Evergon studied traditional arts of paintings, sculpture, drawing and printmaking as well as photography at Mount Allison University in New Brunswick. His experimentation in photo-related media began in 1969, when, as Evergon said, “We are talking about the time of the hippies, when there was return to everything. (…) We were looking for ways of making the image other than the slick glossy color or black and white.” Encouraging by the social and sexual revolution of the 60’s, clashing flower-power brights became the rage of the often chemically altered drug culture, rendering colors more and more brilliant. The Beatles sang about yellow submarines and psychedelic color was celebrated in multi-dimensional artwork of Peter Max (2), who’s visual impact on the '60s has often been compared to the influence the Beatles had with their music. In his collages of 1971-1973, Evergon combine photographic portraits and self-portraits with reproduction elaborated through the blueprint process and decorated with fabric, feathers, emblems and paint. To that period belongs also 1 Boy with Ingrown Tattoo (1971) - Evergon’s the most blatantly sexual early work, where a nude male figure is the focus of a blueprint. “The youthful well built figure stands classically posed in a nature setting, looking like the ideal forms of Greek and Renaissance art, his demeanor, his twist of the body, with arms held behind the back, and upward-looking viewpoint recall view of St.Sebastian. Other more contemporary quotations clarify the reference to sexually desirable men”(1) such as bright blue of the boy’s body as the blue color of the print itself in combination with red letters ‘1 Boy’ on the top of the image, refers us to the gay semiotics of 70’s in which red and blue colors played essential role in connotation of S and M (slave and master) relationship. (3)
The '80s saw a more rapid time of color change, spawned by the beginnings of the "information age" with computers and satellites offering quicker methods of exchanging information. The beginning of the decade saw the "mauving" of America – the softened mid-tones that were a precursor to the Santa Fe colors that followed as people all over the world started to discover America's Southwest and the desert sunset hues. But the mid-1980s saw yet another color phenomenon – the pervasiveness of empowering black, with all of the trappings of elegance, sophistication and high-tech applications. In 1976 Evergon began a series of Xerox color prints titled Bondagescapes in which he explored the idea of repressed sexuality. He combined those photographs, which he cut apart from their original photographic context with symbolic references drawn from nature. “Such an elaborate manipulation of the image does not really transform it: it fetishizes it .The picture is an object of desire, the desire for signification that is known to be absent. (…) Needless to say we are not in search of sources of origin, but structures of significations: underneath each picture is always another picture”(4), as the colors of Terry and Big Muffin (1976), Broken Egg Collection (1979), Diane and The Horse (1976) , mid-toned, earth-bound warm reds, golden yellows, terra cotta and rich browns with addition of the earthy greens bondaged with blacks are the visual color signifier of the 80’s.
At the arrival of 90’s, in 1981, Evergon began using the Polaroid SX-70 camera, adopting a structure that he based on the previous Xerox format; comparing to the Xerox color prints, Interlocking Polaroids are similar in construction, but differ in overall pictorial effect, being primarily romantic, decorative figure-studies, a delightful combination of primary colors saturated by the lusciousness of the Polaroid print quality. (James and the Paper Tongue(1982), Denis in Bondage with Silk Scarves(1981-1982)
By the mid-1990s, the economy was brighter and so were the colors; by 1990, when Evergon ceased to use the big Polaroid cameras, he had created a significant coherent body of powerful, resonant works in these impressive formats, using Caravaggio light key for the most of his creations, culminating in the series called The Circus (1988) and in initial Ramboys images, the prologue to the major black and white work which is still in progress. The first Ramboys images were actually made in color in 1990, before the final works of The Circus series. They share the props and settings with these images and have significant stylistic affinities with Evergon’s other Polaroid work as well. Deeply conscious of the meaning of his work, Evergon has reassessed the use of color and light in his photographs at various stages of his carrier. In the large-format Polaroids he used a ‘Caravaggio’ lighting among with very narrow palette of colors. “The whole set is bathed in the strong yellow light that Caravaggio used so frequently in his later paintings, what the artist Francesco Albani (…) called the light of “ground flesh”. Where does that light come from? (..) the light that gives the scene its unity and touches each and everyone of the participants - the needy and the giving, the mortals and the immortal - comes from elsewhere. (…) It comes from wherever we are standing, left, right or center as if the scene existed solely thought the light that we might bring to it. In Caravaggio’s paintings the light is the viewer’s own; without it the seven acts of mercy will fade back into blacks of shadows and the night.”(5) According Deborah T. Sharpe (6), ‘Numerous research projects have generally shown that red, yellow, and orange are associated with excitement, stimulation and aggression; blue and green are associated with calm, security and peace; black, brown and gray are associated with melancholy, sadness and depression; yellow is associated with cheer, gaiety, and fun; and purple is associated with dignity royalty and sadness’, although color is more than a combination of red, green, and blue or cyan, magenta, yellow, and black. It is non-verbal communication and this is such a broad topic, that only its counters can be suggested here. Clearly, colors have a significance all their own and an ability the influence the psyche directly. By evoking non-linear color symbolism associations in memory, rather that direct narrative, these series of images, with their complex symbolic structure are in conversation with the viewer because of the simplicity of color semiotics, consciously implied by Evergon to document the rites and ceremonies of a fictional, hedonistic boy culture where playfulness and fantasy are fundamental.
As the end of the decade when the new century came into view, the inevitable implication of digital technology brought to the shore of postmodern photography a notion of post-photography within digital imaging along with new hues of colors. In other words, the physical difference between photographic and digital technology is leading to the difference in the logic of film-based and digital images and also to the differences in their cultural perception because digital photographs function in an entirely different way from traditional photographs. "the essential characteristic of digital information is that can be manipulated easily and very rapidly by computer. It is simply a matter of substituting new digits for old... Computational tools for transforming, combining, altering, and analyzing images are as essential to the digital artist as brushes and pigments to a painter."(8)
But there is another aspect of the problem, we may call it a ”computer enhanced” or “computer assisted” adjunct to traditional photography. What is the difference conceptually, ethically, or practically if the images are enhanced digitally on a computer, or by traditional methods in a darkroom? Both digital and darkroom practice are respective crafts with the same intention, to translate a recording human experience into an visual aesthetic experience. A major challenge to the visual artist has always been one of how to transform ideas into a work of art in a way that best conveys the intended message. In many cases, the success of this process is directly controlled by the medium chosen, whether it is paint, platinum/palladium, calotype, C-41, or bits and bytes. As these production processes vary, so does a medium's ability to express the thoughts and ideas of the artist. Artworks created in different mediums come into being in different ways, affecting the train of thought and the flow of ideas.
“Everyone wants to believe in photography as a pure document – a moment frozen in time that existed in reality. In photographing the landscapes with a noticeable sabbatier, the printed images reveal/conceal a neither world. This void or negated space allows for the existence of the perverse. It is photographic ‘blag’/photographic gossip. Furthermore, in many of the images there is a sense that the viewer has just missed the most important act.” (9)
the most recent Evergon’s work – four digital color prints from his Manscapes - Truckstops and Lovers Lanes series which comprises several thousand images of ‘cruising grounds’, ‘dens’ and ‘nests’ – sites of illicit rendezvous which Evergon has described as ‘the enchanted forest of homo-folklore’ where ‘the beauty, the splendor, the wonder of the landscapes is secondary to the privacy of male lust’(7), in which the artist veers from his use of models and explores the potential of landscapes.
There are cycles of color popularity. You can see this easily with products such as home furnishings and clothing. For a while, hunter green or mauve will be the popular color, then the will shift. An interesting trend I have noticed recently is the use of in television advertising. Color trends can be used to add appeal to a site and can also be used to represent a period of time. You can take your site visitors back to the 60's with avocado or fluorescent colors. Turquoise and yellow are reminiscent of the 50's. Sepia tints denote times of long ago. One final thought though, good color choices are appealing outside of any trend.
There are more sophisticated images, both graphical and photographic, which are devised solely for the purpose of influencing our behavior as consumers. Images are used to appeal to our emotions for every conceivable reason, through every available medium, wherever we happen to be.
It may be hard to accept, but the manipulation of photographic images has been around almost as long as the medium itself.
But the issue of truth and photography is only a subset of a far greater one - the use of images, photographic or otherwise, for the manipulation of emotions.
The use of images to manipulate emotions is probably as ancient as the first cave drawings.
Digital media looks like photography in most respects. The detail, format, and feel of the print often leads us to mistake one for the other. When we try to approach digital art as a form of photography, another dynamic becomes very clear to us, fundamentally affecting the way we look at digital art. So digital art not only lacks the physical presence of painting and sculpture, it also lacks the convincing reality once held by photography. These are defining characteristics of this new medium, and they are components that all digital artists should be aware of
As these production processes vary, so does a medium's ability to express the thoughts and ideas of the artist. Artworks created in different mediums come into being in different ways, affecting the train of thought and the flow of ideas
Should we accept that digital imaging represents a radical rupture with photography? Is an image, produced by computer and electronic technology, radically different from an image obtained trough a photographic lens and registered on the film? Should the phenomenon of digital imaging force us to rethink such fundamental concepts as realism in representation? The most systematic answer to this question can be found in William J. Mitchell’s recent book “The reconfigured Eye: The visual Truth in Post-photographic Era”. Mitchell’s entire analysis of the digital imaging revolution states around his clam that the difference between a digital image and a photograph “is grounded in fundamental physical characteristics that have logical and cultural consequences.” The logic of the digital photograph is one of historical continuity and discontinuity. The digital image tears apart the net of semiotic codes, modes of display, and patterns of spectatorship in modern visual culture -- and, at the same time, weaves this net even stronger. In short, this logic is that of new generation of photography after photography. Thus, should we consider that the post-photography era has already begun?
A drawing is perceived as being an image borne of the imagination of the artist. Many a times it will leave the viewer guessing and confused. A motion picture leaves nothing to the imagination of the viewer, guiding him, step-by-step, through a carefully orchestrated fantasy world.
But a photograph is a well laid foundation upon which the viewer builds an emotional response, through the intimate experiences of his eyes, and the cumulative experiences of his other senses. Through a photograph we bear witness to a reality we have either experienced, or believe we would have experienced had we been there.
In my opinion, just as photography was initially ridiculed by the world of art as it battled its way to "legitimacy", digital manupulation will mature, discover its intrinsic values, and carve out a singular place for itself within the evolving definition of the world of art.
Indeed, digital photographs function in a entirely
different way from traditional -- lens and film based --
photographs. For instance, images are obtained and displayed
by sequential scanning; they exist as mathematical data which
can be displayed in a variety of modes -- sacrificing color,
spatial or temporal resolution. Image processing techniques
make us realize that any photograph contains more information
than can be seen with the human eye
Digital imaging and photography share similar symbiosis. I think it’s a mutual coexistence situation. I don’t think they even compare.
abreast of what’s going on. And I have used those inks, and they’re great. It’s just that they’re not better or worse than photographs. They coexist. They’re not photographs. They’re another kind of very beautiful print.
V. Some people are working in digital. I think a lot of people are making digital prints, that’s for sure. Its Bill Brandt that made it very clear. He said it’s really the results that count.
There are cycles of color popularity. You can see this easily with products such as home furnishings and clothing. For a while, hunter green or mauve will be the popular color, then the will shift. An interesting trend I have noticed recently is the use of in television advertising. Color trends can be used to add appeal to a site and can also be used to represent a period of time. You can take your site visitors back to the 60's with avocado or fluorescent colors. Turquoise and yellow are reminiscent of the 50's. Sepia tints denote times of long ago. One final thought though, good color choices are appealing outside of any trend.
- Hanna, Marta, Canadian museum of Contemporary Photography, Ottawa, an exhibition catalog “Evergon 1971-1987”, 1988
- Peter Max is a multi-dimensional creative artist. He has worked with oils, acrylics, water colors, finger paints, dyes, pastels, charcoal, pen, multi-colored pencils, etchings, engravings, animation cells, lithographs, serigraphs, silk screens, ceramics, sculpture, collage, photography, video, xerox, fax, and computer graphics. He loves all media; even including mass media as a "canvas" for his creative expression.
- Fisher, Hal, Gay semiotics, a photographic study of visual coding among homosexual men, published 1977 http://www.queerculturalcenter.org
- Solomon-Godeau, Abigail, “Photography after Art Photography”
- Manguel, Alberto, “Reading pictures: ahistory of love and hate”, 200, Alfred A. Knopf, Canada
- Sharpe, Debora T, “The psychology of color and design”, 1974, Fith Printing, NY 1980
- Evergon, Artist’s Statement written for an Ontario Arts Council grant application, 1995
- William J. Mitchell, The Reconfigured Eye: Visual Truth in The Post-photographic Era (Cambrige, Mass. The Mitt Press, 1992)
- Evergon, an essay for the exhibition catalog “Evergon 1987-1997”, National Museum of Photography, Bradford, England, 1997
Born in 1946 in Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada, Evergon lives, teaches and works in Montréal. Dating back to his studies at the Rochester Institute of Technology, New York in the early 1970s, he has consistently used photography as an artistic medium. He belongs to that generation of artists who transgressed traditional photography, allowing it to incorporate hand-made touches and staged fictions. Moreover, in line with the artistic tendencies of his time, his work investigates personal sexuality and social constructions of gender. Having exhibited widely in North America in the 1970s, Evergon began showing internationally in the early 1980s. He received recognition in the late 1980s with his first retrospective, Evergon 1971-1988, at the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa. Since the 1990s, Evergon has continued with two new bodies of work, Ramboys and Manscapes - Truckstops and Lovers Lanes. He is represented by Galerie Trois Points, Montréal, Galerie St-Laurent+Hill, Ottawa, S.P.I.N. Gallery, Toronto and Jack Shainman Gallery in New York
For the exhibition Growth & Risk Evergon was showing four photographs from his recent body of work Manscapes - Truckstops and Lovers Lanes
THE EXHIBIT Growth & Risk, prepared by CIAC and curated by Claude Gosselin, was to open on September 13 in the Courtyard Gallery of the World Financial Center in New York. Commissioned by the Bureau des saisons du Québec, the exhibit brought together works by thirteen Québec artists, in a tribute to the vitality of visual arts.
Unfortunately, due to the tragic events of September 11, the exhibit was cancelled.
