Works on Paper-Benjamin Montague's Photos

 Works on Paper is a small gallery located above American Apparel on Walnut Street.  The gallery holds original pieces by Chuck Close, Jim Dine, Richard Serra, and Andy Warhol to name a few.  They specialize in prints from the 1960's to today.  Benjamin Montague "A Photographic Reflection" was showing in the front of the gallery when I visited. 

The three pieces I spent the most time with was his "Memory" collection.  The photos are all out of focus pictures of children.  When I first looked at these pictures, I found them not very inventive, unoriginal, and sort of a stereotypical thing for a photographer to do: taking fuzzy photos and entitling them "Memory." However, I still found them very easy to access and relate to, which can be a nice quality in a work of art.  I laughed to myself when I decided if this was my collection of photos I would entitle it "My Life Without Glasses."  I began to think that there are so many different reasons why a memory can become fuzzy when time passes.  Then I read the artist's statement on the "Memory" collection.  He decided to take these photos as a reaction to the fear of getting Alzheimer's disease - which is common in his family.  After reading that,  I felt that these photos were much more sad and chilling.