|
Review, June, 1997, The Stuttgart
Times (Germany)
The exhibit at Fischinger Gallery is dedicated
to the photography of an artist who explores the nude body: the
American William Carter. His themes and his way of working --
black-and-white, his staging devoted to pure beauty -- resemble
amazingly the present exhibit of photographs by Robert Mapplethorpe
in the neighboring State Gallery. And yet the contrast to Carter's
photography could hardly be more striking. Mapplethorpe propagates
screaming provocation in the disguise of classic idealism. Carter
searches quietly for eternal truths in timeless forms. In some
of his tiny picture formats he searches for infinity: "To
place a limit on space and time is to frame infinity," says
Carter, "in the same way as nature does it."
Carter's works reflect a rich experience as
author, editor, photojournalist, Europe and Middle East correspondent
and jazz musician. After years of strict, monk-like meditation,
in the early 1980s Carter discovered the photography of the nude
as an ideal subject of applied philosophy: "Whoever knows
himself," he writes, "is naked."
Nikon News / Nikon Flash
William Carter's view of the nude is refreshing
in the sense that he is neither a formalist like Edward Weston
(although he derives from this tradition) nor voyeur like many
other photographers of the nude, but an observer of the mystery
of life, which he tries to catch in an intimate moment of clarity.
His works do not devote themselves to the purely physical existence
of the human body, but to its spirituality.
Weston Naef, curator of photographs at the
J. Paul Getty Museum in California, writes: "Carter's photographs
and words persist in addressing the paramount issues of beauty
and mastery, as well as corollaries of philosophy, music, poetry
and the human spiritual instinct."
Following are some of the comments written
by Weston Naef. Mr. Naef is the nationally known Curator of the Department
of Photographs at the world-famous J. Paul Getty Museum of Art:
"Carter's photographs and words persist
in addressing the paramount issues of beauty and mastery... and
the human spiritual instinct. He is a man of great faith in the
potential for human beings to manifest profound themes, and he
has a great respect for the redemptive power of art, and the
healing role beauty plays in everyday life.
The originality in the present collection
resides in the attitude Carter brings to the relationship between
the model and the photographer. Typically, this has been that
of dominant photographer and submissive model. Carter reverses
these roles. He shows great respect for his models by the time
and talent he devotes to shaping his compositions...His gaze
is that of the poet adoring his subject with care and tenderness.
Carter's figure studies are like the art of
a scribe who works with a lexicon of canonical words established
by higher authority. He is responsible for creating their present
manifestation as beautifully and legibly as his materials allow."
|
Comment to William Carter in Los Angeles
It was such a pleasure meeting you at your Feb. 23rd Booksigning in Westwood.
You have a depth and a tenderness that shows in your work. The evening in
that space at ModernBook had a sense of magic. Everyone seemed so familiar,
like a soul cluster.
I love your book and am sharing it with friends. Your text has a poetic
depth that touches the artist in us all. Your photographs, so delicately
lit, are like a whisper.
-- Gayle Goodrich -- March, 2002
|
...submit
your comments
copyright © 1996 - 2005 Editions One
| 
