Mercredi 13 Juillet 2016 11:49:52 par Alix Joly dans Expositions

When the fashion editors discovered the West, they went looking for a genuine Western cowboy photographer, someone who knew the heart and practice of small-town cowboy life, "cowboy culture," on vast cattle ranches--someone who was a true cowboy chronicler and well connected. Kurt Markus was their man. For 35 years he had photographed the buckaroos of Oregon, Nevada, Idaho and California; the cowpunchers of Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico and Arizona; and the cowboys of Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, the Dakotas, Nebraska and Canada. Irrespective of the different captions these wranglers wore there was one common thread, according to Kurt: "They [these chaps] ride in the company of like-minded souls."
Kurt is one of the most distinguished portrait and fashion photographers in the last quarter century. The New York Times describes his work as "arresting black-and-white photos from a master fashion photographer." His work has appeared, for the most part, in every major fashion magazine and more.

Wrangler, Sheridan, Wyoming, 1993 ©Kurt Markus

His portraiture is the very essence of excellence in refined craftsmanship; his images are known for their grace and wit and absolute mastery of the quality and character of light. The portraits are spartan, image qua image. They are without distracting elements and distinguish themselves with sober, unadorned clarity. There is no mistaking the object photographed. The composition is straightforward. The shapes are robust, sturdy, lusty and spirited. Each promotes economy in concentration from the viewer. The negative space is truly void, whereas the light is delicate and accenting, revealing and complimenting his subjects. The deep and soft shadows are ideally placed.

Michelle Buswell, Flair Magazine, Flathead Valley, Montana, 2004 ©Kurt Markus

Kurt Markus takes great pride in the black-and-white gelatin silver prints. He prints his own work. He has selected the images in this exhibition, and these are not necessarily pictures published in fashion magazines. Rather, these are his best images, not meant to sell clothing or perfume or makeup or boots or gloves but to be seen, studied, enjoyed and admired as fine art photography.


VERVE Gallery Featured Artist in this exhibition is Susannah Benjamin.

Identity Crisis, 2010 ©Susannah Benjamin

Susannah Benjamin was born in New York City in 1993. She has a passion for storytelling and mythology. Her photography is intimately tied to the literary medium. Each of Susannah's images requires meticulous storyboarding, location scouting, casting, and styling. Her aims are to create pieces that are aesthetically engaging and also narratively and conceptually evocative. The artist views her models as characters from larger stories, each with their own history and fictional identity. These characters occupy worlds in which social and physical isolation, metamorphosis, and magic are common, if not expected, occurrences. Benjamin's use of winged women, bewitched girls, and shape shifting youths allow her to marry the escapist realms of fantasy and myth to topical issues such as bullying, depression, and negative self-image.

Blindness, 2009 ©Susannah Benjamin

Benjamin has been recognized for her photography from a very early age. After winning first place in Digital Camera Magazine's international "Young Photographer of the Year" competition at age 14, she went on to win the grand prize in the 2013 Irish Times' photography competition, selected from over 8,000 entries worldwide. She was also one of six artists to win PDN's "The Curator" competition, which aims to highlight the best emerging fine art photographers.
Susannah firmly believes that artists should approach their work from a cross-disciplinary perspective. Thus, Benjamin pursued a liberal arts education; she is a recent graduate of Yale University with a degree in English and French Literature.


Source : press release