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머...같은 곳에서 퍼온 것이긴 하지만.
아래 게시물에도 있는 유니버시티 오브 텍사스란 단어가 어쩐지 맘에 걸린다.
웬지 연예인들 이야기가 나오는 것까지. 카일리 미노그는 그렇다 쳐도, 펄 잼까지 써대는 건 머야.
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The Art Lovers, Paris, 1999
Shack and Tulips, Virginia, 1996
Black Spring, England, 1997
Trouble, Arizona, 2001
Infinity, Wyoming, 2002
Monastery, Guanajuato, Mexico, 2002
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Rocky Schenck
"Although my photographs were taken in various parts of the world, they have a coherent style that is the result of a consistent way of manipulating the negative and print. I consider my creations illustrations of my dreams, emotions and conscious (and perhaps unconscious) desires. Usually, the images I take are not premeditated or created at the drawing board. I just take my camera with me wherever I go and try to remain open to everything life offers, whether in a brusque or gentile manner. I prefer images that tell a story and have a strong narrative quality. Of course on occasion I am completely swept up by the magic of nature whose beauty is sometimes so overpowering that I am virtually paralyzed, incapable of any movement except for that slight, imperceptible motion of my index finger pressing the shutter release. In fact, it is the natural world and its puissance that offers me a continuous fount of inspiration and comfort."
This, in broad outline, is the guiding philosophy of Rocky Schenck, a self-taught photographer who was born in Texas and currently resides in Los Angeles. His works collected in the book Photographs are ambiguous, inhabited by ghosts and obsessions that are mysterious, silent and vaguely romantic as a result of the indistinct outlines and scanty material existence of those faceless individuals who, despite themselves, find themselves dazed in these rarified and chic images. The light cuts through these always dark settings like a knife, offering itself as a kind of salvation. The light-colored gashes in many of his images act as an emergency escape route and are clearly marked so as to be visible to all present, just like the neon exit signs in a dark movie theater.The prints, "antique" in feeling and made foggy through the masterful use of toning, deal with fully modern themes. If in the photographs of urban spaces (depicted through hotel rooms, information desks and store windows) his autonomous human beings suffer the alienation, solitude and inability to communicate typical of today's metropolises, in his landscapes (delineated by forests, oceans, fields and paths) his isolated figures are subject to the menacing hostility of nature.
In "Solitude" (California, 1998) a wild tangle of branches renders unsettling the long avenue leading to a house (bringing to mind the 1962 movie, To Kill a Mockingbird with Gregory Peck). In "Odyssey" (Cape Cod, 2000) a ferryboat packed with people strikes out on an inky sea that forebodes no good. In "Eventually" (New Mexico, 2002) a figure stands, immobile, at the edges of an impassable desert. In "Biggest Cypress in Texas" (Texas, 2002) an elderly man wearily leans against the trunk of an age-old cypress.
And yet, despite the dark hues, stark shadows and pitch-black stains that edge Schenck's photos, all is not lost. There is always a way out. The sense of hope is tangible and comes to the rescue of these lone, disheartened beings. Like the hand of faith is extended to pull us out of harm's way, here the rays of light rain down from above to clear the scene. Pure white roads offer a guide. Diaphanous clouds are penetrated by the sun to revivify the dark earth. Even the moon, although invisible, acts as a torch for nocturnal travelers. In "Daddy in the Woods" (Texas, 1999) a man on in years (the photographer's father), lost in a frightening wood of bare-limbed trees, comes across a kind of star shining on the ground that acts as a good omen.
The moral that shines through Robert Schenck's surreal images seems to be this: don't worry, salvation exists! And this comforting warning is not only applicable for those who find themselves lost in nature, but also those who haunt the asphalt jungles this artist photographs in Paris, Berlin, London, Los Angeles, New York, Washington D.C., Las Vegas, Dresden and Atlanta, where lines of silent, orderly travelers ride escalators and where people keep to themselves, perhaps in pairs or groups, without apparently "living" or "feeling".
Schenck is a photographer much-loved by collectors, musicians (among his "victims" are Nick Cave, Kylie Minongue, Stevie Nicks, PJ Harvey, Diana Krall, Neil Diamond, kd Lang, Annie Lennox, Sheryl Crow, Van Halen, Joni Mitchell, Pearl Jam, Donna Summer, Gloria Estefan, Seal and Guns 'n Roses), actors (Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman, Uma Thurman and Marisa Tomei) and top international publications (Aperture, Vogue, Vanity Fair, Newsweek, Time, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, Interview, Bomb, Detour and American Photo). His work is immediately recognizable for its unique technique and allusions to those dreams and nightmares that affect many of us. Naturally, our "visions" may not be so cinematographic in plot (Schenck is also a director), use such sophisticated geometric arrangements, have such a flowing texture or be so aesthetically elegant. But the atmospheres he recreates are those we know, and this we recognize immediately.
Cristina Franzoni
All images these pages ⓒ Rocky Schenck and courtesy University of Texas Press
All images from: Rocky Schenck Photographs, University of Texas Press.
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