This was such a great exhibit. There were so many different little things that made it amazing.
The first thing I liked was that when I walked into the museum the guards at the front desk gave me a little sheet of things to look for in each picture and little activities to do throughout the exhibit. I loved this because it brought a whole new aspect the pictures, and made it not only an uplifting experience but a fun and challenging one as well. I actually want to take my fiance back and make a fun date out of it! One of the fun activities was to look for this little robot guy named Seymour, that is hidden in most of the pictures! it was amazing because even if the picture didn't look like it could hide a robot, there Seymour would be peeking out of a window or standing on a balcony in the distance.
Here is an example of how Wick incorporated his robot Seymour... if you look you can see a little robot guy in the front window in the right of the screen...
The next aspect of the exhibit that I liked was the music that was playing over the speakers. It was fun music that reminded me of my childhood! I was taken back to the days when I played with lincoln logs, and legos, and those tinker toys! It also reminded me of a toy or candy shop and Disney Land... the music just added so much to the exhibit. It helped me get into the right frame of mind to look at the pictures and just trully enjoy the time that I could forget about "grown-up" troubles. I loved it!
The thing that I liked most was that each picture had a little plaque on the side explaining a fact about the picture or how it was made. I was amazed to find out that for most of his pictures he actually builds the models and takes the pictures. The sets are so detail oriented... its amazing! for example, the picture above had a set that was built in miniature. Wick builds the sets, and then takes pictures and edits them and enhances them to make them look good enough for the book. But i always thought that the pictures were drawn or made on the computer, and they are not! its just amazing! I have always wanted to build little sets... its kind of a secret desire of mine... but his little sets were so neat, and so detailed... they looked like they were probably so much fun to make!
here is a picture of the set for the picture above...
Overall I thoroughly enjoyed myself! I felt as if I was a kid again... one of the neatest parts for me was to watch a group of 4 older people, 3 older males in nice buisness suits, and an older woman in a nice suit. Looking at them I would not have guessed that they would enjoy a childish exhibit such as Walter Wicks, but I was very wrong! As I watched them I could see their excitment as they found the items in the picture, and saw all the little details in the pictures... at one point I saw them all start laughing with joy and then one of them said "I knew you all would like this... that is why this exhibit is here, because even thought these pictures are for kids they bring out the child in old people like us as well!" I just thought that this was a special insight into the specialness of Walter Wick's photos. And I think that is the artistic aspect of it as well... every detail of the exhibit acts to create an overall affect of childhood and happiness that most adults loose. My fiance does research with children and he told me once that the Average child laughs or smiles around 500 times a day... where the average adult only laughs or smiles around 18 times a day... this is so sad to me! Thank goodness there are artists like Walter Wick that have work that adds more smiles to our lives!
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