Jeremy Kost: Fractured - Hardcover

O'Brien, Glenn

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 8862083637 ISBN 13: 9788862083638

Publisher: Damiani, 2014

Synopsis

Jeremy Kost's (born 1977) last monograph, It's Always Darkest before Dawn, established him as a master of the Polaroid. His body of work is at once image, performative act and genre-bending fusion of subject, environment and artistic technique. Born of one of the fortuitous mistakes in the artist's studio that leads to incredible breakthroughs--a camera malfunction-- Kost's latest series consists of multiple-exposure Polaroids of young, stereotypically beautiful men--a subject and technique that Kost has been investigating for nearly a decade. These mesmerizing, layered Polaroid images are collected in Fractured, along with contextualizing and descriptive text from Franklin Sirmans, LACMA Curator of Contemporary Art. Made throughout 2013, only a fraction of the work has been seen outside of the studio before the publication of this book. Presenting dreamlike, fractured narratives collapsed into a single Polaroid frame, each image takes the viewer to an intimate place filled with broken dreams and unrequited desire, while celebrating man's beauty and identity. Whether cropped to show luminous details or simply floated on the page, each photograph represents a tangible, beautiful moment layered in mystery.

About this title

About the Author:

Jeremy Kost is a tireless chronicler of gender, sexuality, and nightlife. Bornin Corpus Christi, Texas, he now lives and works in New York City. Stronglyinfluenced by Warhol, both in his choice of subjects and technique, Kostextends the creative potential of some of Warhol's favorite tools - thePolaroid camera, silkscreen processes, and more. In Kost's work, Polaroidimages not only serve as the basis of silkscreen paintings but are massedtogether in elaborate, multilayered photo-collages.In May 2012 The Warhol partnered with Hugo Boss to present a soloexhibition, Of an Instance, featuring Kost's work in New York City. Friendswith Benefits, the artist's first solo museum exhibition, opened at TheWarhol in December of 2012, also with generous support from Boss.Kost has also exhibited internationally including solo exhibitions atConner Contemporary Art, Washington, D.C.; Galerie Nuke, Paris...

Review:

Kost, who has made the Polaroid his choice of medium, has stumbled on his latest technique after a camera malfunctioned and created a multiple exposure. He liked the resulting dream-like quality, and stuck with it. These are portraits of young, nubile men, bathed in sunlight, yet beyond our reach-objects of unrequited desire. (Moore Chadwick OUT Magazine)

Naked men, dozens of them, their sinewy bodies and tumescent unmentionables captured (and sometimes obscured) in natural and urban landscapes: these are the subjects of photographer Jeremy Kost’s latest monograph, Fractured, a collection of dreamlike multi-exposure Polaroids. (Lizzie Crocker The Daily Beast)

Kost, whose work often involves the use of Polaroid images and explorations of sexuality, identity and gender, used a special technique for the images in this collection that allowed him to shoot multiple-exposure Polaroids. The result is a series of dream-like, sun-kissed photos of Adonises, some of whom appear as doubles on the frame, which adds an extra layer of surreality to Kost's images. The book also features text by Glenn O'Brien, a foreword by model Garrett Neff, and an interview by LACMA Curator of Contemporary Art Franklin Simans. (Abby Schreiber Papermag.com)

The lush, multilayered, intimately erotic images, which pair the models with double images of themselves or with vegetation, mountains, cityscapes, or neon signage, delve further into Kost's ongoing exploration of identity, the body, and façades, and act as a space to examine projections of fantasy and desire. Kost selected the title, Fractured, as an encapsulation of that. "It really made me think about these dreamlike states where you wake up, and you can't quite put it back together. All of those feelings of desire, and lust, and longing, they never quite line up, they're always a bit fractured. You can see parts of it, and nothing is really one coherent story," he says. (Colleen Kelsey Interview)

In his newest series "Fractured," photographer Jeremy Kost uses the Polaroid to explore a space between dreams and reality, showing the distance between the two isn't as wide as you may have thought. His multiple-exposure Polaroids capture beautiful nude men in a sun-soaked wonderland, at once in this world and somewhere else. (Priscilla Frank Huffington Post)

Now, with his new book Fractured (Damiani), the Texas-born photographer reveals a collection of dreamlike, sepia-toned portraits of beautiful boys set against bucolic landscapes with fluorescent, Bruce Nauman-styled typeface. The images―taken throughout 2013 in locations around the world―are striking in their vulnerability, as well as through their hazy, layered state, an effect Kost created by using multiple exposure on each photo. (Ashley Simpson Yahoo: Style)

Kost, who is known for working almost exclusively via the anachronistic Polaroid, took advantage of a camera malfunction which caused one image to be exposed multiple times for Fractured. In it, you'll find bucolic images of men, many in various stages of undress, shot with other ghostly images layered over them. The results are voyeuristic and dreamy, and have a softer, more romantic edge than some of Kost's previous work. (Max Berlinger Details)

Kost's latest series consists of multiple-exposure Polaroids of young, beautiful men ― a subject and technique that Kost has been investigating for nearly a decade. The mesmerizing, layered Polaroid images in Fractured were made throughout 2013, but only a fraction of the work has been seen outside the studio before the publication of this book. Whether cropped to show luminous details or simply floated on the page, each photograph represents a tangible, beautiful moment layered in mystery. (Christopher Harrity Advocate)

"I would say that a good 50% of the book was shot in and around Los Angeles!" photographer Jeremy Kost says of his latest tome entitled, Fractured. The filtered, golden light and dreamy tone of many of the images would suggest so. (Melissa Magsaysay Racked)

Photographer Jeremy Kost has developed a signature style with his romantic, multiple-exposure Polaroids of dreamy male nudes. Coinciding with the launch of his latest monograph, Fractured (out on October 30), the artist has partnered with Calvin Klein Collection for a special art installation at the brand's Madison Avenue flagship store, in New York City. (Julian Sauvalle Huffington Post)

About this edition

• Publisher: Damiani
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 8862083637
• ISBN 13: 9788862083638
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 208