The evolution of a changing reality is visually documented in our upcoming photography exhibition, “Transitions.” From October 7 to 29, works from art photographers Brook Hedge and Phyllis Berger will ask viewers to look differently at the world around them, allowing them to perceive common images through the artists’ unique perspectives.

 

    “Brook and her work are well respected here at the gallery; we know any photographs of hers will capture the imagination of the viewer. And we are thrilled to welcome Phyllis to the gallery with her creative narrative-style photography collection. Brook and Phyllis share an eye for similar subjects and palettes. Yet, how they see the world through their lenses allows their individualities to shine through. ‘Transitions’ is a very thoughtful and innovative show, and we can’t wait to share it with our clients,” says Tony Boyd-Heron, co-owner and exhibitions director at the gallery. 

 

    After forty years in the legal profession in Washington, D.C., Brook Hedge now pursues her lifelong passion for photography. Through the years, Brook has studied with a number of professionals, and her works have been widely exhibited. Brook has had numerous exhibitions at the Peninsula Gallery including a solo show in 2019; a partner show with her late mentor, Richard Calvo, in 2020; and a group show titled “I Am Woman’ in 2021. The well-known Patricia Ladd Carega Gallery in Sandwich, NH now represents Brook exclusively. In October 2022, she and two colleagues with whom she had a portrait studio presented their work in the exhibition “Six Eyes: Common Vision” at the Rehoboth Art League. 

 

    Brook’s photographs explore the transitions found in both humanity and nature. Her works mix images of vivid landscapes with ghostly black-and-white portraits, contrasting the starkness of nature’s bright and wild world with humanity’s colorless reality. Despite her simple subjects, Brook uses various photography techniques to create meaning in each picture, transforming the everyday into something profound and artistic.     

 

    Phyllis Berger holds an MFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art. She is a faculty member at the Center for Visual Arts at Johns Hopkins University, where she started the Photography program 27 years ago. Phyllis has also lectured on photography in Ecuador, Costa Rica, Peru, Panama, The Galapagos Islands, and Croatia. She is a recipient of two artist residencies in Rochefort en Terre, Brittany, France, and has been awarded numerous teaching grants through JHU (Arthur Vining Davis, Arts Innovation). Her work has been exhibited in three solo shows at the Evergreen Museum and Library, the Museum of Rochefort en Terre, in Britanny France, the MICA Biennale, The Baltimore Museum of Art, the Banneker Douglas Museum, and the Rehoboth Art League. Phyllis’s artwork also resides in many private collections.

 

    The 15 pieces Phyllis has on display in “Transitions” create a narrative journey for viewers to explore. The series titled “The Lifted Veil” shows her transition as a mystic traveler seeing and experiencing the world through color and nature. The photographs tell a fictional story filled with magic, mysticism, and folklore, which serves as a metaphor for Phyllis’s recovery from life-altering surgery.