J. Alexander Baker at Eclipse Mill Gallery
The Big Picture Show
By: Eclipse - Oct 05, 2023
THE BIG PICTURE SHOW
Photography by J. Alexander Baker
Eclipse Mill Gallery
243 Union Street, North Adams
Thursday, October 5th through Sunday, October 29th.
There will be a reception, Sunday, October 15th from 5 to 7PM in conjunction with Berkshire ArtWeek.
Artist Statement
The Big Picture Show: The Drama of Gesture
This exhibition of large-scale monochromatic images contrasts the drama of gesture through both the unconscious body language of candid documentary photography and the trained theatrical movements of dance performance.
The Shipboard Romance series was taken aboard a weeklong cruise on the Mercantile, a 1916 National Historic Landmark schooner berthed in Camden Harbor, ME. In the tradition of street photography, this series captures publicly performed, yet intimately private moments of emotion and engagement among crew members.
The Expressions of Dance series includes images from the SomaticPerformer / Mary Overlie Legacy Project at the Beavers-Berland Studio at the Eclipse Mill, North Adams, MA as well as performance photography of student dancers at the NYU Steinhardt Arts Education Master of Arts program in New York City. These images express symbolic gesture through frozen motion, shift of focus and composition, using theatrical and natural lighting as well as digital effects. All images are 60 x 40” archival digital prints.
About the Artist
Alex Baker is a fine art photographer based in the Berkshires. His digitally manipulated color landscapes and stark black and white figurative compositions are hallmarks of his work.
He spent 22 years as an actor, set and lighting designer, technical director and stage manager in film, television and regional theaters across the US. While working in show business, Alex did portraiture and portfolio photography for actors and models, as well as performance photography for the theater, dance and musicians. Alex’s experience as a stage lighting designer directly influences his compositional choices.
Baker attended the University of North Carolina, Theater Arts BFA program and has a BA in Theater Arts from Thomas Edison State University.