Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Feature - Jesse Chehak

All three of Jesse Chehak's series are worth checking out thoroughly, including his great graphic series, Autos, but it was his Fool's Gold that really caught my attention for a feature. Jesse is originally from Tarzana and now lives in New Mexico, where he represents that state for The 50 States Project, which you should also check out. California is represented by Jeremy and Claire Weiss.

As far as I can tell, Fools Gold contains images of the western third or so of the US inspired by writings of old on the frontier.

He writes:

I have been exploring the American West on a photographic vision quest of sorts, using history and the words of those before me as a guide.

I've chosen to highlight CA shots but make sure to see the whole series.


Towards Sequoia Park, California


Hollywood, California

(Does this one remind anyone else of Jeff Wall's Outside a Nightclub minus the unecessary budget and timeframe?)


San Luis Obispo, California

San Bernadino, Calfornia


San Andreas Fault, California


Near Three Rivers, California

3 comments:

Scott said...

Jesse Chejak's work is fantastic. So glad I found this blog.
Smilewhenyousayit.com

ryan schude said...

"unnecessary budget and time frame"? hah, that's SO wes of you to say

J. Wesley Brown said...

@Ryan - I think you said that because I only shoot with ambient light, but someone like you with lighting skills could have easily shot that image on location.

IMO, there was no need to build the nightclub in his studio to shoot it. He went to the effort to try to increase the photo's value. The effort is central to the photo when discussed and the image itself should be instead.

Crewdson could have shot that thing at the actual nightclub in a day vs. Wall's 8 or 9 months or whatever.