Jan Tiura at Dickerman Prints Gallery

These images caught  my eye - i thought these were abstract paintings with a little bit of realism added to allow the viewer to more easily access the painting.  After reading the article in the SF Chronicle about the work of Jan Tiura and discovering that these are photographs of sides of tugboats, i was intrigued.    Jan Tiura,  the first female tugboat captain in San Francisco has photographed hulls of boats which look like abstract paintings.   I am always interested in photographs that look like paintings.  In most cases, the reproduction is shallow and the colors disappointing.  But recently, photographs have greatly improved in their colors such as that seen in Adam Fuss' photographs for example and i would like to see Tiura'a photos in person.  It probably has more to do with how expensive the printer is than anything else.  

  The one thing that bothers me is her use of Photoshop which leads me to question the authenticity of the colors.  Are the colors really that saturated and if the colors were manipulated to become something they are not, why was that choice made?   If Tiura used Photoshop to color correct the colors to make them more accurate, that's different.  But one wonders if tugboat hulls are really that exciting if Photoshop is involved.

Her work is on display at  Dickerman Prints Gallery, 3180 17th St., S.F. (415) 252-1300. 

Through Dec 11, 2011, M-F, 10 am - 6pm.