Tilted / Straight

Tilted / Straight brings together two distinctly different photographic perspectives on Boston, placing the precise, architectural photographs of Peter Vanderwarker in dialogue with the energetic abstractions of Fern L. Nesson. For Vanderwarker, Boston's John Hancock Tower is both a subject and a work of art in its own right. Having photographed the building since 1975, he has returned to its distinctive geometry from a variety of vantage points, including aerial views made from helicopters and distant perspectives that are no longer possible as Boston's skyline has evolved. His photographs emphasize the tower's extraordinary structure: its vertical lines, reflective glass, sharp planes, and shifting relationship to the city around it. Yet even in their apparent simplicity, these straight shots reveal a changing Boston, preserving views that have been obscured by the city's continued growth. Nesson approaches the city from an entirely different direction. Drawing on recognizable architectural elements, including the Hancock Tower's liquid-like glass facade, she isolates, tilts, fragments, and recontextualizes elements of Boston until the familiar becomes strange. Her photographs resist identification, transforming the city into a world of shape, movement, texture, and abstraction. Where Vanderwarker's photographs locate us precisely, Nesson's invite us to lose our bearings. Together, the artists reveal two contrasting but complementary ways of seeing the same city. Vanderwarker emphasizes structure, balance, and place; Nesson emphasizes movement, ambiguity, and sensation. One makes Boston immediately recognizable, while the other makes it newly unfamiliar. Yet both look closely at the city's architecture and visual character, finding within its surfaces and structures something more than documentation. Tilted / Straight is ultimately a conversation about how we see a city and how radically different a familiar place can become when viewed from another angle.