When I look at the photography of Sigmar Berg takes I am taken back to early High School, when everyone seemed to picked-up a camera in an attempt to create an identity for themselves. The trend was either photography or poetry and lets all be honest, we all dabbled with one or the other.Now I recognize that Berg is making a giant leap from designing high-end eye wear for his company Beryll, to taking on the difficult art of photography; but its fair to say that beginner's luck is no excuse for continued mediocrity. How many times do we really need to "develop the view"? And isn’t that just a fancy way of crediting Photoshop?
The show consists of a good twenty pieces all digitally printed on 45” x 60” canvas. Berg’s subjects of choice are images of urban cities and coastal scenes otherwise known as "safety subjects". These are generally the topics of beginners and/or photographers who have nothing to say. What is unfortunate for Berg is that he can no longer claim the former since this is Developed Views Part Deux, and so one is forced to assume the later, that indeed Mr. Sigmar Berg, like so many people who fashion themselves photographers simply has nothing new to share.
Credit should be given for the use of shadow and light, however there is some skepticism as to the authenticity of this "development". It is clear that these nuances in color variation were not achieved in a darkroom since each piece is digitally printed, so it must be assumed that Berg “developed” them elsewhere. What is evident is that this work is forged in the studio of a beginner and if Berg wants to stay in the game, he is going to need to step up the plate and “develop” something new.
