Open through until late October 2024 at the sky gallery space at NovaOwl Social Corner and Gallery, is an exhibition of photographic art by Looker Lumet. Entitled Sea Views, it in part features – unsurprisingly, given the title – images of coastal settings, seascapes and bays; however, to assume such images are the sole focus of the exhibition would be a mistake; rather, Sea Views offers a glimpse of Looker’s broader photographic and artistic talents, making it a thoroughly engaging portfolio of works in which to immerse oneself.
I’ve covered exhibitions featuring Looker’s work in the past, but these have tended to be shared exhibitions, rather than solo offerings; and while I’ve always admired what I’ve seen in his work, Sea Views is the first time I’ve actually been able to visit an exhibition that offers such a complete and engaging selection of his work.
Looker Lumet is a Belgian photographer who found the pleasure in sl of taking pictures, back in 2007, which was an extension of his hobby in real life. It is also from 2007 that he has learned to work with Photoshop, and is still evolving by learning the skills of post processing every day. Thanks to the evolution in second life, where the avatars were better looking, the landscapes were more detailed, the pictures became more and more realistic. Throughout the years in second life, Looker Lumet has been first an artist of the Avatrait Gallery, before he was giving the opportunity to manage the gallery for three years. His works has been displayed in several galleries since then.
Looker Lumet biography
The lower level of the gallery space focus on Looker’s landscape and seascape photography. In all 10 pieces are presented, and whether the locations within them are instantly recognisable or not as popular public locations past and present within Second Life doesn’t matter; each is striking in its own way, thanks to a combination of Looker’s ability to compose and / or frame a shot and / or for his skills in post-processing.
Eight of the ten clearly feature coastal and sea views, be they sandy shores, coastal fens (Autumn Trace, if I’m not mistaken), or sailing vessels at anchor in a bay or with sails unfettered and in full career as they head to sea; and each is alive with a sense of Nature’s beauty and expanse. The remaining two pictures do not feature the sea directly, but both strongly suggest it, with Cloud Edge being captured from such an angle that even though the region itself presents a location high up upon a mountain range, the way clouds roll up against the peak directly before the camera within the image, strongly give the impression of sea-spray foaming up over rocks as waves roll against an island’s flanks following the ebb and flow of the tide.
The upper level of the gallery space offers a selection of eight pieces representing another aspect of Looker’s work: that of a portraiture artist. Seven of the pieces are rendered at black-and-white pieces, with one a self-portrait carrying with it subtle hints of chiaroscuro (in which it is joined by the two pieces immediately to its left as you look at it), whilst all capture their subjects both uniquely in terms of pose and angle, and expressively. The remaining image, offered in colour, stands as a broader portrait of a couple, offering a superbly framed and composed single-frame story ready to be told to the eyes and ears of anyone viewing it.
Recommended.
SLurl Details
- NovaOwl Sky Gallery (Novatron, rated General)
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 