Studio Montclair, Inc. (SMI) has scored again with “Depth of Field,” a 12-person, 38-piece show of alternate photography that opened last week with a jam-packed reception at the Montclair Public Library.  It runs all month during regular library hours and is not to be missed. Curated by photographer Laurie McCoy Foster, the show fascinates and beguiles. 

This is a great  month for the not-for-profit SMI artist collective: SMI artists are also causing a sensation with both "Considering Collage" at the SMI Galleries at Academy Square in town  and their 14^thAnnual Juried Show, "Viewpoints: A Contemporary Survey" at Newark’s prestigious Aljira Gallery. 

First, a definition: In "Depth of Field," alternate photography refers to subject matter, matter of display or how the image was taken. If the definition seems off- putting, see the exhibit. Believe me, you will stay put. 

There is the provocative: Joy Glenn’s “Wired” which put me in mind of Man Ray’s 1924 “Le Violin d’Ingres.” Then, the evocative: Leslie A. Ford’s semi-abstract landscapes, (see “Early Bright,” pictured above.) And the strange -- Peter Jacobs' spectral video stills on chiffon which made me think of some of the eerily beautiful films first produced by the Edison Company. One of Jacobs' “Still Moving” series is pictured here. 

During the opening reception, Bloomfield’s Elaine Matzak, an abstract photography instructor at New York’s School of Visual Arts, was drawn to Ford’s quintet of work. “I love that there is no end to space, it’s infinite,” Matzak said. “I like that she has gotten past the object-ness of the landscape.” 

It was that kind of night with most of the exhibit’s top area photographers present and talking about the work on view. 

Everyone had their personal favorites. Mine are the works of Montclair-based photographer Yvette Lucas, whose sepia toned solar plate etchings have been haunting me at various shows around town all season, as well as those of West Orange-based Bill Westheimer, whose work I similarly out-and-out adore. Both take the natural world as their starting point, then follow their own distinct visions. 

Writer and photographer Eric Levin (I will be writing about his current one-man show for Montclair Arts Talk later this month) was among the Lucas admirers at the reception. Levin sent these thoughts on Lucas’ work:  

"Each of her landscapes describes a place not quite like any other,” Levin said via email. “They are the kind of places you would hope to come across if you wandered in the woods for days and days, and on reaching it, you would feel you had arrived at a sanctuary, a place of blessed peace, though also a place that in some way nature had tested and bent to its will." 

I say, “Be still my beating heart.”  (See “Water & Sky,” pictured above.)

Lucas and Westheimer have a mutual admiration society—neither uses mainstream methods: Yvette’s solar plate etchings are from Holga film photographs and Bill giclee prints are made from wet plate collodion negatives. Holgas are toy cameras from China, much favored by many award-winning art photographers. 

 “I chose Bill’s “Rose Cane # 17" (pictured here) for the exhibit’s hand card because of its graphic power,” said Lucas, SMI’s volunteer communications co-cordinator. “I love Bill’s work in general. He has a way of observing and defining something often overlooked; here, it's a piece of a rose cane. He’s not going for the flower.” 

As to “Rose Cane # 17 and its companion “Rose Cane # 9,” Westheimer hears varied interpretations of what viewers think they are looking at--from peaks of meringue to the peaks of the Grand Tetons.

“I like a picture where you may know what it is—or not, “Westheimer said. “Beauty is in everything, in a discarded rose stem.” 

The complete list of exhibiting artists is Donna Bassin, Leslie Ford, Joy Glenn, Susan Herman, Peter Jacobs, Carrie Lhotka, Yvette Lucas, Diana Polack, Jami Saunders, Marilyn Stevenson, Carol Waksal, and Bill Westheimer.  All are members of Studio Montclair, Inc.

“Depth of Field" is on view through June 30 at the Montclair Public Library, 50 Fullerton Street. Hours are Mondays and Fridays, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Tuesdays through Thursdays 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Saturday 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. To learn more, see www.studiomontclair.org or call (973) 744-1818