Review+2

VISUAL ARTS: Keeping eye on detail Jerry Cullum - For the Journal-Constitution Sunday, November 13, 2005 REVIEW

"Gaby Messina: Grand Women"

Through Wednesday. $1,100. 10 a.m.---5 p.m. Tuesdays---Saturdays; noon-5 p.m. Sundays. Mason Murer Fine Art, 199 Armour Drive, Atlanta. 404-879-1500. www.masonmurer.com

Verdict: A striking first appearance by an international photographer whose work is beginning to be recognized.

Buenos Aires photographer Gaby Messina follows in the path of fabled documentarians of social status, such as Tina Barney.

Though most of Messina's grandes mujeres are less financially grand than Barney's subjects, every detail of her portraits of older "Grand Women" (which make their Atlanta debut after a recent appearance on the cover of the nationally respected photo magazine Aperture) reveals some pertinent detail regarding the sitter's place in society. The objects of furniture, condition of the light fixtures and carefully selected incidental objects all convey relevant information.

Messina sets up the photos in every respect, so the details may or may not be what the sitter would choose, but the photographer's choices are never mean-spirited; quite the opposite, in fact, even when another photographer might have made the detail demeaning.

By virtue of its unemphatic placement, the Napoleon cognac atop the piano of the elegantly attired "Esther" (each photo is titled with the first name of the sitter) speaks of understated, careful refinement. Messina gives equal amounts of respect to "Elisa's" darkroom developer trays and "Abuela [aunt] Esther's" kitchen counter. The ballerina figurine next to "Galina" in her dance tights and slippers speaks of a creative life well-lived, not the poignancy of past glory.

This compassionate sweet-temperedness combined with a keen sense of social observation carries over into the upscale world of "Daria's" marble bust and antique mirror, or "Ma Angelica's" stack of books on a glass-topped desk. The pose and expression of the sitter and the much-used look of the book she peruses make it clear that these tomes do not represent a lifetime of casual reading.

Messina's careful use of dramatic natural sunlight or indoor lighting (with long one-second exposures) adds to the artistry of these works. To take only two examples, shadows lend dignity to the portraits of the chain-smoking "Chinchina" and solitaire-playing "Rita."

These are activities that other photographers have often stereotyped as weaknesses. In Messina's hands, these are simply important but incidental features of the lives of two interesting women.

Though the show per se comes down shortly after this review appears, examples from the series will continue to be on display at Mason Murer.