The world of Julian Hibbard's photographs is one of hyper-realized, nearly surrealistic grit, and nearly always carries a suductive air. His fashion, editorial and art photographs have always played with narrative, sometimes outright with series of images that have a story arch. But other times, such as with his series "Caught", the narrative is implied by a glimpsed moment — a smoking gun barrel is pointed through curtains, stiletto-clad feet dangle from a cliff, a half-naked woman snags her underwear on barbed wire — inviting you to fill in the spaces.
Hibbard's meticulously lit femme fatales seem to be out of some hard-boiled detetective's fantasy, and the photgrapher invites us to peer into the daydream and stay a while with his exhibition "The Noir A to Z" and forthcoming book of the same title, matching a moody scene with a word for each letter of the alphabet. The reception for the show and preview of the book will be held Thursday from 6 to 9 p.m. at the Ivy Brown Gallery.
(Ivy Brown Gallery is located at 675 Hudson Street, 4N, between 13th and 14th Streets)
