HEROES

Our’s is a world of heroes and villains. We see both every day in in our personal lives and on the world stage. It is without question that we emulate the heroes; we long to be heroic in whatever way we can.  The markings of a hero is one that often and repeatedly does the exceptional. Heroes exhibit certain greatness and are many times lauded but often they show a quiet, restrained resilience that remains unrecognized by most. You know them and I’m certain you have many of your own.

 I have always been drawn to and recognize many in literature, myth, legend and in real life. Samson and Superman; Kennedy and King, just to name a very few. This page features some of those men and women of the arts of whom I love them all. They are hardly stand alone but I recognize them here.

Ai Wei Wei

         Jean Michel-Basquiat
            

Frida Kahlo

                             Gordon Parks

Kiki Smith

   Louise Bourgeois         
                       

Miles Davis

                            Misty Copeland

Georgia O'keefe











                                           

                                          
                                       
                                      Salvador Dali   

                                                                                    

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.  

FIVE PHOTOGRAPHS Gordon Parks

The release of the sound track to the motion picture “Shaft” starring Richard Roundtree was to be a major event. It featured the music of Maestro; Isaac Hayes for which he would win the much coveted Oscar and sold in the multiple millions. The album was released a few weeks earlier than the film and I had become engrossed in the music. The cover too, was itself an achievement of advertising art featuring the action hero/detective in a pulp fiction moment of triumphant motion with grim expression and guns blazing..  The bold, original concept “Shaft” logo most prominent! The liner notes spoke of many things including the film’s remarkable director; Gordon Parks. There was also a photo of Isaac Hayes with Parks and the creator of Shaft; Ernest Tidyman standing on the MGM studios film lot. All distinguished and excited about their collaboration. This was my introduction to Gordon Parks; an illustrious and variously talented man; one most gifted and accomplished. 

 From the starting point of film director I would discover that Mr. Parks had earlier directed the celebrated account of his own autobiographical novel “The Learning Tree.” He had even scored that film himself as well as having written the screen play. Parks had another major star point in his universe of expression. He was a photo-journalist of the highest order. He had been a staff member of the most lauded photography magazine in history.  The legendary magazine; “LIFE” was his home for a number of brilliant years. His contributions to the magazine included essays and photos on fashion, sports, Broadway and racial segregation. Parks remains a standard bearer for the ages; he is one among the greatest generation of photographers.

The films, writings, music and teachings of Gordon Parks have served as testaments to his journey to understanding, self-expression and the enrichment of the human experience. The catalogue of Gordon Parks’ efforts is eclectic, extensive and extraordinary. I have selected five pieces to illustrate his photography. They are his voice and speak to our pleasure.  

Dorothea Lange

Dorothea Lange was the first photographer I fell in love with. It was and remains a total infatuation. Her Iconic and brilliantly honest work, her mastery of her chosen instrument and the decisions, journalistic and artistic are representative of the vision sublime.

Lange’s camera and eye were drawn to those on the fringes of society. The Invisible American’s; those numbering among the forgotten or ignored became her subjects of choice. The results are remarkable in their simplicity and directness. She was a serious photographer. Her works date her to a time when life was many times more brutal and devoid of the excess and glitz of our times.  Her prime years depicted many of America’s most trying: the Great Depression, The Dust Bowl Era, Japanese Internment Camps and the early Plight of the Migrant Worker. Her eye sought out the universal and commonality of all Americans like no other photographer. She is from a time before the “selfie.” Lange was looking out into the world as she discovered beauty and truth among the pains of human existence, suffering and trials. Lange was a beautiful woman of heart, mind and spirit. She has given the world much through her activism and journalistic works.

The photographic compositions of Dorothea Lange speak so eloquently for themselves they need little embellishment or definition. I have included a selected portfolio of some of her best and moving treasures. I have also included a link to the documentary; “Dorothea Lange: Grab a Hunk of Lightning” from the PBS series “American Masters.”  It centers on Lange’s preparation for her MoMA retrospective and covers many aspects of the photographer’s life in intimate detail. The life was amazing, indeed. You be the judge.  

“The camera is a powerful instrument for saying to the world: this is the way it is…

Look at it!        Look at it!”

Dorothea Lange

“Dorothea Lange: Grab a Hunk of Lightning”