'Four white walls, closing in around me
This is a curtain call, now I am nothing
This is not my fault, the world is out to get me
This is a curtain call, now I am nothing'
Hawthorne Heights
It was over a month ago when I contacted JrChristiansenStudio about featuring his work. I write often how it is usually one single image that begins my love affair with an artists work. That was certainly the case with JR'w work. When I was starting to put the story together however, I was transfixed by the first image at the top of the piece, and the other images included here. What began with my heading one way, turned in an entirely different direction.
As I was going through images on jrchristiansenstudio.us, I became lost in the feel coming from so many of the images. There was something about the way in which JR shot his subjects, these images especially with the four white walls and the barren room that brought me back to memories, feels and smells of when I was studying psychology at University.
As part of my degree I had several field placements in different hospitals, most often on the psychiatric ward. I still remember vividly the feeling of desperation when one of the residents was taken to what then was called a 'place of safety'. The reality was they were being locked in a room where they could not hurt themselves. Inevitably, with just four white walls and a floor, most gravitated to the only place of comfort and security in the room, the corners.
The corners were the only place in the room where you could feel a minimum of comfort. Hugged by two walls, with a view of anything, or anyone that could hurt you. The longer the person was in the room, the deeper the feeling of isolation became, making the corners even that much more important as they pressed their bodies as closely as they could into the walls.
Of course the men in JR's images certainly don't remind me of the patients I described, but I love the parallel connection of emotion. JR has so brilliantly captured that intense desperation and sadness of feeling isolated and alone, even though you know there is life and others just beyond those four walls. Whether physically entrapped or emotionally, we all have all experienced feeling that isolation and the sadness and loneliness that comes along with it.
'I was always interested in Photography and started using film mainly shooting black & white when I was young. Years later borrowed a friends digital camera & JrChristiansenStudio was born'
JrChristiansenStudio
JR says photography has always been a way for him to express his feelings and vision through images. JR's focus is on men and fashion with a nude/erotic sensibility. The New York photographer says porn starts often make the best models due to their uninhibited nature. I love how JR channels his vision within this set, using the space to bring forth an erotic and beautiful vulnerability in the men within it.
I love when images can take me somewhere, and this set in particular has such intense, yet beautiful desperation within the images. I love the angles and poses used and minimal light in which JR captures them. The one window seems to beckon the men trapped within the four walls with the natural light, and possibly hope, that it provides.
