Joni Sternbach

Cheryle St. Onge

Beginning July 5 through July 24 at KBFA Gallery, is an interesting exhibit by published photographer Joni Sternbach and by an accomplished emerging artist Cheryle St. Onge.

In a decades old sub-culture of surfers, photography, has always played a key role in recording moments of exhilaration and contemplation. Sternbach’s work, which has appeared along side some of the best outdoor work in surfer magazines, transcends the genre into fine art with her surfer portrait series. The golden tones of her alternative process prints lend them a certain beautiful mystery.

The St. Onge photographs are intimate and draw the viewer in with selective focus and the drama of Black and White. Reminds us of the delicate insect photographs of Margaret Bourke-White.

Joni Sternbach’s large format wooden camera and portable darkroom create a sensation on beaches on both the East and West Coasts. The historic process of collodion photography finds unlikely but graceful footing in the contemporary arena of surf culture. The resulting portrait is a stunning and almost mythic depiction of man and nature, history and the cult of surfing. Sternbach’s most recent series, SurfLand received wide spread critical attention.

St. Onge cites making pictures with a view camera, as the pivotal point where she discovered her passion. Her art is intensely observant and deeply respectful of the natural world, focusing on a detail, a tadpole, an eel or gosling and expanding that to encompass one’s entire horizon.

Two talents in one visit … a trip worth making …

For more information:KBFA