Downtown Maine photography exhibit to open July 22 in Lord Hall Gallery

The Lord Hall Gallery at the University of Maine presents an exhibition of the rich and compelling photographs of Heath Paley.

“Picturing Downtown Maine,” which runs from July 22 through Sept. 23, includes a selection of large-scale photographs that paint a portrait of Maine’s community life. The images, created between 2009 and 2014, come from a process of collecting photographs as sketches — as would an en plein air painter — and then bringing to life a vivid, collective image of a particular place through the coming together of individual photographs.

Paley collects and layers individual digital photographs, isolating “sections of the overall photograph to accentuate contrast and color, thereby giving them an increased significance.” He sees the pixels that make up individual images as “open to interpretation,” as something to be enhanced, altered or eliminated. The slow process of working with each photograph gives Paley time to “shape its subtext as well as its surface, much like a writer following characters toward resolution.”

Paley lives in Portland. He earned a master of arts degree at Northeastern University and a master of fine arts degree at Emerson College in Boston.  He has won awards for his cumulative photographs and has been exhibited widely. Paley’s work is held in the collections of the Portland Museum of Art and the Saco Museum.

An artist’s reception is scheduled from 5:30–7 p.m. Friday, Sept. 9. The exhibition is free and open to the public. Lord Hall Gallery is open from 9 a.m.–4 p.m. Monday through Friday and is wheelchair accessible.

“Picturing Downtown Maine” was created in association with the Maine Arts Commission’s Art in the Capitol program.