Mr. Rubin’s photographs are improvisational images which often possess an optic rhythm perhaps reflecting his involvement in jazz music. Because of their improvisational nature and because the artist is not locked into an interpretation, many of his works are untitled.
Mr. Rubin’s avant-garde and bold technique capture the on-going counterpoint between the beauty of nature and the efforts of man. His works run the gamut from the delicate petals of a flower to the depersonalizing forces of our monolithic metropolises.
In his “Great Erection Series”, Mr. Rubin captures the syncopation of the city scenario, especially in his photograph of a Chicago skyscraper, where the weak beat is always tied to the strong beat; where there is no respite from the oppressive primitive rhythm of modern architecture; where monoliths of steel and concrete become temples to corporate gods—towering temples whose rock-hard cadences violate the skyline. Aware of detail, but willing to sacrifice it for the sake of creating mood, Mr. Rubin creates a poignant mood with his photograph of Manhattan resting on a cloud of lavender.
His rhapsodic treatment of sun and clouds in “Progression” is indeed awe-inspiring, capturing the grandeur of a pristine world. Just as he moves unfettered through the prisms of chordal colors of Dewey Jefferies’ keyboard, so too does Mr. Rubin—with insouciance—travel through his world of light.
Some physicist’s believe light and colors are basically emanations of sounds merely differing in frequency. The poet or synesthetic individual is intuitively aware of this and employs it as a point of departure in his art, as the poet Rimbaud reminds us.
Mr. Rubin is tuned in to the sounds of color. For those of us who wish to hear and see our world clearer, Mr. Rubin’s music and photography may serve as guides.
From the Article “Michael Anthony Rubin’s ‘First Five Years'” By Drew Bolda