June 22, 2013 – “Sensuous Steel”

From June to September, 2013 the Frist Center has an exhibit named “Sensual Steel” consisting of about a dozen “Art Deco” automobiles, mostly from the 1930’s and 1940’s.  These are not something you will see rumbling down the street on any given Sunday, nor will you see many of them anywhere any longer.  These are some of the most collectible of the collectible automobiles carrying names I only vaguely remember from my childhood; Pierce-Arrow, Hispano-Suiza, Delahaye, Cord, and others.  I’ve personally never been up close to any of these machines, so it was a real treat for me.

I seldom visit art museums since most of what people consider to be “Art” bores me to tears.  If I can’t tell what something is supposed to be without having someone explain it to me then I have no interest in viewing it.  Another reason is I seldom visit art galleries is that they normally do not allow photography, frequently claiming that it is a requirement imposed by those who lend them the pieces for the exhibits.  Fortunately photography at the “Sensuous Steel” exhibit is allowed.

The conditions were horrible though.  Some sort of theatrical lights provided the only illumination, and flash photography was not allowed (they had security guards everywhere to insure this was adhered to).  The ambient lighting was some sort of weird color temperature but luckily I had remembered a gray card so I could compensate for that.  The extremely harsh shadows and very low lighting levels were not so easily compensated for.  I would have loved to have a tripod with me, but the crowd of people would have been tripping all over it.

So, I got what I could and they are presented below.  Beautiful machinery and rather uninspiring photographs.  The crops are very tight in most cases because there were people EVERYWHERE.  While most of them were polite enough not to walk in front of me and the other photographers while we were getting a shot there were many who seemed to enjoy it.  They, of course, had as much right to be there as I did but there were some who felt that they had more right than others.  To all of those who gave us time to get a shot a huge Thank You!  To the lady who stepped right smack in front of my lens, not one foot away from the back of your head, blocking my ability to see anything whatsoever, you are the reason I don’t go to events such as this very often. 

I’m planning to go back again before the event ends in September, but next time I’m going during the week when the crowd should be smaller.