Work by photographer Niko J. Kallianiotis, whose images of life in small Pennsylvania towns capture a fading picture of the American dream, are coming to Mercer County Community College’s James Kerney Campus Gallery.
“America in a Trance,” runs from Thursday, April 12 through Thursday, May 10 at the downtown Trenton gallery. On Wednesday, April 18, JKCG is hosting an artist talk and reception with Kallianiotis from 5 to 7:30 p.m.
Kallianiotis was born in Greece, but immigrated to Scranton 20 years ago. Since then he has crisscrossed the state, taking numerous photographs of Pennsylvania’s small towns, including Scranton, Aliquippa, Lehighton and many places in between.
He notes that he came to America with visions of prosperity and vibrancy based on Hollywood movies. But what Kallianiotis discovered was something very different.
Kallianiotis has seen abandonment of buildings that once were sites of prosperous factories. He has seen casinos rising where industry once thrived. More recently, he has observed parallels between the troubled economy of his home country and the one in Pennsylvania: rising unemployment, a glut of services and no industry. Now, he has turned those photos into the project he calls “America in a Trance.”
On his website, Kallianiotis states: “This project is an ongoing observation of the fading American dream so typified in the Northeastern Pennsylvania landscape but widespread across the United States…Through form, light and color, I let my work develop organically, and become commentary both of place, but also of self…I seek to visualize the core values of American society, while at the same time reevaluate my own.”
JKCG is located in MCCC’s Trenton Hall, 137 North Broad Street, across the street from the Kerney Building. Additional hours for this exhibit will be posted on the JKCG website.
