WHEN photographer and mentor James Solomon first started working with Brian Harry in January 2024, neither imagined their conversations about composition, contrast and creativity would lead to a full-blown exhibition.
But as their dialogue deepened over months of image critiques and artistic exploration, so too did their bond x– and their desire to push the boundaries of what local audiences consider “art.”
That vision has now materialised in the form of 20/20 Vision: Clearly Photography is Art, a photography exhibition that will open on May 5 at Horizons Art Gallery and runs until May 12. Featuring the works of both men, the show invites viewers to see beyond the lens – to engage with photography not as documentation, but as deliberate, expressive, interpretive art.
Solomon’s idea for the exhibition was seeded in 2018 when he was a board member of the Art Society and was working with the TT Photographic Society. At the time, he had been mandated to elevate photography’s standing in the local art scene, where many still regarded it as a tool for advertising or recording events rather than a legitimate artform.
“With the leaps and bounds of technology and the digital media platform we have been able to push boundaries of photography into fine art. It has always been my vision to push and promote photography as an artform.”
He managed to organise a month-long exhibition featuring 30 photographers, scheduled for May 2020 – but the pandemic hit, and the show never happened.
Since then, Solomon has kept pressing forward. In 2023, he staged his first solo exhibition, 3 of 30 – My Evolving Journey, at NALIS in Port of Spain, which chronicled his artistic growth from film to digital. His latest collaboration with Harry represents a new chapter in that evolution.
“Today I am able to move from the facsimile of a scene to a totally different vision for the scene that I photograph using almost the same techniques on the digital platform that artists would use.
“You see garbage in the water. You can remove it. Before, you couldn’t. You were stuck with it in the photograph. Now we could clone, we could change colours, we could saturate, we could take away and, in some instances, with the new technology of AI, you can add things to the scene. And so we get to play and that is the key in terms of the creative process.”
This playful approach is not about deception, but imagination. And for Solomon, it’s what makes photography a creative act on par with any other artistic expression.
“Now, we always get a facetious comment about, did you use Photoshop? Would you ask an artist if they use a brush or if they use paints or a sponge? You wouldn’t ask an artist that.
[caption id="attachment_1153189" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Hollow Reflections by James Solomon. - James Solomon RAPSO +1(868)768-4[/caption]
“But the answer is yes. This is why it’s art! We, James Solomon, Brian Harry, have stepped in to make adjustments to our images so that we can have a final product that, first of all, we love and that we
