Penny Rakoff
(New York, New York, 1951 - )
Colored Pleasures in Miami (Pool)
1987
Chromogenic print
15 x 19 in. (38.1 x 48.3 cm)
Collection of the Akron Art Museum
Gift of Fred and Laura Ruth Bidwell
2025.7.10
Copyright of the artist
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Penny Rakoff’s vibrant color photographs of urban night scenes in Ohio and Florida depict the real world in an unfamiliar way. The artist seeks out spaces illuminated by a variety of artificial light sources, knowing that color film will interpret their hues in excitingly exaggerated ways. She also utilizes long exposures to brighten her nocturnal views so that they appear somewhere between night and day. Rakoff’s pictures usually do not include people, and so they suggest a surreal world that emerges after nightfall, when no one may be looking.