Bill Jacobson

Entitled Interim Figures, these shadowy pale photographs are intended to evoke the loss experienced by so many during the height of the AIDS epidemic and the futility of capturing true human likeness in both portraiture and memory.

In contrast to the bleached luminosity of his prior work, these images depict deep black backgrounds enveloping ghostly figures which bend, sleep, stretch and howl.

Photographing a broad spectrum of subjects from tightly cropped faces to fields of grass and surfaces of water, Jacobson links the human figure to nature, suggesting their connections.

Influenced by a trip to India in 1999, Jacobson retained the out of focus but shifted to color, photographing both urban and rural landscapes in Untitled (1999-2001) and New Year’s Day (2002-2003).

This series depicts a wide range of intimate, focused places from the real world, emphasizing the complexities of spaces and objects that people both create and encounter on a daily basis.