Photographs from the Streets

Artist talk with Ron Corbin, Sat., March 5, 2 to 4 p.m., free, exhibit through April 17, The Light Room, 2024 Wallace St., 215-765-0262, thelightroom.org.

by John Vettese

[ visual art ]

West Philadelphia photographer Ronald Corbin studies people and their environments, but not necessarily at the same time. In his series The Black Wall, showing at the Light Room Gallery through April 17 as part of his "Photographs from the Streets" exhibit, Corbin places his subjects against a backdrop of black plaster at the corner of Fifth and Main in Los Angeles. By framing them in a uniform, head-and-shoulders manner, he removes any information about their surroundings — and by extension, our preconceptions about their lives. Why is the aloof man with the wispy gray beard titled "King of 6th Street"? How come the gentleman in the camo jacket and headphones is wearing a necklace of pacifiers? What kind of music is he listening to? By comparison, Corbin's series Kensington is much more about the place and its effect on the people. The photos are raw and unsettling: Amid littered streets under the El, a couple shoots up. Bruised faces cower in splintery, dilapidated rooms. But Corbin also finds moments of warmth and love on the neighborhood's streets, like the cranky, comical couple in Sue Ann with Husband.

Artist talk with Ron Corbin, Sat., March 5, 2 to 4 p.m., free, exhibit through April 17, The Light Room, 2024 Wallace St., 215-765-0262, thelightroom.org.