Heart of the Matter – About

David Rabkin

Self-portrait (2021)

About The Work
The Heart of the Matter is about place, or more precisely, what places feel like and mean to us. If places have souls, then these works aim to reveal them. And even if places don’t, there’s still something essential about each one, something emotional at the core of how we relate to it. That core feeling-meaning is The Heart of the Matter.

To get at this essence, I’m exploring what moves me most in photographs and what gets in the way. Within certain constraints, the camera captures everything. Sometimes it’s more than you want. Taking a photograph can be surprisingly like bringing home a block of marble; what’s non-essential must be chipped away for the work to emerge. With The Heart of the Matter, I try to evoke an emotional state, the essential impact of each place, by combining images and stripping away what’s non-essential so the core can powerfully yet quietly emerge.

About David
I am insatiably curious, chronically creative, and [some say] wildly multi-faceted. One of my grandfathers was a patent attorney, the other a painter, photographer and woodworker. My mother was a talented needleworker, knitter and dressmaker, knowledgeable about antique furniture and oriental rugs. She had a deep appreciation and understanding of any and all forms of craftsmanship. As CEO of a major teaching hospital, my father managed tremendous complexity to build and maintain an organization that was true to its core (and multidimensional) mission.

As a kid, I wanted to be an inventor. And through two careers, one in software engineering and a second in science museums, as well as a continuous stream of artistic pursuits, I’ve made good on that intent.

Stage photograph, 2023

Design/learn-to-weld project, 1979

Immersive planetarium show, 2015

Within the broad landscape of media in which I have worked (you can see the range on my friends & family pages), photography is a deep and winding stream that has never run dry. More than a decade as photographer (and makeup manager) for a community opera company has transformed my camera work. On stage, the uniqueness of each moment and constantly shifting light have taught me to photograph intuitively, kinesthetically, at one with the show through my camera. And while I marvel at the capabilities of modern technology, in this context if I don’t set exposure manually and dynamically, the results often miss the mark; I may catch the moment and frame it well, but the image won’t sing. That quest to capture the essence of a fleeting moment is echoed in The Heart of the Matter; here too, it’s about capturing something deep so others can feel it. I’m just using an expanded set of techniques do so.

Through my experiences in museums, including seven years directing a planetarium that produced fulldome films and leading an art/science gallery that mounted 14 exhibits, I’ve developed an appreciation of – and craving for – immersion and scale. It’s unavoidable when you imagine on a galactic scale and create for a 50-foot dome that surrounds you. I remember the moment when, after many frustrating iterations, my team finally got the view of, and movement through, Saturn’s rings just right. It was impossibly huge, breathtaking, melodic in movement. I felt the tears and shouted, “You’ve done it, gang! We’re finally there.” That’s what I’m aiming for with The Heart of the Matter, and perhaps with everything I create.