Opening reception: May 5th | 5pm–7pm

Rena Bransten Gallery is pleased to present David Linger: The Sea Within | O Mar Adentro, a collection of black and white photographs of beach scenes printed on translucent porcelain panels.

Linger is a careful and intense documentarian of people and their relationship to the sea. His subjects are groups, pairs, or solitary figures entrenched in intimate moments, joyous celebrations, or lost in contemplation. Linger’s images are at once familiar and atmospheric and bring the democratic nature of the beach to the fore.

Taken at two places dear to Linger’s heart, Ocean Beach in San Francisco and Ipanema in Rio de Janeiro, these photographs are an elegy to the sea and its visitors.  Though the two locations are starkly different, Linger brings them to equilibrium through his process as the vibrant, chaotic Brazilian beach is bathed in the misty grey of the northern CA coast. His two mediums are chosen for their joint ability to interpret time with permanence yet intense fragility.

At the age of 19, in 1968, in a period of unprecedented political and social upheaval, David Linger made the decision to leave the United States for Europe. Two years later in London, he met Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil, two icons of Brazilian music who had been imprisoned and exiled for their activities as founders of the revolutionary / cultural movement Tropicália. In early 1972 the military grip on Brazil eased, and Gil and Veloso were able to return home. A month after their arrival in Salvador, Bahia, Linger bought a one-way ticket, borrowed $400 for pocket money, and met them there. Soon after, he moved to Rio de Janeiro, where he found his roots and lived for seven years. The friendships that began in England have endured until today. A current resident of San Francisco, Mr. Linger now spends as much time as possible in Rio de Janeiro. He describes San Francisco as the city of his heart, and Rio de Janeiro as the city of his soul.