Photographer: James M Hanlon
James Hanlon is a native New Yorker living where water meets sand along the shoreline of New York Harbor. He is a proud graduate of Pratt Institute. In 2008 he was a contributing photographer to "The Brooklyn Museum 2008 Spring Video" - a promotional piece by videographer Matt Wolf. In 2009 his work "Home Alone" was included in the "HUGEunHUGE" exhibition in the Newhouse Center for Contemporary Art at the Snug Harbor Cultural Center. Several of his pieces will be seen in group exhibitions during the summer of 2010 starting with the group show "ART MIX-UP" at Martini Red on Staten Island. Reception: Saturday June 12th from 7pm to 10pm - this show will run for one month. Also on Staten Island, the "1+1=?" group exhibition at the CPG Gallery Reception: Saturday June 12th from 5pm to 8pm - this exhibit will run from June 12 - August 1st, 2010.
Artist's Statement
One of my favorite pastimes as a child involved the use of paper and a No.2 lead pencil with a functional eraser nub. The pictures I drew were kinetic and in a constant state of flux because they told stories. The drawings changed as my storylines developed and I became lost within a blissful state of imagination.
As an adult, I approach photography in much the same manner with the use of layers upon layers of photographic manipulation to tell stories that at times lie precariously on the fragile border between reality and dreams.
That is what I have tried to convey in the image "Out of the Shadows". This image speaks of the dynamic energy of history as it explodes and changes all that follows. At the Stonewall Inn in 1969 Gay men stood up to the oppression that had colored their lives and the lives that preceeded theirs. In one defining moment they collectively said "No" and the Gay Revolution was born.
The brilliant rainbow colors represent the modern day movement as it moves from out of the shadows into a bright blue light.The shadowed birds that take flight from the shadows of a bare tree represent the Gay Activists who paved the way for future homosexual generations to move forward from the landscape of oppression into the warm glow of a palpable liberation.
Web site: http://jameshanlon.imagekind.com/store
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