SEPT 4TH 2020
On April 28th 2020 I took a drive to downtown Los Angeles, photographing scenes during the COVID-19 quarantine. At that time I would have been in Japan, yet life had different plans. Different plans for all of us. The entire world was shifting to a new uncertain norm or a different look at how we will function as a society. Taking in the familiar street corners I've crossed by over the years, they were now strikingly dark and quiet. I shot a roll of black and white Illford HP5.
Black and white felt very fitting for the stark appearance of the usually busy streets of LA.
I knew I wanted to approach this collection in a new way that I've not really pursued previously with other paintings. With each series I've done, there has been a bit of a new element to my process, but I've never actually implemented photographs I've shot. The past year I've been working as a graphic designer at a printing company which does a lot of printing on wood. This sparked the idea to transfer my photographs onto wood as an initial backdrop to the piece. Blowing up the photo onto multiple sheets of paper then mounting them onto the wood panel with gloss varnish. Proceeded by wiping away shards of paper slowly one layer at a time, revealing the photograph underneath. I thought of this as a way of slowly revealing some truth beneath the surface among all this chaos. A metaphor of what part of our lives we really need, which I believe is what we all were and are going through.
Photos by Willis Salomon
The first completed piece I did is a collection of multiple images I came across that day, as well including two very special individuals that were photographed by my friend Eric Bouvet (IG / @ericeffinb ). While spending time digging through all of the photos I shot, I would look as close as I could to pick up any unusual or interesting things within the exposure that may relate to what this series would be about. I wanted to capture what this landscaped looked like during this, but I also hoped to find something that would go beyond the reality that we faced during troubling time. I quickly took a photograph of the Globe Theatre while driving down South Broadway. When I shot the photo I mainly was looking to just capture the signage that was the "Globe", little did I realize that the marque sign read "After Every Storm Comes A Rainbow".
This is where I found the voice for this collection. We have to hold onto hope. We have to not only want change but we have to strive for it. There is a very important election coming soon. I hope there will be a rainbow for us all in our futures.
-James