Mangrove Coast - Photographs by Barry Fellman
Barry Fellman’s images transport you to a place that seems so foreign at first you might as well be looking at pictures of another planet. But as Fellman’s large photographs draw you in, their seductive patterns give way to reveal evidence of life on earth. You begin to recognize familiar forms like sea grass and shells but still remain unsure about basic notions of scale and distance. Not until your nose is right up to the image might you think that you are looking at a strange and fantastic view of the shoreline near the beach where you went swimming last summer.
Fellman’s photographs were all taken within a narrow band of marine geography stretching along South Florida’s Biscayne Bay coastline. This robust yet delicate environment, the mangrove ecosystem, is the lynchpin of our natural landscape. It provides shoreline protection and is the most important factor in supporting the recreational and commercial activities that have allowed our community to prosper.
It is a complex habitat thatrecycles nutrients and serves as breeding and feeding grounds for hundreds of species, nurturing a wide range of marine life, amphibians, birds, and mammals.
Says Fellman “The visual qualities of the mangrove coastline are varied and complex like the ecosystem itself, reflecting its beauty, rhythms and patterns.
“The elements that make up this zone between sea and land are rich and diverse. They are constantly changing and are a continuing source of inspiration. They challenge me to reinvent the way I see, much as they reinvent the way they assemble themselves after each change in tide.”
“Through these photographs I hope to share the sense of awe and excitement I feel about the wonders in our own back yard. I hope they provoke you to see the familiar in new ways, and I hope they help you feel a closer connection to our natural landscape.”
Barry Fellman is a native Miamian who grew up in South Dade. He studied art and art history at Brown University and Rhode Island School of Design. He is a Silver Knight awardee and is the recipient of a Pollock-Krasner Foundation grant for visual art. Mr. Fellman served as adjunct curator of photography at the Metropolitan Museum and Art Center in Coral Gables and has organized and curated numerous exhibitions of prints, drawings and photographs for public and private institutions on both coasts. Mr. Fellman currently serves as director of Miami's Center for Visual Communication where he has been responsible for organizing and presenting programs that bring visual arts to wide audiences at public venues for many South Florida institutions including Adrienne Arsht Center, Art in Public Places, Biscayne National Park, Dade and Broward County Public Schools, DERM, Miami Dade Transit Authority and South Florida Water Management District. Mr. Fellman's prints and photographs have been exhibited in Boston, Miami, New York, Rhode Island and San Francisco.
