The Still Cinema

by Jay Gould

The lights slowly raise and the group around me stretches their stiff limbs and make their way out of the theater. We have all just spent the last few minutes witnessing a story of play, curiosity, and nature. There are a few catches you must understand. One is that the group is not leaving. They are moving a few feet over to the next theater to enjoy another story. The next catch is that they are watching photographs, not films at Jeremias Paul’s recent photographic exhibition My Invented Country.

Sorry to have tricked you, but there is no denying the cinematic feel of these photographs. The rich colors of these wide format images floating in deep, black frames gives the viewer the impression of being immersed in a dark theatre watching the anamorphic projection of a character exploring a beautiful, alien world. This world presented is our own, but so obviously not. The photograph’s color and movement cast an ethereal quality that warps both time and space as the artist’s performance is creating a fictional culture that is spiritual, mythological, and sometimes oddly familiar. Performances such as being buried in the sand or reclining in a muddy pond are playful childhood acts taken to the extreme and given aesthetic consideration. It is this careful consideration to the environment around the artist along with Paul’s technical prowess that gives this work its value. Each character fits perfectly in his stunning environment and repeatedly gives the audience a single-frame story to imagine, decipher, and enjoy.

My Invented Country, photographs by Jeremias Paul will be presented in Savannah, Georgia at the Alexander Main Gallery, 668 Indian Street, April 14 – 28, 2006. To see the work visit www.momentism.com