THE NOCTURNAL HOURS: Diana H. Bloomfield & Constance Rose > FIRST PLACE: Stuart Ratner "Waterfront Club"
FIRST PLACE: Stuart Ratner "Waterfront Club"
Waterfront Club/Stuart Ratner
FIRST PLACE
FIRST PLACE
REVIEWS BY JURORS DIANA H. BLOOMFIELD & CONSTANCE ROSENTHAL:
"WATERFRONT CLUB" BY STUART RATNER:
"I was immediately drawn to the deep royal blue of the night-time sky in this image, and the partial seen red metal bridge highlighted against it. I love that both the dreamy night sky and the bridge
graphics are echoed in the restaurant window, all inside a building the same color as the bridge. The light and the composition are spot-on perfect. This image within an image I also find very appealing. The perfectly lit interior of the restaurant looks like a movie scene— a narrative within a narrative which I love— that, and the mystery surrounding it all."
-Diana H. Bloomfield
"Waterfront Club, by Stuart Ratner takes you to the edge, you haven’t been invited inside the club, it's up to you to wonder how this place came to be, who are the people inside, and if you should cross the boundary and go on in. Much like the bridge in the image, it is inviting you to go on a journey and to keep exploring. I look forward to seeing more work from this photographer."
-Constance Rosenthal
Questions from Diana H. Bloomfield-
"I would love to know if this particular scene is one you’ve encountered before, and you just waited for the right timing for this image, or if this was just a surprises gift you happened upon one night."
Stuart Ratner says, "This image was a chance encounter during a solo photo jaunt. One of my ongoing projects is “Where the Water Meets the Land”, and I was exploring the waterfront of Toledo Ohio, about an hour’s drive from Detroit. I wandered the areas around the bridges over the Maumee River, because I often find magic in such places. I had done some shooting from up on the pedestrian walk of the bridge in late afternoon, and I was walking back to my car when I stumbled on the depicted building. I just set up my tripod and fired away, from several angles.
In contrast, the other two images in the series are places I know very well, because they are near my home: the east riverfront of Detroit, and the industrial center of Zug Island, a short drive away. I’m fascinated by Zug Island’s brilliant gas flare and sudden geysers of steam. I rush out to take shots in these places when conditions are beautiful and time allows."
Diana H. Bloomfield: "Tell us about yourself. Have you been doing night-time photography for a long time? Your work is very intriguing."
Stuart Ratner: "Thank you so much for that comment, Diana. I grew up in New York City, and acquired a love of photography from my dad, who had been a commercial photographer before I was born. He still had his equpment and encouraged me to use it. Another influence was a high school teacher who built a black and white darkroom in an unused space and let students use it after hours.
I’m not a professional photographer; my career has been in the biological sciences. Not surprisingly, my research has usually been directed toward questions that can be answered by imaging, especially microscopy and microcinematography.
I was always a conscientious photographer, taking good, well-composed documentary pictures, mainly of family, travel, and the places I lived, in New York City, Western Massacchusetts, Central Texas, and finally Detroit.
About 6 years ago I began to see photography as a means of personal expression. I joined the Motor City Camera Club. Through their workshops and monthly juried competitions, I found that, through photography, I could crystalize and communicate primal emotions that had long been locked up, and which bubbled to the surface upon encountering certain scenes, in certain types of light. That’s also when I began to do night shots, especially urban night shots. Night in a city brings out early childhood memories of excitement, and a bit of fear, at being out late with Dad in Manhattan. Night scenes also evoke some dark, surrealistically beautiful childhood nightmares, of which I can recall only fragments."
Diana H. Bloomfield: "We loved your series submission. Each image seems to mesh well together (whether they were meant to or not), and equally strong as stand-alone images. Is this part of a larger series taken in the same locale?"
Stuart Ratner: "Thanks again for your encouraging comments. These images were not intended to be a series, but they do hang together because of the somewhat dreamlike atmosphere of the scenes, which I try to emphasize through subtle adjustments of light and shadow and color in post procecssing. These images, and additional night shots, five so far, are part of a larger ongoing project of cityscapes that I call “Urban Romantic”."
Questions from Constance Rosenthal-
"Please tell us how you got started in photography and whose work you admire."
Stuart Ratner: "My Dad got me started in photography. He had been a commercial photographer before I was born. Actually, he specialized in 35 mm stereo slides, taken with a Stereo Realist camera. His library of stereo slides – of trade shows, weddings, industrials, scenics, and my baby pictures – were always available, and they helped motivate me to take pictures, which I began to do at age 12. Another motivator was a high school teacher who taught me and other kids how to print in monochrome in a darkroom he’d built in an unused space at the school.
I’ve had no formal training, but workshops at various camera clubs, and monthly juried competitions at the Motor City Camera Club, have shaped my visual sensibilities and sharpened my skills.
The photographers I admire most are expressionistic or downright surreal, including Man Ray, Manuel Alvarez Bravo, Mariana Yampolski, Andreas Feininger, and Gregory Crewdson. Cinematography has also had a strong influence on me, and I greatly admire John Alton, Jack Cardiff, Georges Perinal, Russell Metty, Gordon Willis, and James Wong Howe."
Constance Rosenthal: "What drew you to night photography? How long have you been shooting after dark?"
Stuart Ratner: "One reason I love night scenes is that they evoke early childhood memories of being out late with Dad in Manhattan, and the mixture of excitement and fear I felt at being among the looming masses of buildings, light, reflections, and ominous shadows. Night scenes also evoke some dark, surrealistically beautiful childhood nightmares, of which I can recall only fragments.
My very first night scenes were taken on a group photography trip with the high school teacher who I mentioned earlier. We took the subway to Times Square – amazingly, it had just rained, so the lights reflected everywhere. I shot Kodachrome transparencies and was amazed and delighted when they all came out perfectly. However, I only started taking night shots systematically and seriously when I joined the Motor City Camera Club about 6 years ago."
Constance Rosenthal: "What projects do you have planned in the future?"
Stuart Ratner: "I have three ongoing projects, to which I’m continually making additions: “Urban Romantic”, of which my submitted images are a part; “Where the Land Meets the Water”, an exploration of riverfront and lake-front environments and people; and “Subterranian Spaces”, including shots taken in subways, tunnels, and cellars, all places which evoke for me some of those beautiful childhood nightmares that I mentioned earlier.
“Detroit Street” is a new project I recently began. I’ve long admired street photography but didn’t think I had the temperment for it, until a friend encouraged me to start. I’m making progress. A future project, when the weather warms up, is “Rails of Detroit”, encompassing the tracks, trains, and people of the surprisingly large number of active freight lines that go through Detroit neighborhoods. I have a trip to Arizona coming up next month and hope to do a lot of shooting in the Sonoran desert."
More about Stuart Ratner:
“In these images, I strive to evoke emotions associated with the earliest memories of childhood, fragmentary memories of striking experiences and vivid dreams, formed at an age when the line between dream and reality is not yet completely fixed. In adult life, I find that these memories return more as brief gusts of raw feeling than as detailed records.
I try to summon these early emotional memories by capturing moments in which the feeling of a childhood dream permeates into the real world. A shimmering play of light, a surrealistic combination of elements, an enveloping shadow, can, for a moment, imbue objective reality with the primal joy, thrill, longing and dread of those early childhood experiences. Nocturnal scenes are, of course, ideal places for dreams to merge with reality. I hope that the resulting images stir echoing emotions in the viewer.
Among my main influences are the surreal and expressionistic imagery of the photographers Man Ray, Manuel Alvarez Bravo, Mariana Yampolski, and Andreas Feininger. Great cinematography has also had a strong effect: the chiaroscuro lighting of John Alton, the saturated and symbolic color designs of Jack Cardiff and Russell Metty, the deep velvet shadows of Gordon Willis.”
Stuart Ratner is an art photographer based in Detroit. He learned photography mainly from his father, who had been a commercial photographer.
Having spent his early childhood in Manhattan, Stuart grew up an urban romantic, seeing cities and waterfronts as places of soulful beauty, where every location is suffused with echoes of past lives, dreams, joys, and losses. Stuart’s current residence, Detroit, Michigan, is a perfect place to put this vision into practice. Landscapes are another favorite subject, though even these images seem to wind up carrying a sense of loss and yearning.
Stuart has been active in the Detroit photographic community . He has been a member of the Motor City Camera Club since 2020, and has participated in their monthly juried competitions, as well as regional competitions of the Greater Detroit Camera Club Council, winning numerous prizes. He has also exhibited in local print exhibitions, most recently The Scarab Club’s “Archi-Texture” show, held in August 2024 at the Grosse Pointe Artists Association.
Stuart would now like to introduce his work to a broader audience, and to participate in new photographic scenes.
IMAGES FOR SALE-
Toward the Dawn – 11”H x 14”W
Archival Paper
$150 unframed
Signed on back
Night on Zug Island – 11”H x 14”W
Archival Paper
$150 unframed
Signed on back
Waterfront Club – 11”H x 14”W
Archival Paper
$150 unframed
Signed on back
Contact Stuart Ratner
studetroit@gmail.com
www.stuartratner.weebly.com
www.instagram.com/sturealist
------------------------------------
THE NOCTURNAL HOURS HOME:
https://nyphotocurator.com/the-nocturnal-hours-diana-h-bloomfield-constance-rose
FIRST PLACE:
https://nyphotocurator.com/the-nocturnal-hours-diana-h-bloomfield-constance-rose/first-place-stuart-ratner-waterfront-club----/1
SECOND PLACE:
https://nyphotocurator.com/the-nocturnal-hours-diana-h-bloomfield-constance-rose/second-place-gosia-machaczka-hollow---/1
HONORABLE MENTIONS:
https://nyphotocurator.com/the-nocturnal-hours-diana-h-bloomfield-constance-rose/honorable-mentions-helen-fong-dinner-douglas-hill-night-flight-no-32-stefynie-rosenfeld-a-world-of-quiet---/1
BEST SERIES:
https://nyphotocurator.com/the-nocturnal-hours-diana-h-bloomfield-constance-rose/best-series-stuart-ratner/1
EXHIBITION #1:
https://nyphotocurator.com/the-nocturnal-hours-diana-h-bloomfield-constance-rose/exhibition-1/1
EXHIBITION #2
https://nyphotocurator.com/the-nocturnal-hours-diana-h-bloomfield-constance-rose/exhibition-2/1
"WATERFRONT CLUB" BY STUART RATNER:
"I was immediately drawn to the deep royal blue of the night-time sky in this image, and the partial seen red metal bridge highlighted against it. I love that both the dreamy night sky and the bridge
graphics are echoed in the restaurant window, all inside a building the same color as the bridge. The light and the composition are spot-on perfect. This image within an image I also find very appealing. The perfectly lit interior of the restaurant looks like a movie scene— a narrative within a narrative which I love— that, and the mystery surrounding it all."
-Diana H. Bloomfield
"Waterfront Club, by Stuart Ratner takes you to the edge, you haven’t been invited inside the club, it's up to you to wonder how this place came to be, who are the people inside, and if you should cross the boundary and go on in. Much like the bridge in the image, it is inviting you to go on a journey and to keep exploring. I look forward to seeing more work from this photographer."
-Constance Rosenthal
Questions from Diana H. Bloomfield-
"I would love to know if this particular scene is one you’ve encountered before, and you just waited for the right timing for this image, or if this was just a surprises gift you happened upon one night."
Stuart Ratner says, "This image was a chance encounter during a solo photo jaunt. One of my ongoing projects is “Where the Water Meets the Land”, and I was exploring the waterfront of Toledo Ohio, about an hour’s drive from Detroit. I wandered the areas around the bridges over the Maumee River, because I often find magic in such places. I had done some shooting from up on the pedestrian walk of the bridge in late afternoon, and I was walking back to my car when I stumbled on the depicted building. I just set up my tripod and fired away, from several angles.
In contrast, the other two images in the series are places I know very well, because they are near my home: the east riverfront of Detroit, and the industrial center of Zug Island, a short drive away. I’m fascinated by Zug Island’s brilliant gas flare and sudden geysers of steam. I rush out to take shots in these places when conditions are beautiful and time allows."
Diana H. Bloomfield: "Tell us about yourself. Have you been doing night-time photography for a long time? Your work is very intriguing."
Stuart Ratner: "Thank you so much for that comment, Diana. I grew up in New York City, and acquired a love of photography from my dad, who had been a commercial photographer before I was born. He still had his equpment and encouraged me to use it. Another influence was a high school teacher who built a black and white darkroom in an unused space and let students use it after hours.
I’m not a professional photographer; my career has been in the biological sciences. Not surprisingly, my research has usually been directed toward questions that can be answered by imaging, especially microscopy and microcinematography.
I was always a conscientious photographer, taking good, well-composed documentary pictures, mainly of family, travel, and the places I lived, in New York City, Western Massacchusetts, Central Texas, and finally Detroit.
About 6 years ago I began to see photography as a means of personal expression. I joined the Motor City Camera Club. Through their workshops and monthly juried competitions, I found that, through photography, I could crystalize and communicate primal emotions that had long been locked up, and which bubbled to the surface upon encountering certain scenes, in certain types of light. That’s also when I began to do night shots, especially urban night shots. Night in a city brings out early childhood memories of excitement, and a bit of fear, at being out late with Dad in Manhattan. Night scenes also evoke some dark, surrealistically beautiful childhood nightmares, of which I can recall only fragments."
Diana H. Bloomfield: "We loved your series submission. Each image seems to mesh well together (whether they were meant to or not), and equally strong as stand-alone images. Is this part of a larger series taken in the same locale?"
Stuart Ratner: "Thanks again for your encouraging comments. These images were not intended to be a series, but they do hang together because of the somewhat dreamlike atmosphere of the scenes, which I try to emphasize through subtle adjustments of light and shadow and color in post procecssing. These images, and additional night shots, five so far, are part of a larger ongoing project of cityscapes that I call “Urban Romantic”."
Questions from Constance Rosenthal-
"Please tell us how you got started in photography and whose work you admire."
Stuart Ratner: "My Dad got me started in photography. He had been a commercial photographer before I was born. Actually, he specialized in 35 mm stereo slides, taken with a Stereo Realist camera. His library of stereo slides – of trade shows, weddings, industrials, scenics, and my baby pictures – were always available, and they helped motivate me to take pictures, which I began to do at age 12. Another motivator was a high school teacher who taught me and other kids how to print in monochrome in a darkroom he’d built in an unused space at the school.
I’ve had no formal training, but workshops at various camera clubs, and monthly juried competitions at the Motor City Camera Club, have shaped my visual sensibilities and sharpened my skills.
The photographers I admire most are expressionistic or downright surreal, including Man Ray, Manuel Alvarez Bravo, Mariana Yampolski, Andreas Feininger, and Gregory Crewdson. Cinematography has also had a strong influence on me, and I greatly admire John Alton, Jack Cardiff, Georges Perinal, Russell Metty, Gordon Willis, and James Wong Howe."
Constance Rosenthal: "What drew you to night photography? How long have you been shooting after dark?"
Stuart Ratner: "One reason I love night scenes is that they evoke early childhood memories of being out late with Dad in Manhattan, and the mixture of excitement and fear I felt at being among the looming masses of buildings, light, reflections, and ominous shadows. Night scenes also evoke some dark, surrealistically beautiful childhood nightmares, of which I can recall only fragments.
My very first night scenes were taken on a group photography trip with the high school teacher who I mentioned earlier. We took the subway to Times Square – amazingly, it had just rained, so the lights reflected everywhere. I shot Kodachrome transparencies and was amazed and delighted when they all came out perfectly. However, I only started taking night shots systematically and seriously when I joined the Motor City Camera Club about 6 years ago."
Constance Rosenthal: "What projects do you have planned in the future?"
Stuart Ratner: "I have three ongoing projects, to which I’m continually making additions: “Urban Romantic”, of which my submitted images are a part; “Where the Land Meets the Water”, an exploration of riverfront and lake-front environments and people; and “Subterranian Spaces”, including shots taken in subways, tunnels, and cellars, all places which evoke for me some of those beautiful childhood nightmares that I mentioned earlier.
“Detroit Street” is a new project I recently began. I’ve long admired street photography but didn’t think I had the temperment for it, until a friend encouraged me to start. I’m making progress. A future project, when the weather warms up, is “Rails of Detroit”, encompassing the tracks, trains, and people of the surprisingly large number of active freight lines that go through Detroit neighborhoods. I have a trip to Arizona coming up next month and hope to do a lot of shooting in the Sonoran desert."
More about Stuart Ratner:
“In these images, I strive to evoke emotions associated with the earliest memories of childhood, fragmentary memories of striking experiences and vivid dreams, formed at an age when the line between dream and reality is not yet completely fixed. In adult life, I find that these memories return more as brief gusts of raw feeling than as detailed records.
I try to summon these early emotional memories by capturing moments in which the feeling of a childhood dream permeates into the real world. A shimmering play of light, a surrealistic combination of elements, an enveloping shadow, can, for a moment, imbue objective reality with the primal joy, thrill, longing and dread of those early childhood experiences. Nocturnal scenes are, of course, ideal places for dreams to merge with reality. I hope that the resulting images stir echoing emotions in the viewer.
Among my main influences are the surreal and expressionistic imagery of the photographers Man Ray, Manuel Alvarez Bravo, Mariana Yampolski, and Andreas Feininger. Great cinematography has also had a strong effect: the chiaroscuro lighting of John Alton, the saturated and symbolic color designs of Jack Cardiff and Russell Metty, the deep velvet shadows of Gordon Willis.”
Stuart Ratner is an art photographer based in Detroit. He learned photography mainly from his father, who had been a commercial photographer.
Having spent his early childhood in Manhattan, Stuart grew up an urban romantic, seeing cities and waterfronts as places of soulful beauty, where every location is suffused with echoes of past lives, dreams, joys, and losses. Stuart’s current residence, Detroit, Michigan, is a perfect place to put this vision into practice. Landscapes are another favorite subject, though even these images seem to wind up carrying a sense of loss and yearning.
Stuart has been active in the Detroit photographic community . He has been a member of the Motor City Camera Club since 2020, and has participated in their monthly juried competitions, as well as regional competitions of the Greater Detroit Camera Club Council, winning numerous prizes. He has also exhibited in local print exhibitions, most recently The Scarab Club’s “Archi-Texture” show, held in August 2024 at the Grosse Pointe Artists Association.
Stuart would now like to introduce his work to a broader audience, and to participate in new photographic scenes.
IMAGES FOR SALE-
Toward the Dawn – 11”H x 14”W
Archival Paper
$150 unframed
Signed on back
Night on Zug Island – 11”H x 14”W
Archival Paper
$150 unframed
Signed on back
Waterfront Club – 11”H x 14”W
Archival Paper
$150 unframed
Signed on back
Contact Stuart Ratner
studetroit@gmail.com
www.stuartratner.weebly.com
www.instagram.com/sturealist
------------------------------------
THE NOCTURNAL HOURS HOME:
https://nyphotocurator.com/the-nocturnal-hours-diana-h-bloomfield-constance-rose
FIRST PLACE:
https://nyphotocurator.com/the-nocturnal-hours-diana-h-bloomfield-constance-rose/first-place-stuart-ratner-waterfront-club----/1
SECOND PLACE:
https://nyphotocurator.com/the-nocturnal-hours-diana-h-bloomfield-constance-rose/second-place-gosia-machaczka-hollow---/1
HONORABLE MENTIONS:
https://nyphotocurator.com/the-nocturnal-hours-diana-h-bloomfield-constance-rose/honorable-mentions-helen-fong-dinner-douglas-hill-night-flight-no-32-stefynie-rosenfeld-a-world-of-quiet---/1
BEST SERIES:
https://nyphotocurator.com/the-nocturnal-hours-diana-h-bloomfield-constance-rose/best-series-stuart-ratner/1
EXHIBITION #1:
https://nyphotocurator.com/the-nocturnal-hours-diana-h-bloomfield-constance-rose/exhibition-1/1
EXHIBITION #2
https://nyphotocurator.com/the-nocturnal-hours-diana-h-bloomfield-constance-rose/exhibition-2/1
