BILL JACOBSON – FIGURE, GROUND
2017-05-15figure, ground is linked conceptually to Jacobson’s previous Place (Series). After exploring images in which rectangular forms were placed in a variety of spaces, this new work depicts his interest in the undulating lines inherent in the human body. The figures in these photographs look away from the camera towards a natural landscape that becomes increasingly out of focus as it recedes. Working with an analog 8 x 10 camera, they are depicted in extraordinarily sharp detail, especially in contrast with the softness of the background.
Through the shift in focus and by looking at people’s backs, Jacobson references and contradicts the traditions of both landscape and portrait photography. The photographs suggest that we all face the unknown, as well as our inherent vulnerability in traversing the world around us. These themes are consistent with those in most all of Jacobson’s output over the past twenty-five years.
In addition to the seven large-scale figure, ground prints, the gallery will exhibit several new close-up figure studies from an adjacent series titled Lines In My Eyes. The close proximity of the camera to the figures, the dark tonalities, and the accompanying sensuality together recall Jacobson’s Thought Series from two decades ago.
Exhibition runs through to May 26th, 2017
Opposite – figure, ground #70, 2016
Julie Saul Gallery
535 West 22nd Street 6rd floor
New York
NY 10011
