Remembering OLIVER GAGLIANI

[arthur berger]

100 years ago Oliver Gagliani was born in Placerville, California. He died 15 years ago at the age of eighty five. In my opinion he was one of the true
" Masters" of 20th century photography.
I will never forget the first time I saw his photographs at the Focus Gallery on Union Street in San Francisco in 1968. I returned a few times to study
the prints and saw Oliver himself there looking at his work. Unfortunately I was too much in awe and too timid to approach him. Fast forward 10 years
and I was taking his Virginia City Workshop.I got to know him and his work and was friendly with him for many years.
Recently my daughter moved into a new house and asked me for some of my photographs to decorate her bare walls. I framed and hung some of my
work and decided to give her one of Olivers photographs that I had recently reframed but had not yet hung in my house.
After hanging his photograph and seeing it again in a new light ,so to speak, I was so impressed with the beauty and power of his work that it rekindled my interest in the things he had taught me.

[Alan9940]

Unfortunately, I never got a chance to meet Oliver, but I'm intimately familiar with his work and totally agree with your statements! Thank you for reminding me of this wonderful photographer!

[dasBlute]

thanks for sharing, had never heard of this artist [I know, I grew up under rock, right?]

[Merg Ross]

A true "master". Thanks for remembering Oliver.

http://gittermangallery.com/exhibiti...ibition_works/

[Two23]

He understood how to use Light.


Kent in SD

[Steve Sherman]

Agree with everything said about Oliver's work, I truly admired and aspired to understand his vision and technique.

[tgtaylor]

If the link is representative of his work, I find the dark undertones too pervasive: Even the white piano has a skull sitting on it.

Thomas

[arthur berger]

Unfortunately it is difficult to appreciate the beautiful dark tones and the nuances of the light from that link. I was at the show at the Gitterman Gallery and the prints certainly didnt appear as dark or with so much blackness as they show on that web site. Oliver certainly liked darker tones and told me it was his Pyro developer that
made it possible to have so much separation in his darker tones. Having been a musician, Oliver compared the deep blacks to the bass notes.

[tgtaylor]

If he died 15 years ago at the age of 85, that would place his coming of age during the Great Depression and WWII - certainly a time of great uncertainty with the dark undertones that characterizes Film Noir which appeared in the '40's. I believe that many photographers from that period gravitated towards the "dark side."

Thomas

[Merg Ross]

Unfortunately it is difficult to appreciate the beautiful dark tones and the nuances of the light from that link. I was at the show at the Gitterman Gallery and the prints certainly didnt appear as dark or with so much blackness as they show on that web site. Oliver certainly liked darker tones and told me it was his Pyro developer that
made it possible to have so much separation in his darker tones. Having been a musician, Oliver compared the deep blacks to the bass notes.

Thanks for the clarification. When I linked his photographs to the Gitterman Gallery, my thought was that they appeared much darker than Oliver printed. His originals have a real glow to them, with depth to the blacks.

The last time I saw Oliver was in 2000 at a gallery south of Market St. in San Francisco. Perhaps you were there. It was an exhibition and gathering of his former colleagues in the Visual Dialogue Foundation. Jack Welpott, Don Worth and Leland Rice were there with their work displayed on the walls; what a treat!