WPL: Through a Different Lens
Second Floor, Wilkinson Public Library
Through a Different Lens invites us to see familiar subjects from a new perspective. Featuring the work of four photographers, the collection explores time, transformation, intimacy, and inscription—each through a radically different visual language.
Kristen Hughes records the arborglyphs of our region—carvings made into tree bark by humans over decades. Their purposes vary, from marking land ownership to declaring one’s true love. These images are both documentary and poetic, preserving ephemeral markings in living wood and inviting reflection on memory, nature, and human touch.
Peter Lundeen documents plant life close-up, capturing their daily and seasonal transformations. These intimate portraits expose unseen textures and colors, transforming familiar flora into mysterious micro-landscapes.
Paul Pennington presents time-lapse photography taken in his studio, transforming everyday subject matter into bold, abstract compositions. These exposures record thirty seconds of movement in a single dynamic composition, revealing patterns and rhythms usually invisible to the naked eye.
In this series of work, Colby Smith digitally alters his photographs of stonework under the bridges of Paris, blending a patterned-realism with surreal visual manipulation. His work plays with perception—are we looking at something structural or digital? Natural or artificial?
Through a Different Lens celebrates the power of photography to slow time, magnify the minute, remix the real, and immortalize the fleeting. These four artists use the camera not just as a recording device, but as a tool for questioning assumptions and opening dialogue. Through a Different Lens ultimately asks: What do we miss when we always look in the same direction? And what might we discover if we learn to see the world differently?
