Crab Trap
photography by Karen Glaser
in “In a New Light”
Harry Ransom Center, through Sept. 14
“What’s your favorite?” That’s a game my husband and I play at antiques shows, and the question he sprung on me during my first visit to “In a New Light,” the inaugural exhibition for UT’s newly renovated Harry Ransom Center.
I rarely have one favorite; I like many things in many categories. The Ransom’s eclectic collection makes it easy for me to have several. But one work stands out on my second visit, consistently seducing me away from what had previously been the object of my affection. My new favorite of the day, the one that steals my heart, is a large (approximately 30 inch by 40 inch) black-and-white photograph of undersea life by Karen Glaser titled Crab Trap. It seems almost life-sized; you can feel yourself drawn into the roll and tumble of the three large manatees pictured.
Not that you can see any of them in their entirety. Glaser zooms in close, and the photo becomes a wonderful case of being unable to see the forest for the trees. As parts of a whole, they become mysterious creatures, and the image is transformed into something other than itself. It recalls amniotic fluid as well as primordial life and links us to disappearing nature in the wild. Who ever thought the plentiful bison would disappear, until some interlopers who arrived in the east by ship multiplied themselves and started moving west?
But the sense of silence is most striking. Sound, or lack of it, is not often a part of two-dimensional images. Just as the photo draws you in, one recalls quiet, muffled undersea sounds, in sharp contrast to the constant hum of everyday life above water that includes computers, light fixtures, air-conditioners, car wheels on tarmac.
Is it summer setting in that drew me underwater? I’ll have to see on my next visit.
This article appears in August 1 • 2003.