October 6, 2016 – January 1, 2017
Larry O’Reilly took up photography in a more serious way after leaving the Smithsonian in 2007, where he had served as Assistant Director of the National Museum of Natural History, in charge of Exhibits and Public Spaces.
He began by studying the technical aspects of the camera, and photographed thousands of images during travel, but that work eventually proved frustrating, and he came to realize that he was seeking his “own voice”, as most artists eventually work to do.
Experimenting with “painting” with light in a studio setting, he did studies numbering in the hundreds, working in the dark and in many other constructs. Being pleased (generally) with the results, he expanded his subject matter to include natural objects, and other items that he found he could look at (and photograph) in what seemed an infinite number of ways.
More recently, he has done some “street photography” of people caught unaware, doing what they naturally do.
His experimentation continues.