On display in the Davison Art Center is a collection of 69 black and white photographs by Philip Trager ’56. Returning for his 50-year reunion, Trager donated photographs from every point of his distinguished career. They range from his original interest in New England architecture to his more recent photos of dancers.
Claire Rogan, curator of DAC, has tried to capture the mastery of Trager’s gelatin silver prints in her show. There is a small display of “prints in progress” containing Trager’s own remarks written extensively across them.
“A lot is done in the darkroom,” Trager said.
“Philip Trager is an immaculate printer,” Rogan said. “He really has an eye for different tonal range.”
Trager’s photographs capture the dappling of light on a door or the encroaching of a shadow. In some prints the depth is so deep it seems as though there is no photograph but only rolling hills receding from the Villa. In others the photograph utilizes a shallow perspective to split a building in half with a tall sheered tree. In all, Trager’s great control of his medium is greatly emphasized.
“In all of my work, I am just trying to evoke an emotion,” Trager said.
Encompassing Trager’s life work, a walk around the gallery begins with the symmetrical New England architecture prints and transports the viewer to a motion filled New York, and to the grand Villas of Palladio. In stark contrast with his early stocky symmetrical work, the New York prints use the play of light and shadow to add movement to the prints, capturing the essence of the fast paced New York. The buildings reach out, seeming to grow, pressing against the borders of the photographs.
“Without people, Philip manages to capture a sense of rhythm and motion in the buildings,” Rogan said.
This creative manipulation in his early architectural work translates well to his photography of the dancers, but unavoidable differences offered new challenges.
“The obvious—when dealing with people there are different interactions,” Trager said. “I had to learn to understand and anticipate movement, but really I was still just trying to capture the presence of a subject, just like in my photographs of buildings.”
The less obvious was that Trager had to learn how to operate a much smaller camera that had faster shutter speeds. In his architectural panoramas Trager used a large view camera on a tripod.
Trager’s switch to dance photography was not a drastic change in his eyes. He had taken many portraits of his wife, Ina Trager, included in his “Retrospective” book.
“I just woke up one morning and decided that the next thing to do was dance,” he said. “I didn’t have any special knowledge, but I was ready for a change.”
The architectural themes had involved a lot of traveling, which he and Ina had enjoyed, but at this point he needed something he could do closer to home. Fourteen years ago he stopped practicing law and turned more towards his photography.
Trager’s work is included in the collection of the Metropolitan and Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris, and Canadian Centre for Architecture. His publications include “Philip Trager: New York” (1980), The Villas of Palladio“ (1986), and ”Dancers“ (1992). His most recent book is ”Changing Paris: A Tour Along the Seine“ (2000).
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