Edition Announcement #101 - Jeffrey Krolick

Wednesday greetings, my collector friends. As regular readers of the newsletter know, this is the part where I talk about the weather, which is cool and crisp today. Of course, like everyone else I know, I am more than a little preoccupied with our economic and political climates. It's a serious and uncertain time, and it seems odd to not acknowledge it. So here it is, acknowledged and largely beyond our control. While it's impossible to cast worry aside entirely, I am putting my money on hope and change.

We're in onward and upward mode at JBP HQ, and it feels exactly right. Our new Hey, Hot Shot! site went live yesterday, and we've got lots of great 20x200 editions coming up, along with a surprise or two. First things first, though! Let me tell you about today's editions from winter '07 Hot Shot Jeffrey Krolick.

Fence by Railroad Parcel, Ashland Oregon and Driveway, Ashland Oregon are from Jeff's series entitled On the Edge of Town. In his statement, he cites "Walt Whitman's stance of treating all moments as of equal consequence" as inspiring his approach, which makes total sense to me. Jeffrey's photos remind me a lot of the work of my own favorite poet, Frank O'Hara, which might seem like a confusing correlation at first blush.

O'Hara is most well known for his Lunch Poems, a small slim volume of his "walking" poems that he composed while on his lunch breaks in midtown Manhattan, where he was a curator at MoMA. In my mind, Jeffrey's images are visual versions of these poems, albeit executed in a very different milieu. Both artists are celebrating the every day in their work, venerating small things and reminding us to look closer.

I welcome these kinds of reminders, because sometimes I am going so fast that I forget to look around. I read without comprehending, or barrel through a day without noticing whether the sky is blue or not. Remembering to look is grounding, comforting and often inspiring. You should never be bored, or lack for beauty. It's around us, everywhere, all the time.

Previous Newsletter : Edition Announcement #100 - Amy Park