6 spring street
new york city 10012
tel: 212.219.0166
info@jenbekman.com
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statement :: The Bitten Edge of Things
My compositions portray moments of intimacy and tension — beings in physical and emotional transition. The smashed glass of a jeweler’s window. A dog poised on fresh packed snow. A suited figure, bowed. These are fragments of time laden with emotion and mystery, but which are easy to pass by. Unlike a documentary photographer, I am not concerned with showing the whole story. Instead I capture glances — the kind of images that are glimpsed from the corner of the eye, with the head turned. I am as much influenced by Robert Frank as by Mark Cohen. My photographs are an act of intimate reportage: capturing the uncertainty and dazzling impermanence of everyday occurrences.
I am drawn to these types of images because they best represent my experience in the daily world. I see this as an opportunity to find a path within the mundane, noticing specific details as they occur along side of me. Taken together, as a body of work, what seem like random moments, hewn from insecurity and confusion, actually relate formally and portray “…a kind of diary of human intimacy.”*
Ultimately, my work references the history of the snapshot aesthetic. It is a way of recording human moments, and I want the audience to reference their own memories when they look at my images. Whoever remembers the best defines the narrative.
*The Photograph As Contemporary Art. Charlotte Cotton.