documentation” of ordinary lives is reminiscent of photographers Jack Delano, Harry Callahan, or Carlo Bevilacqua.

McLaughlin has an eye for finding subtly amusing moments, like the highway photo taken in Bangkok, which features a large, coin shaped plaque honoring the Queen of Denmark. Or the image of a beach in Rio, seen from high above, the congested world below becomes a geometric abstract. And his shot of a western gas station, glowing in the dusky light, epitomizes life on the road.

McLaughlin's portraits of a bus driver on break in Bangkok, a proud strongman at a Bombay Circus, and a Tokyo subway car full of sleepy commuters are equally revealing. McLaughlin describes his characters as “specific yet general”. His hope is to communicate the idea that everyday lives, often taken for granted, are meaningful precisely because we can all relate to the common rituals revealed in his photographs.

Shot on medium-format film, but printed digitally, the picture are richly detailed. Three are large scale 35 inches square, the rest are 16 inches square, and all are framed. McLaughlin's past exhibitions at the Robin Rice gallery were Bklyn in 2003, Eden in 2000, and Pictures in America 1998.

Jet Lag will be on view from November 14th through December 23rd, 2007.