Mark Fields website

Hello All,

All of you visiting this Blog are invited to visit my comprehensive web site at the web address below. On this site you will find various Galleries with as many as 30 different works of art in each Gallery. Please visit the following link and find out about me and my my work! I am grateful to be able to share my enthusiasm. http://www.markfieldsphotos.com

"Photographic Sonatas" are a Psychological tour de force

Inspired by my love for classical music and The Cinema, these images are created by using the same compositional means. In the Cinema, edited and spliced film clips follow each other in succession creating a visual narrative. We the viewer must interpret the motion picture and decide for ourselves its meaning. In my PHOTOGRAPHIC SONATAS, I require the viewer to emotionally connect separate photographs that make up each SONATA. By juxtaposing them I want to elicit an emotional and psychological response. I have made no attempt to merge the individual photographs that make up each SONATA in the manner of say Jerry Uelsemann. I want the viewer to know that each SONATA is composed of different photographs. Like a dream bits and pieces of reality are remembered and assembled into each SONATA. This requires that the viewer form their own narrative rather than me supplying it. Like a dream they can only be explained in emotional terms. In classical music, giving musical works numbers instead of titles us common practice (Sonata No.2, Symphony No.6 etc.). Using only numbers allows an open ended investigation of this compositional method and is unlimited in its possibilities. (Domenico Scarlatti the Italian Baroque Composer wrote 555 Sonatas) Ideas in film and music follow each other in succession. I have applied this principle and use a generic form of 2,3 or 4 juxtaposed photographs to achieve each SONATA. While I do not believe I have been influenced by other artists, one can find similar emotion in the works of Bunuel and David Lynch.

2 of my "photographic Sonatas" exhibited

I could not be more pleased that 2 of my "Photographic Sonatas are on view at Always by Design", 265 S. 10th St, Phila. These 2 photographs are part of a suite of 21 Sonatas that I created over 5 years. Always by Design is cutting edge architectural firm that has a

a beautiful gallery space that everyone should go to see. I am excited to share 2 of my hard won images. I say hard won images because I lost sleep and weight digging very deeply into my own stylistic and spiritual imaging making process. I will always feel that

these 21 images are for me a doorway into a new psychological space. All 21 of my Photographic sonatas can be found on my web site that follows under the Gallery, "Photographic Sonatas" http://www.markfieldsphotos.com

Hous projects Promo and Always by Design

Both receptions were very exciting for me as I have never been exhibited in two different cities with receptions on consecutive days. I'm not sure I'll ever do that again!

Always By Design Phila & Hous Projects NY

I am pleased to announce that my work is in two exhibitions simultaneously in

Philadelphia and New York. In Philadelphia, along with Georg w. Purvis III, 20 of my photographs are in "Sublime Nature", which is relatively self explanatory. Both Mr. Purvis and I celebrate in different ways, the elegance, wonder and unexpected form and textural nature of nature. In my work which is all Black and white prints, I revel in the

exactness of the forms of flowers while highlighting them using chiaroscuro, my favorite technique for lighting flowers. Mr Purvis, whose works are all

in color has a special talent for seeing the remarkable textures and hues that be found in

seemingly unexpected places. Always by Design 265 S. 10th St, Phila. Wed-Sat. Noon-6pm

In New York at Hous Projects, 31 Howard St, Soho, my work is included among approximately 20 other artists in "The Naked Truth", curated by Ruben Natal-San Miguel,the exhibition includes the artists listed below. Through July 17, Monday- Saturday Mon-Sat 10-6

Bert Stern

Mark Fields

Robert Mapplethorpe
Helmut Newton
Susan Meiselas
Nan Goldin
David Wojnarowicz
Herb Ritts
Mark Fields
Duane Michals
Marla Rutherford
Natasha Gornik
Chad States
Will Steacy
Naomi Harris
Terri Richardson
Ryan McGinley
Marilyn Minter
Phil Toledano
David La Chapelle
Luke Smalley
John Arsenault
Juliana Beasley
Amy Elkins
Josh Qiugley
Aaron Lee Fineman
Zach Hyman
Carrie Shaltz
Jaime Permuth
Guillermo Riveros
Jen Davis

Video by:
Gerard Forster
Pierre St. Jacques

Andrea Modica at The Pearlstein Gallery, Drexel Univ.

A year ago a I went to NYC to get out of dodge- but more specifically on my list of shows to see was work by Andrea Modica at Edwynn Houk Gallery. It was the only show I saw in NY since I became ill while I was in NY.   Along with other  shows that have stopped me in my tracks was this one.  Some of the works from the NY show and some different and I think new ones are now on display at The Pearlstein Gallery at Drexel University. I did not have very much time and so I did not differentiate, mostly because of the time factor, the works I had seen in NY from the others.  They are all by the same hand, or eye, so to speak and are therefore unified. Even though her use of a view camera makes some technical elements  possible and even though the prints are platinum/palladium, it was the remarkable combination of a skewed formality combined with  intimate lyricism and a sensitive "seeing" of light that almost takes my breath away.  I should add that I believe the larger works are digital prints on (possibly) Hahnemuhle rag.  These larger prints should be shown to anyone who thinks that the digital printing process is somehow not equal to traditional platinum prints (or for that matter, Silver prints).  These larger prints are simply exquisite, as are all the rest. What is really amazing about these images is that the photographer reminds one that visual poetry, and thats what these are, can be found in the most mundane subject matter and circumstances.  Through sheer brilliance, Andrea Modica elevates what she photographs and turns it into art.  Curiously, however- and this is rare in some photography today,  there is never a hint of  falsehood or exaggeration.I think I read that she "stages" some aspects of some of these works: it does not matter. These photographs  are not full of gimmicks, and one has the sense about them that they could have been taken a hundred years ago or a hundred years in the future. This artist finds truth that is all around us and using a rare talent pulls us in and says: "Look what I have seen".  Then using consummate photographic technical skills, turns that into photographs that are on an elevated plane, both technically and  spiritually. These photographs walk the line between photography as art and photography in its purer form as a document of literalness. I think they have a decided leaning towards photography as art. These photographs prove once again that photography can be art.

Heres the link to the Drexel site for information.

http://www.drexel.edu/news/digest/?d=5%2F1%2F2009&sn=andrea-modica-to-pre

Artists Talk at Project Basho, Phila. May 14, 7pm

Mark Fields, Photographer, will give a talk on his photographs on Thursday, May 14, 7p.m.  Mark Fields specializes in Black and White Photographs.  His presentation will be on  on the subject of previsualization in his work.  His talk will begin at approximately 7:30pm, after the talk by Photography Larry Moore. The event is free and open to the public.

 P R O J E C T   B A S H O       ~       1305 Germantown Ave. Philadelphia, PA 19122       ~       215.238.0928

       

(just 1/2 block north of Girard and 3rd street)

http://www.projectbasho.org/index2.html

Please note: this info. is not yet posted on the Project Basho website but it should be in a few days.

Here is the artists main  website. http://www.markfieldsphotos.com