Art + Design

‘Capture and Release’ Bears Witness to the World’s Evolution

January 27, 2025
|
By 
Elle Yap

For Capture and Release, Space Encounters Gallery assembled seven photographers to create an immersive documentation of the world around us. From vegetables to natural phenomena to a bustling cityscape, the works share a unique vision of how we can see the world today. 

The Space Encounters exhibition "Capture and Release." Photo by Ed Simon.
The Space Encounters exhibition “Capture and Release.” Photo by Ed Simon.

Cru Camara, Toto Labrador, JL Javier, Johann Guasch, Ed Simon, Ulap Chua, and Curtis Richard contributed their works to the exhibit. Each photographer came in with subjects they were interested in, capturing them in a way that elevated these everyday sights into larger ideas.

A different angle of the gallery exhibit "Capture and Release." Photo by Ed Simon.

Capture and Release invites viewers into a spectrum of human experiences-introspections on solitude, transitions, and the spaces in between. Across its diverse voices, the exhibition explores what it means to hold on to a moment and then let it evolve into meaning,” the exhibit write-up said.

The Inquisitive Eye

Photography, like any other artform, works well as a way of capturing an event or emotion or feeling during a fleeting moment in time. No one is really documenting anything objectively; the photographer’s gaze, just like the artist’s gaze, influences the final product of what we see. 

Capture and Release certainly gives us some brisk examples of how to personalize our documentation of the world. For example, Ulap Chua’s images provide us with typical landscapes of seas, fields, and cities. But small twists in the material, from a person covered in a red net sitting in a field, to a person with a cloud head in the middle of a market, provides an interesting interplay of personality with the ideas present. 

Ulap Chua's work for "Capture and Release." Photo by Elle Yap.
Ulap Chua’s work for “Capture and Release.” Photo by Elle Yap.
"Megadike Naps" by Ulap Chua for Space Encounters. Photo by Elle Yap.
“Megadike Naps” by Ulap Chua for Space Encounters. Photo by Elle Yap.
"Nothing and No One in Tabora" for "Capture and Release" at Space Encounters Gallery. Photo by Elle Yap.
“Nothing and No One in Tabora” for “Capture and Release” at Space Encounters Gallery. Photo by Elle Yap.
"On Care and Mosquito Nets" by Ulap Chua. Photo by Elle Yap.
“On Care and Mosquito Nets” by Ulap Chua. Photo by Elle Yap.

Ed Simon’s work, meanwhile, utilizes black and white to closely reveal the details of a piece of garlic and tomato. The interplay between the extreme close-up and the black-and-white gives it a stripped-down, grounded feeling to the objects.  

Work by Ed Simon for "Capture and Release." Photo by Ed Simon.

Curtis Richard also worked with black-and-white photography for their contributions to the exhibit, but his images work with an urban landscape, finding the stillness and the quiet within the different areas.

Works by Curtis Richard for "Capture and Release." Photo by Elle Yap.
Works by Curtis Richard for “Capture and Release.” Photo by Elle Yap.
Works by Curtis Richard for "Capture and Release." Photo by Elle Yap.
"The Reality" by Curtis Richard. Photo by Elle Yap.

Magical and Otherworldly

For "Capture and Release," photographs by Cru Camara and Curtis Richard. Photo by Ed Simon.

Other interesting works include Cru Camara’s “Blue” and “Green” triptychs for the exhibit. These have an otherworldly feel to them, blurring their relatable and identifiable values away to make them look alien. They are so alien, in fact, that one can imagine some of these stills would comfortably exist in something like the opening credits of The X- Files

Cru Camara's work for "Capture and Release."
Cru Camara’s work for “Capture and Release.” Photo by Elle Yap.

Johann Guasch’s work borders on magical as they somehow capture some natural phenomena with bursting clouds and colorful textures. The material, printed on Hahnemuhle paper, produces an eerie sheen that still manages to keep its organic feeling.

Johann Guasch’s work for "Capture and Release." Photo by Elle Yap.

​​Meanwhile, JL Javier breaks down a photograph of rocks into disparate collages, stripping them into parts as a way of evoking new meaning into the environment. “Through layered collages, Javier reclaims meaning from these landscapes,” the write-up said. “[He’s] piecing together fragments of memory to forge a personal geography-where smallness becomes a place to dream.”

Two works by JL Javier for "Capture and Release" at Space Encounters Gallery. Photo by Elle Yap.
Two works by JL Javier for “Capture and Release” at Space Encounters Gallery. Photo by Elle Yap.
Another two works by JL Javier for "Capture and Release" at Space Encounters Gallery. Photo by Elle Yap.
Another two works by JL Javier for “Capture and Release” at Space Encounters Gallery. Photo by Elle Yap.
Another two works by JL Javier for "Capture and Release" at Space Encounters Gallery. Photo by Elle Yap.

“Through these diverse voices and perspectives, Capture and Release reminds us that photography is more than documentation-it is a medium of transformation, where moments are caught, reimagined, and released as stories that resonate far beyond their frames,” the exhibit write-up said.

Audience member discussing some of the photographs for "Capture and Release." Photo by Ed Simon.
Audience member discussing some of the photographs for “Capture and Release.” Photo by Ed Simon.

If beauty is in the eye of the beholder, then Capture and Release provides us with the different perspectives of beauty that exist in the world. From giant natural landscapes to the smallest vegetables, the world is bursting with dazzling things to document, all waiting for the right eye to bring them life. 

Related reading: The intricate, nuanced, and layered relationship between architecture and photography

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