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Wednesday, March 1, 2017

Jack Spencer Looks at America



The abandoned, the isolated, the darkness and the distant…shadow, more shadows and light. These are the elements of Jack Spencer’s photography. His eye is drawn to these things. There is also color and the quietest of beauty in his work. Jack Spencer; in the midst of his somber tonality is able to excite as much as he engages his viewers with something of a manly charm. Think of Hemingway when you look at Jack’s wordless stories.  



I very recently was made aware of the work of Fine Art Photographer Jack Spencer through no-less of an informed and credible source PBS’s Charlie Rose Show (Charlie by the way is on leave as he is recovering from surgery.) Guest host John Meacham wrote the foreword for Spencer’s newly released   book “This Land: An American Portrait” and did the honors of the Spencer interview. The book highlights Spencer’s recent travels across and around the United States and is in itself a remarkable statement. 



The images there in highlight the American landscape in a decidedly unique vision of our dystopic and often wrongly interpreted times. Spencer is able to capture; in his sometimes painterly style, what could well be the zeitgeist of our contemporary American epoch. Through the use of still photography that cuts to the essence of the thing like no other medium; Spencer rewards his audience.



The self-taught Spencer is respected, lauded and collected in a highly fashionable way. This is deserving and to his credit as a creator. I am including an abundance of images with this writing. The images are in Spencer’s own distinctly eloquent voice.