Article and photo by Joseph Sutton

A glass of liquor, an anonymous apartment building, a vase of plain and tiny flowers – the subjects of Ron Hester’s photography show at Abode New York in Williamsburg sound fairly boring.

But upon viewing the show, visitors to Abode will find these banal objects presented in an inspired way; called Objects at Rest, the show’s name rightly suggests a sort of alternative or candid observation of its subjects. The selection is small, but fits the modest still-life subject matter, and the space of the cozy shop. Hester portrays them in a way that shifts between whimsy and melancholy from image to image.

Having a background in still-life painting, Hester has transferred his former talent seamlessly into photography. The composition in each photo does not feel forced or artificial, but rather very natural, as if Hester had just happened upon an otherwise overlooked scenes of simply beauty; his fine attention to color help the basic objects convey strong reactions to the viewer, sometimes funny or serious.

While many of Hester’s images are very clear and defined of their subject matter, he does play with the viewer’s perception in a couple. In Fossil, we see a wet leaf fallen on a gray, indeterminate surface. Because the photo is black and white, and because of the soft focus on the image, the leaf could easily be mistaken for a splash of liquid metal by the way the light reflects upon its slippery surface. The common harbinger of the changing season – that we’ve undoubtedly seen strewn about the sidewalks in the past month – is changed into something fantastical and strange; the natural world becomes something more metallic, or it seemingly does for a few seconds before the viewer realizes what he or she is really looking at.

A good specimen for composition, another trait carried from Hester’s time as a painter, is the photo Lock. In it, a padlock sits in the center of the image, out of which three taught chains pull into different directions: to the right, left, and back of the lock. The apparent potential energy between the chains create a sort of tension on the padlock, which is heightened by the rusted texture of the chain links and wall behind, suggesting fragility.

Hester plays upon humor with titles of some of his work. The best examples are Oil on Canvas and Montparnasse Disco No. 1 – but of course there are no oil paintings in this show, nor any embarrassing scenes of a 70’s dance movement. Rather, Oil on Canvas is a simple photo of a chimney-top against a bare, blue sky; Montparnasse Disco is simply the facade of an apartment building tiled an array of bright colors in each window (a sort of visual pun, by the name), that gradually fades to grayness towards the distant side of the building. Both are delightfully unexpected and tickling images.

Where Hester really shines is in his ability to convey a broad sense of intrigue in such a small range of photos and objects. For this, his photos fit well in this store of curious and funky artwork and furnishings.

Abode New York is a shop located at 179 Grand Street, between N 1st and S 1st Streets in Williamsburg. Objects at Rest is only the most recent in their periodical in-store exhibits. The show runs until January 16.