J Wesley Brown is a fan of the night and of the solitary figure. I was less convinced by his portraits, some of which felt a little too staged for my liking, but I enjoyed the atmosphere of his nighttime images of urban or suburban landscapes. They have a strange sense of abandonment and unease, as if all human beings had just mysteriously vanished. They made me think of Gregory Crewdson if he hung around a bit more after dark, but I guess that Wesley Brown’s images are not $250,000 productions with a full film crew.
One Comment
Indeed they are not. They are more like $7 productions, which goes towards the bottle of wine I bring with me. The staged feel is probably due to the fact that I use only ambient light so my models must stay perfectly still, sometimes up to 8 seconds in order to get a shot fit for printing. Edgar Martins actually hired one of those street performers that stand still until someone gives them money for his shots with people on the beach for this same reason, I just found out!
Thanks for the post – W