Irving Penn famously said “I can get obsessed by anything if I look at it long enough. That's the curse of being a photographer.” Jason Madara found the ability to become intentionally obsessive in the solitude of his home studio during the pandemic. Shooting as a team of one with no tight timeline allowed for him to look at his subjects in a much deeper light than the often fast-paced commercial environment would allow for.
In the series of flowers shot on macro, Jason would look at the same flower over days and days, photographing it as it naturally changed shape and color, turning into something more abstract as it lost life. These images present meticulous yet playful quality to them. Basic household products of parchment paper and aluminum foil are transformed into otherworldly shapes akin to rock formations through the use of colorful LED lighting and careful rigging.
Even in the work that commands stillness, there is a sense of movement like in that of the curly haired dancer or the boy wearing a peacoat with his eyes closed. The viewer is drawn to feel like they are floating in space as Jason captures these “moments in between moments”.
Whether it be playing with grids and graphs over his well known style of portraiture, or capturing teens at such a precarious point in life (“it’s a nightmare”, he says, having raised a teen himself), his curiosity has led him to produce some exciting bodies of work that are ever evolving and growing. We are happy to say that there is much more to come from Jason Madara. Stay tuned.
