+
+
They find me. 란 말이 참...괜찮은 감흥을 일으키는 사진들. (홋...내 문장에 영어의 역활이 있었다니) 굉장히 내 성격에 맞는 톤들이긴 한데, 너무 갤러리를 의식한 프린트가 아닌가 의혹을 가져봤다.가. 그냥 재밋게 보기로 했다. 포장마차 술자리에서 들은 이야기였는데, 무슨 문제가 있는 사람을 두고 형인 듯한 사람이 한마디 붙이는 중이었다.
- 세상을 바꾸고 싶으면 우선, 자신이 아는 공간부터 교체하는 거야. 모든데 적용되는 말은 아니지만. 알지 못하면 없는거야. 네가 그 아이를 모르고 있는데, 네 비난을 부어버릴덴 없을 껄.
이런 말들을 많이 듣기 위해서라도....술을 줄여야 겠다.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Gussie's Magnolia, La Grange TN, 1997
Shannon, 2003
The Ressurection Flags, Mississippi, 1995
Sombra Baile, San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, 2002
Gladys & Mother behind clothesline, Cove City NC, 1998
Jvan, Yucatan, 2002
"Making a photograph, to me, is a very abstract thing. It comes from all kinds of conscious and unconscious places.
The photographs just present themselves to me. They find me." Jack Spencer
There are artists who have the innate gift of heightened sensitivity and, through their work, these artists impart to us a sense of natural harmony and their vision of the world. Theirs is a philosophical testament to how to approach and savor life itself. A way of living that is culled in an instant, in the subtle ambience of a place, capturing both expressions and settings with the apparently still sleep-filled expression of awakening, that "pure" instant when we begin to relate to the world--that instant that is the origin of the passage from the unconscious to the conscious.
Thanks to his perceptivity, Spencer often succeeds in capturing this dimension of the fleeting instant and creates evocative images of tension-free emotion. Only in a subsequent phase as we interpret the images do we receive actual emotions as if being guided on our way, exactly as occurs on awakening.
Spencer's refined technique contributes greatly to enhancing many of his works, as photographer and writer A.M. Rousseau has noted: "The brown toned, selenium washed prints are extensively altered in the dark room through the elaborate use of masks, soft focus and meticulous dodging and burning of specific areas. The resulting, exquisitely crafted, prints have the appearance almost of paintings that convey poetic memories of a sepia tinted time lost to our memory but present once again in our dreams."
It was never Jack Spencer's intention to be "pigeon-holed" as a southern photographer trying to make sense of what is for many of us a foreign land. His collection of photographs entitled "Native Soil" has brought him success, but his goal is to show us that it is about a vision, not about a place. What is consistent is Spencer's preoccupation with nuance; the defining gesture and mood that belongs to each subject, discovered through a process involving communion with his subjects.
He began to photograph following a long absence from his birthplace and his experiences in other places prior to his return gave him the opportunity to understand and interpret his "old world". The result is a unique mix of distinctly southern landscapes and portraits as seen through Spencer's own deeply personal vision. Not coincidentally his work has been compared to the short stories of William Faulkner and Flannery O'Connor.
With its multi-hued monochromy, Spencer's work proves that those who only see five colors are blind and hear only five notes are deaf. Limiting sound to a pentatonic system or color to a pentachromatic one, means to be deaf and blind. The world of color is infinite, as is the world of sound. It is only by ceasing to pin outside concepts on the worlds of color and sound that we begin to truly "hear" and "see".
Jack Spencer was born in Mississippi in 1951 and raised in Louisiana. He is a painter and musician and started photographing seriously in the mid-1980s when he returned home to Mississippi for a family visit. He is currently enjoying considerable success in the Fine Art world and is one of the most interesting photographers on the contemporary scene.
by Rosanna Checchi
Courtesy of Spencerstudio and Daniela Facchinato Image Gallery
Daniela Facchinato Image Gallery, Via Dei Colli 29/2, 40136 Bologna. Tel. (+39) 051-589170 www.imagegalleryonline.com
|
|
