PHOTOGRAPHS BY JOHN HENRY CLARK
|
|
|
|
CLARK'S OLDER BROTHER JOHN CLARK; FINE ART PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHER (1941)
 |
 |
 |
 |
| A Photograph of Claude Clark at the Sea Shore |
|
PAINTER OF LIGHT AND SHADOW
Quite often an artist comes from a rich background of culture quit separate from the academic institutions they attended, or the family that nurtured them. In this particular study, four brothers grew up in one type of environment and all four left home at the same time to establish a new environment. Together they established a home and community elsewhere; far different from the one they had known as children.
They had six younger siblings, whom would never have an opportunity to experience the world that they experienced, travel to the places they went to, or meet the people they met.
Claude Clark, an easel painter, was a "colorist" and his older brother John, fine art portrait photographer, was a "painter of light and shadow."
There was a younger brother Perry Clark who was also a photographer. A fourth brother, Isaiah, dancer, musician and model; completed the "pack of four."
It was their older brother John who introduced his three younger brothers to arts and humanities. John was a writer in public school and he excelled with high marks in all of his subjects. He wasn't in the same league with his younger brothers, though all four were very close in age. Intellectually the oldest brother and the other three, were light years apart. John never had to work hard at anything. There were no challenges, or expectations set for him at home and very few set for him in school. The three younger brothers often tried to competed with him. The most tenacious and aggressive member of the pack was Claude. He grabbed every opportunity for improvement, or success when ever it came his way.
John painted using uneven lights and shadows in his foregrounds and backgrounds, in order to balance his compositions. Sometimes he would throw the subject, or foreground into shadow, then place a light on the background, behind the shadow area in order to make the subject move forward (see woman with hat on, shown above). In this photograph both the subject's face and head are thrown in shadow. There is a black shadow, on the wall pressing against the dark rear portion of the head causing it to move slightly forward. The brightest point in the photograph is a light on the wall, in back of the face. This light pushes the face in shadow forward causing the face to be the center of attention. Almost the exact opposite can be seen in the portrait of Claude Clark at the top of page. The face of the subject is in light, while the back portion of the subject's head is in deep shadow, but not black. A black wall of shadow pushes against the highlighted area of the face, forcing it forward toward the front. A low level of light is thrown on the wall next to the dark portion of the subject's head, pushing the dark area of the head toward the middle foreground of the picture. The photo of Claude Clark on this previous page labeled "B" and the remaining six photographs on this page are different, but yet we since a style. We since that we can identify this artist's work without a formula.
To the top (Essays)(Think Then Act) (Home Page) (Visual Arts Illustrated) (Metropolis)
Revised: March 21, 1999. Music by The John Coltrane Quartet "Iris" selection taken from "Stellar Regions" an Impulse Recording Copyright © 1997 by Vai Prints & Publications. All trademarks or product names mentioned herein are the property of their respective owners.