 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|||||||||||
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
||||
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
||||
|
|
||
 |
||
|
|
||
|
HARVEST |
||
| by | ||
|
Jeffrey Lamont Brown |
||
|
Opening Talk: Tuesday, October 16th at 7pm |
||
|
|
||
|
Artist's Statement Growing up on a farm, I never thought much about where food came from. We were busy following the rhythms of the land and seasons, and if you were hungry, you could just walk down the field and tear into an ear of corn or a garden-fresh tomato. When the custom cutters came through, things got exciting. Harvest meant a payday for my dad and grandpa, but it also meant strangers passing through, bringing their ways and ideas to our remote corner of Kansas, working side by side for a week or so before moving on. For a country boy with little experience and big ideas, it was the old-time romance of the road, with the added twist that these farmers had left behind them not some terrible past, but a small corner of the country or other that they loved best, just to make a decent living and see a speck more of the world. That was 25 years ago.
|
Today, living in an urban environment in bountiful, beautiful southern California, it is fascinating to contemplate the lives of these stolid farmers: battling drought, insects, price fluctuation -- so much uncertainty for the slimmest of profits and the bittersweet reward of a life bound by blood and sweat to the land. I had been thinking about embarking on this project for several years now. Then one day last spring, I happened to mention it to my dad, who has been ailing in recent years. With one phone call to an old custom harvesting buddy, he put the whole thing in motion; We spent a week on the road, getting a start on what I envision as a multiyear project. In July, we jumped in the truck and made these images across 1,500 miles of record wheat harvest in Kansas, Nebraska and Colorado. |
|
|
About the Photographer: Jeffrey Lamont Brown brings a fresh, reality-based approach to advertising photography for clients around the world. His lush, authentic style is fueled by a keen appreciation for real human moments and honed by a strong, intuitive aesthetic sense. Jeffrey believes that every shoot, however comprehensively produced and tightly choreographed, contains “real moments” that serve his clients’ desire to present products and ideas in the most compelling way. “A lot of people are trying to work at the point where documentary meets art photography,” Jeffrey said. “What sets me apart is that I am drawing on almost twenty years of work as a documentary photographer.” Jeffrey is also a master of digital technology, which he uses to replicate and enhance darkroom techniques pioneered by such greats as Edward Steichen and Ansel Adams. Such digital “dodging and burning” helps Jeffrey calibrate the emotional pitch of his images without sacrificing the sense of reality that lies at their core. Over the last few years, Jeffrey has put together a strong team of production and design specialists who work together in his Southern California studio to deliver quality images to a diverse, international client base. In keeping with his background as a documentarian and core beliefs about environmental and social justice, he also finds time to support various nonprofit groups in their work. He is currently embarked on a multiyear collaboration with Project Concern International and the Gem Foundation to raise awareness about HIV/AIDS in the developing world. |
||
|
|
||
|
Previous exhibitions at The Half King For further information on these exhibits, please go here.
|
||
