presents

FEBRUARY'S FEATURED ARTIST || Steve Deane

Steve Deane received his BFA from Massachusetts College of Art and currently lives in Boston. Deane has taught at Phillips Exeter, the Boston Center for Adult Education, and served as an assistant to A.D. Coleman. Deane has shown with the innovative Floating Gallery since its inception as well as been juried into exhibitions at the South Shore Art Center and Laconia Lofts.

Deane has been investigating time in photography and two of his approaches are featured online. In his series of color images of people sleeping, Deane sets up a large format camera over the beds of various acquaintances and leaves the shutter open. A flash is timed to go off 3-4 times over the course of the night, capturing people unawares in various positions. The resulting large-scale color prints are lush, evocative, and haunting. In his other series, which focuses on the duration of seemingly insignificant occurrences, the length of the exposure is directly proportional to the length of the event. This idea relates conceptually to French philosopher Henri Bergson’s concept of “durée” or lived and experienced time. The sumptuous, often-blurred, cumulative results provide an interesting contemporary foil to Cartier-Bresson, Muybridge, Marey, and Edgerton.

- Leslie K. Brown, PRC Curator

Click here for Deane's resume.

PAST PRESENTATIONS

Andrew Warren
January 2005

Jane Hesser
December 2004

Jessica Burko
November 2004

Amy Montali
October 2004

Luke Snyder
September 2004

Matthew Gamber
August 2004

Mariliana Arvelo
 July 2004

Ken Richardson
June 2004

Julie Melton
May 2004

Marlo Marrero
April 2004

Erik Gould
March 2004

Mori Insinger
February 2004

Jen Kodis
January 2004

Amber Davis
December 2003

Paul Taggart
November 2003

Marla Sweeney
October 2003

Dylan Vitone
September 2003

Click here for more information
about the Northeast Exposure.

 


CURRENT PROJECTS

My photographs are directorial. In the staging of the photographs there is a pseudo-scientific approach to the work. Each subject has a finite beginning and ending, the span of time it takes to complete the event.

Duration




This series compresses complete narratives into single photographs. I am moving away from the idea of the decisive moment and the inherently static nature of the medium. I use the camera to record durations, the flowing together of moments. The length of the exposure is directly proportional to the length of the event. As the span of time transpires, it is recorded in its entirety on a single sheet of film. The ensuing print illustrates the accumulation of all information that passed before the camera lens. Through this all-encompassing process I am able to record the passage of time. It allows the viewer to see something never before seen with the naked eye – a composite of the way time has altered the subject.

- Steve Deane

Sleep



In this series the time period is a single night’s sleep. However, instead of recording the entire event, I have chosen moments between the onset of sleep and waking. The overlapping and blending of bodies, colors and textures create portraits of the “during.”

The process of sleeping interests me. Once asleep and deep into REM, people are completely uninhibited and vulnerable. There is an innocent and sometimes infantile quality to expressions on the subject’s faces. Sleeping is normally a solitary activity, taking place in the darkness of night. With my photographs I have captured these personal and private moments, bringing them into the light to be viewed.

- Steve Deane