work on display
 
 
online Global Art Annual


 31.01.2007
 25.12.2007

 

 

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Country: USA  
John Chakeres

    1.La Paz 772 2005 pigment print ON Hannmulhe Photo Rag 20X20 IN.  2.La Paz 779 2005 pigment print ON Hannmulhe Photo Rag 20X20 IN.     3.La Paz 772 2005 pigment print ON Hannmulhe Photo Rag 20X20 IN.     4.La Paz 772 2005 pigment print ON Hannmulhe Photo Rag 20X20 IN.

 

 

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La Paz is a Mexican town located about two thirds of the way down the Baja peninsula along the Sea of Cortez, a place I have visited for years. I have never tired of it has to offer visually. What is special about it, is its pristine light, brilliant colors, clear air, and walls of interesting textures and forms. The photographs from La Paz are not so much about the place but about the raw materials I find there to create them. My photography has always had more to do with the concept of the found object rather then a record or witness to an event or place. I think most viewers come to photography experiencing the photograph as a mirror to a world they recognize. On the other hand I want my viewers to perceive my photographs more as a portal to another world using things they recognize. An abstract world of light, color, and texture. I want the viewer to experience a world they recognize presented in a different context. Walking that edge of what is known and what can be. What I find on the walls of La Paz is very much about that. There are so many random, unrelated events that make up the things I find, it is as if the walls are an ever evolving abstract sculpture or painting. The making of my photographs is a very intuitive process, with the smallest of things tweaking my interest, a shadow that catches my eye, a patch of color, paint, a crack, or graffiti. It's at that moment I isolate the image in the viewfinder and make my photograph. The making of the photograph is, in a sense, as random as the things I find on the walls. La Paz is indeed a place in the world; it is also that mythical place in my mind, my sub-conscious, and the source I go to for my creativity.