Born in Tampa, Florida, David Diodate lives and works in Birmingham, Alabama. He studied Art History at the University of South Florida and graduated in 1993. Prior to graduation, he studied in Paris, France. This opportunity came with the requirement, that while in Paris, he produce photographic essays. To prepare, he studied the work of early photography pioneers such as Cameron, Nadar and Stieglitz and then found himself drawn to the contemporary work of Doug and Mike Starn, Sally Mann and Richard Avedon. He has been producing camera-based work ever since this first exploration of the medium, and exhibits his work both locally and regionally.
Celeste Amparo Pfau is a mixed media visual artist based in Birmingham, Alabama. She is known for creating one of a kind Botanical Monoprints using ethically sourced natural materials and an etching press, where she creates careful compositions on paper and fabric. In this show, Celeste presents the beginning of an exploration of how her art mediums of drawing, print making, sculpture and photography can be used to show the relationships of the human form to the plant world.
Celeste believes, "Plants have skeletal, vascular and tissue structures that remind us of forms we see inside and outside of our human bodies".
Professor of Photography at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and artist, Sonja Rieger, collaborated with the Hoover Public Library Galleries to organize this student show and survey of contemporary photography in Alabama. Abstraction, realism, minimalism and surrealism are currently experiencing a phenomenal resurgence in contemporary photography circles and a whole new generation of photographers are exploring the possibilities of the medium and building upon the work of photographers such as Wolfgang Tillmans, William Eggleston, Jan Dibbets, John Chiara and so forth.
