By Serena Solomon
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
UPPER WEST SIDE — How different it would be to see the neighborhood through the eyes of photographer Renay Elle Morris.
While stunning buildings, like the Apthorp on West 78th Street and West End Avenue, would appear even grander through her lens, what about the average and mundane, like the popular grocery store Zabar's or a stroll along Broadway?
"When you work as a photographer, for me it's important to go beyond what is obvious," said Morris, who lives on the Upper West Side. "I personally don't think people take time to really look at that."
Morris left for Paris this week after being selected to showcase her work in the prominent Galerie Adler as part of an exhibition of international artists featuring photos of women taken by women.
Wherever she travels in the world, Morris — who has a background in advertising and marketing — focuses on injecting wonder into whatever captures her eye.
The dreamy essence of her images sheds new light on exotic locales around the world, from Albania to Argentina, often because she concentrates on less-glamorous subjects. Using her advertising experience, Morris also digitally manipulates her photos to amplify whatever message she is trying to communicate.
"Sometimes you can surprise yourself by bringing your own aesthetics to an already existing image and taking that to another level," she said
In one of her signature photo essays, titled “Women of Influence,” Morris makes the point through her photos that women are often portrayed as provocateurs in the media. In one photo, she was simply walking past the image of a woman painted on banner outside a museum in Paris, and was struck by the contrast of sky against the banner and building.
"I felt I needed to capture that because, again, I think that most often we come across these images, which are beautiful, and just walk on," she said.
Then, Morris noticed the woman on the banner appeared to be cuddling up to the building.
"I felt that I wanted to make her even more prominent, so I worked a little magic," she said.
That “magic” involved manipulating the image so that it looked like there was a curve in the line of the banner and building — making the woman and the museum appear as if they could be lovers canoodling on the grass under a striking sky.
As an artist living on the Upper West Side, Morris's creativity is fueled by the vibrancy of the neighborhood.
"I love the energy and the spirit and the community, the people," said the photographer, who also wrote an art column in the ’70s for a now-defunct neighborhood newspaper. "The Upper West Side is like a delicate balance of New York style with European class."
But Morris is equally fascinated with the commonplace features of her neighborhood, like that popular grocer she visits for her daily iced coffee.
"I love Zabar's,” she said with a laugh.
