Review

11 a.m.-1 a.m.

Bulldog Restaurant & Bar
1715 Main
Kansas City, MO
816.421.4799

Hours: 11 a.m.-1 a.m. Monday-Friday, 5 p.m-1 a.m. Saturday-Sunday
Runs through: March 31

Artist's site: http://www.ru4realphotography.com
Gallery site: http://www.kcbulldog.com

Wolfie. That's how Michael Wolfe answers the phone and signs his online statement -- and yeah, I like being able to put "Wolfie" and "Bulldog" in the same title.

What's even better is that you can see Wolfe's work not only at Bulldog, but also at the Starbucks on 39th Street in the Volker neighborhood. (No matter which venue you choose, there's the prospect of art and a warming drink. That's a welcome combination on a cold day.)

It's easy to get me to like certain things. I have a near-genetic predisposition to appreciating raw photography and off-balance composition -- and yet here I am, enjoying an artist who deals in digitally enhanced and often symmetrical images.

My feelings about digital enhancement are not entirely, pardon the expression, black and white. Tweaking can't mask a lack of skill, and adding unnecessary layers to a shot enhances nothing. It detracts and distracts, and it's just cause for confiscating the photographer's toys. If an artist has a deft touch, as Wolfe does (and many don't), the focus remains on the image and not on the techniques used to create it.

Wolfe favors a digital Sabattier effect, which reverses the colors in an image. It's akin to what happens when you stare at a red dot for thirty seconds, then look at a white wall. You see a greenish-blue spot, rather than red. Wolfe uses a common iPhoto technique -- but he uses it selectively, mixing natural and altered hues. That shows vision and purpose, not merely a sense of "Look what I can do when I push this button."

Ordinarily, symmetry bores me.  There's no tension. The dominant element rules by default, having no rivals for the viewer's eye. Wolfe makes sure there's something -- a patch of darkness, a splash of natural color, a petal just out of place -- to provide competition for the alpha image.

Because balanced, after all, doesn't have to mean tame.

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