J. Shimon and J. Lindemann, Herman Resting in Front of his Farm House, St. Nazianz, Wisconsin, 2002, 10x8" gelatin silver print
J. Shimon and J. Lindemann, Ann in her Kitchen, Madison, Wisconsin, 1999, 34x27", inkjet print
J. Shimon and J. Lindemann, Holly with Ada (No. 3), Kiel, Wisconsin, 1996, 34x27", inkjet print
J. Shimon and J. Lindemann, Amber and Brad at Home, Manitowoc, Wisconsin, 2004, 12x20", gum bichromate over palladium print
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>> J. Shimon & J. Lindemann
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It Takes One to Know One
September 15, 2006 - October 22, 2006 Reception: Friday September 15, 7-9 P.M.
[ View Press Release (PDF) ]
Sarah Bowen Gallery opens the fall season with an exhibit of photographs and projections titled “It Takes One to Know One” by Manitowoc , Wisconsin artists John Shimon and Julie Lindemann . As a collaborative team, their work elegantly captures the flavor of the landscape and the quiet, melancholy realities of American rural and small town life. Their highly stylized photographs simultaneously evaluate and elevate their subjects as portraits of obscure Midwestern denizens, unnervingly comfortable with their small town identity, are rendered in inappropriately substantial platinum.
As photographers, the artists establish a subjective historical view; they become involved in situations, and respond to them. Their early captivation with Depression-era FSA photos, Edward Steichen's masterful gum prints, anonymous snapshots, and Robert Frank—who gave them the impulse to photograph everything in their path—has led them to a “new timelessness” in contemporary imagery and themes. Prints from large-format negatives rendered in gum-bichromate and platinum-palladium will be shown with tintypes, film shorts and full-color inkjet prints. The installation outlines the artists' exploitation of and preoccupation with process to unfold an anomalous narrative, swollen with experience.
www.shimonlindemann.com |
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The startling aspect of Shimon's and Lindemann's work is their commitment to and relationship with their subjects. Stories accompany the portraitures in their self-published catalog, Observations Are Not Knowledge, and we are stunned to realize that the photographers have invested time into their subjects, mainly years, following their stories, which are for the most part tragic and full of some element of rebellion. Rage against the law, torture of childhood, boredom of work or just plain boredom, confinement of location or limited access to resources, stagnation of an unsatisfying and unfulfilling existence, or loss or confusion of any ideals. And yet, despite their various struggles to harness some sense of completeness, the subjects stare out from the photographs, genuine and complete in the moment.
[read comple j.& j.notes by sb]
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