Performance/Art, on display at Seattle City Hall through July 11, features the dramatic work of four Seattle performance photographers who collaborate with dancers, musicians and actors to move beyond the fleeting moments of a performance to create powerful visual metaphors that convey  more than a snapshot.

Photographers David Belisle, Gabriel Bienczycki, Steven Miller and Tim Summers join forces with performers to make photographs that blur the line between publicity still and fine art. In 36 archival photographs, images burst forth defying gravity and expectation – dancers suspended in mid air, a DJ cloaked in downy feathers, a performance artist perched on deer legs.

The photographs in Performance/Art feature local artists including dancers Wade Madsen and Alison Cockrill, Spectrum Dance Theater, Haruko Nishimura of the performance art group Degenerate Art Ensemble, and the performance group Implied Violence. The photographs also feature international musicians such as Michael Stipe and Patti Smith.

Performance/Art is on view in the City Hall Lobby Gallery and Anne Focke Gallery (located on the L-2 level of City Hall), 600 Fourth Ave.

Read a 2009 Seattle Times’ Pacific Northwest Magazine article featuring these photographers here.

Image: Gabriel Bienczycki, Farewell, 2010, 18 x 22.5″, digital photograph. The performers are dancers with Spectrum Dance Theater