Jan Pieter van Voorst van Beest, Briss, 2003, Silver gelatin print, 14 x 19 inches, $975

Choosing work for an exhibit based on the human figure.  I already had a set of photographs chosen and arranged. Then Denise came in for a studio visit, looked around and pointed at four photos leaning against the wall. The first one was a street shot I took years ago in Costa Rica. It depicted a statue while a man in the background was going about his business in a way unrelated to the statue. I had sold the photograph years ago, but through a strange set of circumstances it returned back into my possession. Then there were two photographs of statue details, one of a woman holding a baby, the other of a detail of a statue. The last two photographs had been shown together, years ago in a solo exhibit where I compared the tonal values and poses of the nude with the tonal values and poses of marble nudes. The name of the exhibit, which was in the Netherlands, was “Flesh and Stone”.

Mostly my work deals with portraiture, street photography and a deep interest in observing the human spirit. The “Flesh & Stone” photographs would have fallen into the “Portrait” category. The Costa Rican piece was a street shot and the “Bris” photo was a street photography style portrait taken during a religious ritual.

The photographs were taken during a 25 year time span. What filled me with satisfaction is that a curator came in, saw them, and discovered a narrative between these seemingly unrelated photographs. That may be an indicator that, after a lifetime in photography I may have developed a style that is not based on technique, something that we see more and more of in this digital age, but a style that has been developed through the experience of learning how to see. (The photographer’s eye!) - J.P. v V. v B.