Semblances
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Prize
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PhotographerJ. Wesley Brown, United States
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Website
These solitary figures are alone in the frame showing their smallness and giving the viewer just a hint of what they are about, since that is really all we are ever given. As such, they are a semblance of their true being - just a hint or even a deceptive indication.
The images in Semblances are as much about the landscapes as the subjects in them. In a similar fashion, what I choose to reveal â?? both in framing and representation - about a place I find myself photographing in is just a semblance or hint of the greater location and reality as I perceived it.
Most of my shooting is done at night, when this feeling of smallness or aloneness is heightened. I choose to shoot using only the ambient light found in each location as it exists naturally or by manâ??s intervention, but not my own.
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BiographyJ. Wesley Brown is a photographer based in Los Angeles, CA. He has lived in various cities throughout the United States, as well as in Sydney, Buenos Aires and most recently, Madrid. Wesleyâ??s work explores isolation and loneliness, feelings each of us experiences and which are often heightened in the darkness of night, where he does most of his work. Although he grew up in one of the safest towns in America, with just two police officers and void of traffic lights, he would be terrified when taking out the garbage in the dark as a child. His work explores this sense of vulnerability. The locations in Wesleyâ??s photographs are portrayed as he finds them, shot using only the ambient light that exists naturally or by manâ??s intervention, but not his own. Work from his Semblances series was recently shown as part of PhotoEspaña this past June in Madrid and at the Carmel Art & Film Festival in October. He was recently selected as one of the top 30 emerging American photographers to watch in 2009 by the Magenta Foundationâ??s Flash Forward Competition. He is represented by MadridModern Gallery.
