 In
The Company of Men by
by Ken Graves and Eva Lipman
January 24 to May 8 2004 in the annex gallery
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Here for more photos
In the Company of Men by Ken Graves and Eva Lipman on display in the
Annex Gallery, from January 24 to May 8. Reception Friday, February 13,
7 to 9 p.m.
This decade long collaborative project between photographers Ken
Graves and Eva Lipman explores representations of masculinity. Created
with the support of a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship, the project
takes images from a wide variety of locales including a strip club,
a demolition derby, various high school proms and athletic events,
Navy drill teams, rodeos, fights, and many more.
Within the realm of their partnership, Graves and Lipman do not
distinguish who took each shot. The selection of subjects, exploration
of the subjects, editing, and interpreting the meaning of the resulting
works is all done in collaboration. Graves and Lipman explain: “Camera
artists have traditionally explored subjects in quiet isolation,
suspicious of another photographer’s presence. To share a subject
with another, in a tight space, is rare. It requires releasing a
hold on the prize.”
Prior to his work with Eva Lipman, Ken Graves explored a combination
of formal technique and composition with a chance, snapshot aesthetic.
In 1975, he received a fellowship from the National Endowment of
Arts to research and document snapshots. The project, a collaboration
with fellow photographer Mitchell Payne, resulted in the book American
Snapshots.
Eva Lipman began making photographs not many years before meeting
Ken Graves in 1987. Graves was envious of Lipman’s intuitive
and upfront manner of shooting. She interacted with the subjects,
approached them, and blended in, while Graves remained removed, studying
the subject from a distance. Graves remarked, “Eva would move
in on an interesting subject to see what might happen. I wanted her
to give me that.” He envied her lawlessness, while she was
intrigued by his broad formal knowledge and deft use of metaphor – thus,
the partnership was born.
A reception will be held on Friday, February 13, 7 to 9 p.m.
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