May 23, 2002
If you want to see Elizabeth Richebourg Rea’s photographs, it might be a good idea to call the gallery and ask for directions. New Arts Gallery, on 513 Maple Street in Litchfield is not that easy to find, placed as it is on a long, green country road in Northwestern Connecticut.
Rea’s large photographs are intimate portraits of a family, around a dinner table, at the pool, having an argument, reading the Sunday paper. But unlike typical family snapshots, these pictures capture the family in full life — meaning, not always happily. There’s an eerie, suspended anxiety that runs throughout the pictures — as though the death of every moment that photographer captures has been insufficiently grieved — although some pictures, particularly of the younger children, are infused with warmth.
Rea’s photographs join Janice Mauro’s figures in the gallery through May 27. For directions — you’ll need them — call (860) 567-5015.