James Wilson
Social Studies
Published on 4. August 2020
Book
Hardback
176 pages
978-1-77310-188-0 (ISBN)
Description
A CBC New Brunswick Book List Selection
"The same stage, but different actors," explains Wilson. "There is something interesting to me about separating people from their environment, about keeping the focus on the individual."
James Wilson's studio portraits capture subjects from all walks of life. They document soldiers and street people, builders and bakers, artists and labourers. There is an intimate intensity in his photographs, which together form a timeless collage of life and faces from the early twenty-first century.
Wilson's portraits are also the product of a purposeful gaze, distinctive observations in black-and-white. All window-lit, all photographed in his studio, all with the same black background, these photographic portraits open a door into the worlds and at times the unguarded emotions of the individual subjects.
"The same stage, but different actors," explains Wilson. "There is something interesting to me about separating people from their environment, about keeping the focus on the individual."
James Wilson's studio portraits capture subjects from all walks of life. They document soldiers and street people, builders and bakers, artists and labourers. There is an intimate intensity in his photographs, which together form a timeless collage of life and faces from the early twenty-first century.
Wilson's portraits are also the product of a purposeful gaze, distinctive observations in black-and-white. All window-lit, all photographed in his studio, all with the same black background, these photographic portraits open a door into the worlds and at times the unguarded emotions of the individual subjects.
Reviews / Votes
"Wilson shares portraits of the very old and the very young, of the socially prominent and of the outcasts. All of his models are photographed using only natural light against a neutral grey background, a leveling effect that takes nothing away from the inherent dignity of each subject." * <i>Billie Magazine</i> * "The book attempts something that photographers have strived for since the advent of the camera - to represent a time and place. One hundred years from now, when a New Brunswicker picks up James's book and asks: 'Who am I? Were do I come from? Who came before me?' they will have 80 answers staring back at them." * <i>CreatedHere Magazine</i> *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Fredricton
Canada
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Cloth over boards
Dimensions
Height: 259 mm
Width: 218 mm
Thickness: 25 mm
Weight
975 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-77310-188-0 (9781773101880)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
John Leroux, ONB, PhD, is an art historian, teacher, former architect, and the Director of the Marion McCain Institute for Atlantic Canadian Art at the Beaverbrook Art Gallery. He has authored, edited, or contributed to more than 20 books, including A Vision in Wood and Stone: The Architecture of Mount Allison University with Thaddeus Holownia, and Wabanaki Modern: The Artistic Legacy of the 1960s "Micmac Indian Craftsmen" with Emma Hassencahl-Perley. He has received the CMA Award for Outstanding Achievement (Research) and the APMA Best Atlantic-Published Book Award, and was a team member of Canada's entry at the 2012 Venice Biennale in Architecture. James Wilson has worked as a photographer for more than forty years, using large format cameras, both film and digital. Wilson is best known for his landscapes, still lifes, and black and white portrait studies. His work has been the subject of fifteen solo exhibitions and has been featured in numerous group exhibitions. His photographs are also included in many corporate, private, and public collections, including those of the National Gallery of Canada, the Beaverbrook Art Gallery, and Canadian Embassies and Consulates in Europe, North Africa, and the United States.