Self Portrait as an Artist

Chicago based photographer, Jason Lazarus, has found a new and contemporary way to breathe life into the genre of self-portraiture. Jason's series titled, "Self Portrait as an Artist" began as a comment on the ambiguous role of the contemporary artist today but has since grown in to a diverse body of work that extends beyond the art world and into the personal, the political and the culturally engaged.

The series of images strays wonderfully outside of the rules of the standard photographic project. Like much of Tim Davis' work, the idea and concern is the only constant, as the visual style, the size, and the function of each piece has a playful and refreshing sense of variety.

Jason combines the power of a well executed photograph with titles that are full of wit and intelligence to create a series of complex images. The personal and the political have an intersect in images like Lazarus' "Standing Under the Same Moon as Barack Obama".

Like all successful work, there is a clear presence of personality and intention attached to each image. Jason shares with us, his highly visual way of connecting to and understanding himself in terms of what is going on today. In turn we are encouraged to look, to question and to actually think about our contemporary climate through personal introspection and curiosity.


Jason's work is currently on view at The Gahlberg Gallery at College of DuPage in an exhibition titled, On Death and Dying: Photographs from the Collection of the Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago. January 25 to March 3, 2007. Other artists in the exhibition include: Harold Allen, Sophie Calle Catherine Chalmers, Barbara McDonnell, Vik Muniz, Esther Parada, Irving Penn, Gilles Peress, Michal Rovner, Mark Ruwedel, Alec Soth, Dennis Stuck, Stephen Tourlentes, and Brian Ulrich.

posted by Curtis Mann @ 8:48 PM