MV Chamber Hosts Artist Barry Toranto’s ‘Windowscapes’ Featuring Single-Exposure Photographs Capturing Window Reflections – Nov. 25th Thru Jan. 15th – Artwalk Is on Dec. 2nd!

Longtime Mill Valley resident, former co-owner of WIGT Print and Mill Valley Fall Arts Festival board member Barry Toranto has been at the forefront of 94941 creativity for decades.

But as with many creative dynamos, Toranto has a variety of waves to express his creative output. One of those outlets is thrilling, color-laden Windowscape photographs, as he calls them.

“The Windowscapes are each a single exposure,” Toranto says. “Window reflections merge with what is on the other side of the glass. These photographs are not created by layering. Looking through glass is always surprising. Changing the camera angle changes the reflection: shadows change the way the objects show or do not show. Inanimate objects in a window can seem to have personality, as photographs are inanimate and yet arouse feelings.”

Photographing since high school, Barry Toranto has explored images that both embrace and reach beyond the here and now. He sees photography as an alchemical process – the subject is the raw material, the gold is an image that expresses universal truth beyond that subject, one that makes us think and remember, and ultimately, see the world in a new and different light. 

In 2005 he started a series of  “Windowscapes” which are often misinterpreted as layered after the fact but are each a single exposure. In the artist’s words, “They are created in one shot by capturing window reflections that merge with what is on the other side of the glass. Looking through glass is always surprising. Inanimate objects in a window can seem to have personality, as photographs are inanimate and yet arouse feelings. They evoke our double life: who we are inside and what we become outside.”

Barry’ s work is exhibited locally during Marin Open Studios each May, Mill Valley Fall Arts Festival in September and other local shows throughout the year.  Barry has served on the board of Mill Valley Chamber of Commerce, The O’Hanlon Center for the Arts and the Mill Valley Falls Arts Festival and is currently an MVFF committee member.

Toranto will be showcasing his work on the walls of the Mill Valley Chamber’s space at 85 Throckmorton Ave. from November 25th to January 15th.